bobanddenisewanderlust

Saturday- We drove out of the park behind Alan and Donna, with MaryAnne in their car. We drove west on I-8 to about 9 miles into California. We drove off the interstate at a Casino, and south to Algodones Mexico, a major shopping, dental, optician, and .medical Mexican town. 

We stopped just inside the border at a huge parking lot. We were able to park near the border crossing. We all got out of our cars and prepared ourselves to enter Mexico.

We walked across into Mexico and stopped at the first bathroom. There was a little Mexican man sitting at the door and he hands you a piece of paper towel. You are supposed to pay him 25 cents, but neither Bob or I had any change. We used the facility, then walked downtown, which was about half a block.

I stopped and quickly took this picture. You have to make sure that there are no people in the picture. We had of course turned out phones off so that they do not roam.

We wandered through the stalls for about an hour. There was lots of blankets, purses, belts, dresses, jewelry etc. I bought  a new fanny pack. That was all of that we bought. There were lots of hats, but none that were 50 SPF, unfortunately.

We stopped at the pharmacy. We had come prepared. We ran through our list of prescription and over the counter medications. Some we purchased, some we passed on. These are the same medications that we buy in the US, but they were a lot less expensive.

All of the vendors go after  you if you ‘shop’, so we quickly learned not to talk to them or to show an interest in anything. If you did, they would hound you. When I purchased the fanny pack, the gal of course wanted me to buy more items. While I was trying to decide what price to offer, MaryAnne told the lady $12. The woman had said $21. I knew that I needed to bargain.

In the pharmacy, there is no bargaining. Some medicines were less expensive and some not, as we can get them through our insurance plan for less. One of Bob’s medicines, he pays $4 per pill with our insurance, we paid $2.50 per pill. Definitely worth the savings. We also bought some big shrimp for $10 per lb.  These are very large!

We went early so that it would be cooler and to avoid the long line getting back into the US. We managed to do that. There was one lady ahead of us. We knew we could only buy 90 days worth of medications, so that is all we bought. The immigration agent asked me what I bought. I said medications ( you do not say drugs) and he ran my passport through and told me to go on. All of us just buzzed right through.

We returned to the car, put the shrimp and medications into the cooler ( with the ice pack). The guy had packed the shrimp in ice, so it was okay. We put Donna’s shrimp and chocolate,  for her grandkids, into our cooler and we all left.

We drove back to Yuma, and stopped for lunch at El Charro Mexican Restaurant, which was recommended by Bob’s cousin Ronda Root.

We all had huge, delicious meals. Bob had smothered tamales and I had chili rellanos. We ate less than half, and brought the rest home. We drove back to the park and took a nice nap! In the picture, from the left, Alan, MaryAnne, Bob, me and Donna.

We went over to Paula and Charlie’s to talk with them. At 5:30, we went to the main hall for dinner. We should have gone over earlier. Most people were there already. We grabbed a table and saved seats for Paula/Charlie and Alan/Donna. Sven and Sharon arrived and joined us. This was the first time Sharon and Sven met Alan and Donna, since they are new to Roadrunners.

We had a great time visiting. Good thing, as we were the last table called for dinner and they ran out of food. The dinner was prime rib and they had enough meat, but they ran out of baked potatoes, Caesar salad, and sour cream. They must have quickly cooked some potatoes at the restaurant, because after we finished dinner they showed up with potatoes and sour cream. We took two potatoes to eat later. They did have salad for us and this time I had some tomatoes and cucumbers. My last salad was just lettuce. We had tickets for dinner giving them an exact count on the number of people, so there was no excuse for them to run out of food. The food was served so they knew exactly how much they were giving out. The food at the resort has been awful. On the good side, we have rally masters for next year and we are going to Tucson next year started April 1, 2017.

There were lots of give aways but we did not win anything. This is the last activity of the rally, so we had to say good-bye to everyone. it was sad to say good-bye, as we will be traveling next winter so we will  not see most people until the next rally!

Sunday-  We were up and ready to go early, but did not leave until around 10. Check in at the next place was at 1, so we had plenty of time. In addition, the wind was blowing and we knew we were going to take it slowly.

We said good-bye to MaryAnne and Ray, Paula and Charlie, Marian and Marvin and other assorted folks. All morning Alfa’s were pulling out of the resort.

We drove west for about 2 miles and turned north, picking up Hyw. 95. We passed the Yuma Proving Grounds entrance, but as we were driving we were able to see the GM race track and test facilities.

We could also see Dome Rock(on the left) below.

At one point we were behind several other motor home, all slowed down by an army convoy. It turned out the wind was not too bad while driving.

We were stopped at the immigration checkpoint, but they just waved us through.

We passed through Quartszite, where we were in January. Now it was very quiet and empty!. Even the big white tent was gone.

We continued through Parker, were the Desert Bar is located. We stopped at the McDonalds and each had an Egg McMuffin. We continued on, watching the Colorado river off to our west.

We arrived at Lake Havasu City, our destination.

We continued north and stopped at Lake Havasu RV Park. It is an RPI park, so we paid $10 per night, for two nights, FHU 30 amp. We parked and settled in , I did laundry, and we had a quiet evening.

Monday- We both walked around the park, then at 10, we went over to pay. Yesterday when we arrived, the camp host greeted us and told us our site. She said just pay at 10 in the morning when they opened.

So we went over to the office to pay. Then we went to see the London Bridge.

After crossing over the bridge, we drove around the island. We found lighthouses on the lake. . There are twenty-two of them in Lake Havasu City. Here are two.

 

We only looked at two, as they are replica’s. We returned to the MH and spent a quiet afternoon and evening.

Tuesday- We both walked around the park, then hooked the car up to leave. Then we noticed that the back-up camera was not working. Bob changed the fuse, and that did not work. We are driving over 300 miles today, so we unhooked the car and I drove the car while Bob drove the MH.

Above we entered Nevada near Hoover Dam.

We drove to Hurricane UT and stayed at Sandy Hollow State Park, a really nice state park. $28 FHU/50 amp.

In this picture, the covered area was our picnic table. The black line in the distance is the dam for the lake. We walked around the park and over to the dam and looked at the lake.

Here is our spot. Bob fiddled with the back up camera and found the lose wire that he fixed.

Wednesday- We continued another 334 miles north to Charlie’s Repair Service in Sunset UT, just north of Ogden., after passing through Salt Lake City. We drove into a vacant lot behind Charlie’ and went to check in for our appointment tomorrow.

Charlie’s has been a favorite repair facility for Alfa’s for many years. Charlie passed away in 2010, but his son Dustin took over the running of the facility. There were 7 Alfa’s there!

Gilberto, the tech, came and parked the MH for us in a site with 50 amp power. We settled in, then went to happy hour next door. Syd and Barb Zelke were there also, as were Wayne and Kathy, who we had just met. We sat talked until almost 7, when we went in and ate dinner.

Thursday- Around lunch time, Gilberto got started on the routine maintenance on our air conditioning system. It seemed to take a long time for him to get the unit out of the back, then he took it into the shop and did the maintenance. He re-installed it and we turned on the air to make sure that it worked.

One thing we both liked a lot with this facility, was that we could stay in the MH the entire time. We did not have to go to the waiting room. They never moved the rig. That is so much easier on us and the dogs.

Friday- Gilberto finished the re-installation of the air conditioner system, then he went to replace our dashboard fan. There are two fans for the Alfa’s and he had the wrong one. So they had to have one delivered. He got it installed and we left around 2 pm.

We drove north out of the facility and turned east on I-84. This was a very pretty ride through the UT countryside. The wind was blowing pretty hard, but it was primarily a tailwind, pushing us forward.

While driving, we had a big bang. The decorative board on the front of the large slide fell down, scaring us and the dogs. Bob pulled off at the first exit, and on the exit ramp, he took it down and we lowered it to the floor. We keep items up there, lie a fishing pole, two beach umbrellas, the clothes drying rack and some long handle brushes. We had to find a place for all this stuff! Bob is going to fix it when we get to Westminster CO.

We drove later and longer than we usually do, since we had left so late. We stopped at a rest area and ate a quick dinner.  We still drove to our planned stop, in Rawlins WY, arriving around 7:30. We stopped at the Walmart for the night, but there was a sign stating no overnight parking, so we stayed in the Flying J parking lot, with a lot of other RV’s and 50-75 trucks.

We settled in, opening only the bedroom slide a few inches so Bob could get around his side of the bed. AIt was difficult getting around in the MH with this board on the floor. We are not happy with Alfateers, who had obviously not re-installed it correctly when they re-built the large slide. Bob sent Jon a picture and email.

We read our books, then went to bed. It was noisy in the Flying J, with trucks coming and going. I am not sure why, but there was some horn honking at 1 AM.

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