Desert Sunsets and Goodbye to my First Full Year on the Road

Dec 20 - 31, 2017

I've been hauling butt, well, crawling butt in Rigadoon, to get somewhere warmer but continual driving gets tiring.  I decided to spend a few days in the Sonoran Desert to take a break because deserts are warm, right?  Mostly right.  The Sonoran was still chilly at night although nowhere near freezing.  The sky was clear and I got a slight sunburn from a Christmas Day hike.  Sigh.  Lovely.

After those few days of R'n'R (ha!) I continued west towards Yuma.  Totally flat until this weird streak of mountains right across the sky.

Once over those the air became noticeably warmer.  I guess The Chihuahuan is more of a desert than the Sonoran.

After a couple days in Yuma dealing with showers and laundry I crossed the border in California to park at the Quechan Casino.  They have a huge parking lot and it was packed with RVs just hanging out, maybe doing the trek down to Mexico for dinner and drugs.  I parked on the edge of the semi lot next to a little Sunrader and some big RV from Canada. 

I walked the two miles to the border (I'm so cheap; there's a parking lot near the border but I didn't want to pay RV prices for a couple hours of parking.  Some people drive to the point where 'No Parking' signs are erected and stop on the side of the road just before them.  Cuts about 1.5 miles from the journey.) Walking across is quick and free, and once over there you are continually assailed by people asking you if you're looking for dental or eye care.  I do want my teeth cleaned ($20) but not without researching the dentists first and I wasn't prepared this time.

Grabbed some ventolin (3 for $4.50 vs $100 each in the U.S.), paid probably too much for a pretty silver bracelet and escaped the streets without being dragged into an optometrists office.

While at the casino I met this lady:

She couldn't afford a hightop van so her son improvised, adding a truck top to the top of her van. There's plenty of standing room underneath it and her bed is in the section without added height.

One more night in Yuma to really stock up before tooling north to Quartzsite to find out what the deal is with desert boondocking and the Rubber Tramp Rendezvous.

Mexico on the East Side

January 18, 2017

I tried to find some free parking – or even inexpensive lots – near the bridge to Mexico but everything I saw was garages which are not all that RV friendly. I parked at a little strip mall about two miles from the border and walked down. Much like El Paso, downtown Brownsville looks much like the city across the river.

I walked along this great bike path that has some perilous bumpers for protecting the cyclists. It would be nice if more cities took the two-wheelers this seriously.

Walking across the bridge was much like it was in El Paso, except the toll was $1 and there was a big guy there making sure you didn't duck under the turnstyle.

Matamoros is a little nicer than Ciudad. Cleaner and fewer burned-out buildings. Also some fun shops:

Check out the url

Irish Pubs really are everywhere...

I wandered around for a couple hours and then walked back to the rig, taking a detour through an old cemetery. I like cemeteries.

Day Trip to Mexico

November 5-6, 2016

Spent the night on the edge of El Paso and spent some time thinking about things.  The forecast looks clear so I'll put off dealing with the vents for the time being.  The bigger problem is that now I've dropped in elevation the truck is not driving any better.  Time to go auto shop shopping.  After I go to Mexico.


It's super easy to walk into Ciudad Juarez from downtown El Paso.  There are two pedestrian bridges and places downtown that have all day parking for a reasonable rate.  There's just something cool about waltzing across the Rio Grande and into another country.

My goal was to refill my prescriptions since my insurance doesn't work outside of Washington state.

Buying meds is totally easy.  There are pharmacies all over and although they don't speak English they are willing to try to figure out what you're talking about.  I recommend bringing the drug you're trying to refill so they can look at it.

I also recommend wandering around and accidentally ending up in the market.  You can buy just about anything and I really wanted some veggies but I hadn't looked into bringing them back across the border so I had to pass.

For some reason the bread didn't call to me.

Although I had to ask for directions to get back to the bridge, Walking around was fun.  It wasn't until later that I discovered that Ciudad Juarez is one of the most dangerous cities in the world.  Woops.  Maybe everyone was at church on the Sunday morning I visited.

Back in El Paso I need to find my way out of the city.  It looks like a long road of stoplights - in a vehicle that stalls when I slow down.  Crap......