Tucson Phoenix and a visit with Larry

Friday, February 28, 2014

Last night we drove to Catalina State Park, north of Tucson.







We have stayed here before, about seven years ago. It was extremely hot and we saw a tarantula amongst other creatures. This time we were in the overflow area - new bathrooms. The other areas were full of RV campers. Last time we were here we drove a long way out in the countryside to get to this park. Now the area is built up with malls and houses.

We drove through an area with little shoulder area on the road. There was scrub and cactus close to the road. Very different from what we are used to.

Once we arrived in Phoenix to visit Larry, Ken's brother, we realized the scope and breadth of this huge city. Larry is wintering in Deer Valley in the north central part of Phoenix. Larry's place was easy to find with Apple Maps. Larry and his dog Xena were welcoming. We all went out for an oriental food lunch. We did a bit of looking around in some shops. This was more for exercising than for actual serious purchasing.

Larry kindly invited us to his "meet up" group. It was held at a Mexican restaurant. Free food and a live band with dancing were two of the draws that made us answer "yes" to his invitation. Ken and I actually danced - what fun!!! After we walked around a huge park. Xena enjoyed going down the slide in the playground.

Saturday, March 1, 2014

We woke up in Larry's parking spot for his apartment.  Yes, we camped out in the back of the van. It had rained lots in the night and part of the parking lot was flooded. We collected our luggage from Larry's place, gave hugs good-byes and were off for San Diego and a days drive.

Phoenix is a big and it took a while to actually escape the city. We drove through areas of cactus, rocky hills, rocks piled on rocks and desert dunes, lots to see and take in.

I, however, was not feeling myself. The night before I thought I had allergies from dog hair. Should have known that was not the case as I have not been allergic before. Now I am certain I am coming down with a cold - ugh! I feel very restless. I can not even think clearly. Yesterday I felt dizzy while shopping. We are camping tonight, too. The weather in San Diego is cooler than we have been used to for awhile and it is raining. What part of that sound like fun?

Mazatlan to San Carlos and the border

Tuesday, February 25, 2014

We both like Mazatlan, "Old Town" so that is where we drove to.

We drove by the main square and the big church. The realization came to us that this is a very busy area, especially today. Mardi Gras is about to begin. Peppered along the six mile long Malecon were tall, colourful, masked, Mardi Gras statues. We just used a reasonable priced public parking lot. We walked around in the Mercado, the second floor was dedicated to food vendors. The temperature was moderate compared to the heat of our summer visits. Near our parking lot was a store called "Michael Gallery" which specialized in high end Mexican crafted goods.

We ate near the Plazuela Muchada. It was decorated for Mardi Gras with the tall colourful figures.  There were beer trucks off loading huge pellets of beer for the big event. Driving back by the malecon we saw that part of the malecon would be cordoned off for a huge beer garden.

In the afternoon we did our last Mexico shop - Walmart, Soriana and Mega. The evening found us walking to MacDonalds and back - a fair hoof.

Wednesday, February 26, 2014
We left our campsite at San Fernando RV Park at about 9:00 am.







This is on our list of good campsites in Mexico. It is relatively small, many self contained vehicles so not many people are using the "banos" and you can walk to almost anywhere in the Zona Dorado (Golden Zone) - from McDonalds to El Cid and beyond (safely after dark). We like Mazatlan so to me it was relatively hard to leave.

Ken drove eleven hours this day, wow!!! He drove until eight o'clock pm. We stopped for short walks and long walks, outside chilango and mall walks. He had the sun beating in on him much of the day, too. He remained focused and alert. We had to drive for over an hour in the dark. He said it was good practice, driving at night in Mexico. I was definitely more freaked by it than Ken. For most of the drive in the dark we noticed there were no lines painted on the highway. Our windshield was covered in dead bugs. The highway was fine, only a bit bumpy (at times a lot bumpy).  I do not like even being a passenger in a van being driven at night on the highways of Mexico.

We arrived safely at Toytonaka RV Park in San Carlos, even had the same campsite as back in December.

Thursday, February 27, 2014

Ken drove from San Carlos, Mexico to Tucson, Arizona, about a five hour drive.

We were appreciating the mountains against the blue sky near San Carlos. This is a wonderful area. We met Carol and her husband who liked our rig. He even brought over his tape measure to check out the van.

We drove through a pretty area with lots of sequoia cactus. It was a hilly area. We drove into Hermosillo expecting to come to a turning point with a huge mall attached to a Soriana. Must have gone another way than usual cause we missed it. Missed our last chance at shopping in Mexico.

At checkpoint 21 - likely 21 kilometers from the Mexico/US border we went to turn in our Tourist Cards and did have the clerk scrap off our vehicle permit. A kind translator let us realize we needed paper work to show we had paid for our tourist cards. Thank heavens we'd kept the paper work.

At the US border we picked the slow lane. The fellow was very thorough and we were searched - can not blame them for searching a van. One guy when he found out we were Canadian was not going to let us through the border. He said it was because of the hockey situation that Canadians had put the US in - both the men and womens' teams had won the World Cup during this years Olympics - LOL.