Merry Christmas - Feliz Navidad

We wish you all a fabulous Christmas and New Years!  We will be celebrating with about 200 of our new friends here at La Penita RV Park, in La Penita de Jaltemba, Nayarit Mexico.  We are approximately 60 Kilometers north of Puerta Vallarta!

We wish that you all could enjoy this experience with us!

We had some computer issues, our laptop’s motherboard fried so we had to replace our computer (it was cheaper then a new motherboard in Mexico), we are now getting used to Windows 8 and should be back blogging weekly by the new year!

Once again MERRY CHRISTMAS to all and to all a good night!

The first week...

Week one has come and gone and what a mixture of life it has been.  The weather here has been crazy.  We arrived to hot sunshine, but then clouds rolled in and we had 4 nights with rain.  Not just showers but torrential rain!  and cloudy days and very, very muggy.. The pool was used frequently to get your temperature down!

Wednesday night was the first Pool Party Dinner of the season.  There were 36 of us served chili rellenos.  For those of you not versed in Mexican cuisine those are grilled and stuffed peppers. One was stuffed with cheese the other with beef, and then there was vegetables, rice, and beans!

They were very good, I had to use my phone light to get a good glimpse at what we were eating as it was quite dark by dinner time..

After dinner there was music supplied by fellow rv'er Joe and there was line dancing, polking and fun until the skies opened up cut the fun short.

On Thursday we went into town to the market (sorry I keep forgetting to take pictures) it stretched all around the square and down the street forever.  We walked along and along on the cobblestone road and finally gave up and walked back to the square and found a nice patio to cool down and have a 16 peso cervesa (beer) which is approx $1.40 for a bottle.  Cheaper then a bottle of water back home, but of course some would say it is very weak beer but on a hot day, man, do those taste good!

On Friday, we took at taxi to Rincon de Guayabitos to check out the area.. Bus loads of people from all over Mexico had come into town for the weekend.  The beach was solid umbrellas.

They were releasing 120 turtles at the far end of the beach that night but we didn't wait around to see them head for the open seas

Today, there was pool volleyball for the first time this season.  There were twelve players and we played 4 games.  It was a blast!

tonight is fish and chips or burger night at the pool, and tomorrow might be a big day for you know who!  What a way to celebrate!

La Penita RV Park

After a night at Totonaka RV in San Carlos we left early for a long drive to Mazatlan.  The roads were good 2 lanes each direction most of the way, except where re-paving was going on.  We are quite happy to pay the tolls for better roads!

We pulled into Mazatlan just as the sun was starting to dip in the sky!  Perfect timing.. We went into Cerritos RV  Park which is on the north side of Mazatlan so that we avoided the hustle and bustle of the big city.

We left early the next morning for the five hour drive to La Penita.  As soon as you reach Tepic, you turn onto Highway 200 heading toward Puerta Vallerta and the twists and turns begin.  It is a pleasant drive, one lane each way but through beautiful green fields of mango trees, and various crops.

34 km before our destination we rounded a curve and there was a truck coming straight for us in our lane.  Al hit the brakes, as there was no room to pull off and somehow the truck squeaked back into his lane with inches to spare!

Needless to say by the time we arrived at the RV Park the shaking hands and fast heart rates were just starting to slow down!  That was too close for comfort!

We found a nice spot in the park, where we can see the ocean and hear its constant waves crashing on the shore.

our view!

all set up...no neighbours on either side yet..they are due in later this month

Saturday night there was a spectacular lightning show to the north going on for about an hour when the skies opened up here.. We sat inside (in the heat) and watched our neighbour using a broom to push off the rain accumulating on his awning.  We see lots of rain in B.C. but this was amazing!  It rained and thundered for about 3 hours steady!  But by morning the sun was up and other then dirt, rocks and leaves washed down hill and the pool being filled to almost overflowing everything was back to normal!

We swam in the pool four times yesterday just to cool off.  The "old timers" here say that another week or two and the humidity will be gone.  I hope they are right.

Tropical storm Sonia went by us last night.  It was further north  hitting land above Mazatlan but we got light rain overnight and we woke up this morning to cloudy skies, but still 26 degrees at 9am.  91% humidity though.  The forecast is for clearing skies and a little bit cooler temperatures for the next few days!

I will take more pictures around the park today and post them next time!

We are in Mexico!

We crossed the border at 8:45 with a few other "gringos" but it was a very uneventful crossing.  The roads are quiet, it is sunny and quite hot.

We pulled into Totonaka RV Park at 3:45.   It is still empty here.  Where is everybody?
Everywhere we go there are very few RV's.  Has everyone decided to travel later this year or quit travelling at all?

We would love to hear from are fellow Mexican RVer's.  What are your plans for this year.. will we be seeing anyone we met last year?

We have lots of travelling to do today, hoping to make it all the way to Mazatlan, so this is a quick post...

Happy travelling

Where in the world are we!

If you think we have fallen off of the face of the earth, we haven’t.. we just keep finding RV parks with no internet…

After leaving Las Vegas, we headed to the Hoover Dam, all I can say about that is WOW, how did they build that!  It is absolutely amazing to think about the men that worked and gave their lives to build it.

driving across the dam!

Then we drove to Lake Havasu, Arizona.  This area was bought, planned and built by one man, the same man who brought the London Bridge to the area.  It has a beautiful lake with some of the largest, fastest boats we have seen.

relaxing at Campbell Cove RV Park

And of course we visited the main attraction, the London Bridge…

We then took a leisurely drive down along the Colorado River to Quartzsite, Arizona!  This area is one of the cheapest areas for RVer’s to stay. You can even camp or “boondock” right in the desert. But we figured out the drawback to the area!  It is HOT here, and dusty and there are very few stores. If you have a dirt bike or atv it is probably a great place, but we only have our feet this trip and walking was exhausting.  The woman that runs the park that we stayed at, told us that it was cool for this time of year too… all we could say is “thank goodness”.   It was 90 during the day and maybe 75 at night, normally it would be 95 to 100 in October and only a little cooler at night.

Shady Lane RV Park...where are the shady lanes??

We left there on the 28^th of October heading closer to the border, we looked through our books on RV Parks and decided to miss the larger cities instead we picked, Green Valley RV Park. Just south of Tucson, it is a newer park that is made up of approximately 150 “park” model trailers for seniors and 50 sites for motorhomes and fifth wheels to pull into.  We checked in for 3 nights and then found out the internet sucks!  What is with Arizona!  So there are starbucks and Burger King within walking distance and having free wifi so that is where we are posting this from.

sunset last night

Our plan is to cross the border on the 31^st and be at La Penita RV park 3-4 days later. 

Now we remember why we don't like Vegas!

Last night we met the nicest couple from Alabama, Ray and Dale, who are on their way to Casa Grande Arizona for the winter after a detour into California.  They were originally from New York but relocated to Alabama when they retired.

This morning we were woken up at 6:30 by reveille.  Did we mention that Nellis Air Force Base is very close to the RV Park.  By 8:30 there were F-16's and A-10 Warthogs taking off (Al supplied the plane names, I just know they were loud and fast)

We walked out to Las Vegas Boulevard North, which is right in front of the park and for $8 ea we got an all day pass on the transit system.  2 buses later and we were walking the "Strip", along with everyone else!

Here are the few pictures I took.  We didn't walk too far... Somebody  IS just recovering from a broken bone. But it was hot (no complaint there), smoky, crowded and expensive.  It just made us long for a nice quiet beach..

look Bumblebee is among us!

proof we were on the bus!

Tomorrow we are heading to Hoover Dam and Lake Havasu to see the London Bridge...

From Utah state line to Nevada State Line

When you leave Utah you drive for approximately 30 mins through Arizona before you drive into Nevada.  Along that drive you go through the Virgin River Gorge  .... (sorry the pictures were taken through the windows as we were driving)

and then we drove to the Hitching Post RV Park in North East Las Vegas... it is 4 pm and 31C.  yeah!

Tomorrow we will take a bus into downtown Vegas and see what has changed since the last time we were here which is 2001...

October 19th - 21st

October 19^th we pulled away from Cranbrook and started the journey south to find the sun. May to October has flown by.  A big thanks to all of our family  that let us stay either in their house or on their properties.  We really enjoyed visiting  with everyone!  We were so happy to see the friends that we did and sorry that we missed some people, let’s try for next summer!

We woke up this morning to a heavy frost and knew it was definitely time to head south.

We crossed at Rooseville, BC, I had never heard of it either, it is the south eastern corner of BC.  Surprisingly there was about a 15 minute wait to cross, U.S. Government workers slow down, but soon we were on our way.

First larger city we went through was Whitefish Montana and then on to Kalispell where we stopped at the Walmart for supplies.  From there we drove another 4 hours to Rocker, Montana and the 2 Bar Lazy H RV Park.

The next morning  after a  quick fill up with diesel we were back on the road.  It was cloudy when we started but by 10am it was beautiful sunshine and 9 celcius.  Montana roads are very good.  We are on Highway 15 which is 2 lanes each way.

We crossed the state line into Idaho and it was more of the same until we came across this…

 The area is called “Craters of the Moon National Monument and Preserve”.  We only passed through a very small part, it is the largest lava field of its type in the contiguous United States. It is 75 square miles resulting from a fissure in the earth’s crust.  Strange, in the middle of Idaho!

We then continued on into Utah!  There are a lot more cities, small and large, along the highway, which of course means more traffic!  But the mountains were beautiful so who notices traffic..

We stopped for the night in Provo Utah, in a very nice RV Park called Lakeside RV Campground.. We didn’t see the lake but I am sure it was there..

Today we are headed to Vegas!