June 26 – 28, 2015 Red Feather Lakes Forest Camping

We had a great weekend with friends, Ann and Gary, camping about an hour from home.

We arrived Friday afternoon and Gary had already secured a site which we shared.

We were off-level and it is difficult to pull onto 3 boards because they slide, but Gary had an awesome jack which made the job easy! He and Tobey jacked the one side up while I shouted out measurements from the inside of the RV and before we knew it, they were able to slide in the boards and drop onto them and we were level. Tobey decided to add a jack to the list of tools we carry!

We had a great dinner, played cards, then sat around the campfire before retiring for the night.

On Saturday Gary and Ann made breakfast to start our day. We all piled into their truck and drove up Deadman Road to check out some other camping spots and hikes.

We decided to try the North Lone Pine Trail. Penny was in heaven because she could be off-leash and there was a stream for her to play in!

About 1-1/2 miles in, we came upon a dad with 2 little boys and a dog. We put Penny on her leash, but he didn’t want to control his dog, so we decided to turn around and head back. It’s okay because it was close to lunch and naptime!

After lunch we all napped, then Gary cut up a watermelon. Penny did not want to be left out, so we shared some with her. It was pretty darn funny to see her chowing down on the rind! Here is a video of her enjoying that watermelon.  
https://youtube.com/shorts/0XpZP-82viQ?feature=share

She wasn’t too happy when we took the rind away!

Saturday night we fixed dinner then we played cards. It was too late to make a fire, so we all just crashed!

We had an early breakfast on Sunday then drove down to take the Mount Margaret Hike. It was much hotter and quite a bit of the hike is through a meadow without much shade, but we made it. The columbine were bursting with color – so beautiful!

It is 7.8 miles round trip, but it is the craziest hike we have done. The first part of the hike is downhill so when you are hot, tired, and hiking out, you have to go uphill. Oh well, it was beautiful and had nice views.

After lunch we cleaned up and headed back to town. It was a great weekend getaway!

Tobey is trying to figure out what is wrong with the steps on the RV. They wouldn’t come down before we left for the weekend, so he disconnected them. We had to tie them up with a couple of zip ties, then cut them when we got to camp to lower the steps. When it was time to head home, he had to crawl under the RV and and tie them back up. It looks like the motor that operates them has given up the ghost, so he will probably have to replace it – and it will be an expensive repair. Maybe we will just invest in more zip ties …

March 25-26, 2015 Scottsdale, AZ to Fort Collins, CO

We had a busy week in Arizona with our moms after returning from Baja Mexico. The RV got a thorough cleaning (inside) and waterline blowout in preparation of our return to “cold country.” We decided to sell the scooter and it sold quickly – maybe we should have asked for more money.  The guy that bought it was happy with it – duct tape and all!! We looked at a couple motorcycles and Tobey went for a test drive on a Suzuki UT250. We didn’t buy one yet, there are still more options to check out.We rounded our week out with a birthday celebration for my sister-in-law. It was great to spend time with the family!

Wednesday morning we said our goodbyes and were on the road at 7:15. It was a rough day! We had head winds, cross winds, then more head winds, and cross winds from the other direction! We finally got to Denver about midnight and found a quiet spot to park for the night. We had an 8:30 appointment with an RV repair shop because I found a small hole in the bathroom floor next to the bathtub and wanted to have it checked out. They concluded it was not structural, no water leaks, and we could repair it ourselves with some quarter round molding. YEAH! They also suggested we just shim next to the microwave to keep it from rattling so much. Fifteen minutes later (and no charge) we were on our way home. DOUBLE YEAH!!

We got everything unloaded and put away in just a few hours. It’s amazing how quickly it went! I still need to wash the outside of the RV and should do it since the weather in Fort Collins has been beautiful (in the 70s!), but part of me resists. Maybe it’s because I keep thinking we will have more snow and it will wash some of the junk off … maybe I am just dreaming!

TRIP RECAP

5721 Miles – Total Mileage (December 18, 2014 – March 26, 2015, Fort Collins Round trip)

3779 Miles – Scottsdale, AZ to Quartzsite, and onto Baja, then return to Scottsdale, AZ (January 16 – March 17, 2015)

EXPENSES:

Gas (and one toll road) – $1443

Oil Change – $46

Camping – $402

Dining Out – $345

Groceries – $290

Propane – $41

Entertainment – $152

Souvenirs – $55

Tel-Cel (Internet cell modem) – $55

Tourist Visa – $48

TOTAL – $2923

While we were in Mexico, gas prices were $13.57 pesos/liter. Most of the time, our conversion rate peso/dollar was 14.5 pesos/1USD, so the cost per GALLON was about $3.55 USD. YIKES! During the same time, gas prices in the US were about $2.15 per gallon.

I realized I forgot to record our gas in December from Colorado to Arizona in December. Whoops. In December, gas prices were about $2.00 per gallon and we would have used about 100 gallons, so we would really need to add $200 to the total trip expense, making it $3123. Still not bad!

 

Penny seems happy to be home and so are we – at least for a while!

Right now our next trip out is at the end of May – guess I have time to get the RV washed before we go!

March 17, 2015 - Bahia San Luis Gonzaga to Scottsdale, Arizona

Today was our last day in Mexico. We were both up early and ready to leave by 8 am. The 100 mile drive from our camping spot at Bahia Gonzaga to San Felipe took us just over two hours. 
We walked the main street then up the hill to see the Shrine of the Virgin of Guadelupe and the lighthouse, then back the malecon before lunch.

The shrine is in the large white building one the right at the top of the hill.When you get to the top it is behind a huge, mesh, wire door and the shrine itself is actually pretty small – not exactly what we expected, but interesting to see.
From the Shrine, we looked to the north and could see the lighthouse.Looking behind us in the picture below, you can see San Felipe’s malecon. We rounded out the trip with fish tacos and shrimp burritos for lunch, then hit the road for the U.S.
We had a military checkpoint where Hwy. 3 and 5 meet on our way north. This was one of the most thorough stops we experienced on this trip. I think they opened almost every cabinet, as well as looking in the bathroom, and under our bed!
North of San Felipe along Hwy 5 was a mining operation, but there was no identifying sign. I have found information that said it may be a copper mine, and other that said gold. If you know what it is, please let me know!!
 
Close to Rio Colorado and Rio Hardy we passed by the mudflats, but it looked a lot like salt to us. It was interesting that on one side of the road it was totally flat, and on the other side of the road were mountains.

The real bonus of the drive today was the road was wide and had shoulders, so we made it to Mexicali by 4 pm. We made a couple of last minute shopping stops then worked our way through the afternoon traffic to the U.S. border crossing.  The line seemed to take forever, but it was really only an hour.

I had our list of our purchases ready to present and we had finished all of our fruits and vegetables, so it was smooth sailing. It is interesting because you drive through an x-ray type machine and they process the picture  of your vehicle and if everything looks okay, you are free to go – and we were.

Back in the USA, we continued on to Yuma, Arizona where we stopped for gas - $2.29 per gallon – much cheaper than what we had been paying in Mexico! We also grabbed some Chinese food for dinner then drove on to Scottsdale. We arrived about 11:30 and spent the night in the RV so we didn’t wake our Moms.

MARCH 18, 2015  -  SCOTTSDALE, ARIZONA
We got up early this morning and went with our moms to walk our Penny dog. Penny seemed pretty happy to see us – although she was thoroughly spoiled while we were gone. She is one lucky dog to have such good “grandmas”!!! (And we are lucky to have such great moms to watch her for us!!!)
After our walk, I spent the rest of the day cleaning the RV and doing laundry! It’s getting there. Tobey will have the tires rotated before we head back to Colorado next week and he is thinking of selling our scooter before we go. We’ll see where that goes and let you know!
RV CAMPING – BAJA CALIFORNIA

March 16, 2015 - Bahia San Luis Gonzaga

Today was our last day at Bahia San Luis Gonzaga and we made the most of it. The weather cooperated and it was sunny and hot. We FINALLY went swimming – careful to avoid the jelly fish that were along the shore. We spent time just sitting in the sun and enjoying the day.

This afternoon we took the scooter and went over to the fish camp to stock up on fish to bring home. We didn’t know exactly how to get to the camp, so we went down the highway and into the next camping area. Well, that was wrong! We had to pass through the military check point to get to Papa Fernando’s where we thought it was located. It turned out that the road we needed was the one that goes to Alfonsina’s Restaurant – right by our camp! So, back we went, through the checkpoint and headed toward Alfonsina’s. From there we turned off onto another dirt road and found our way to the camp – and fish!!!
 

We got sea bass and corvina filets – 8.5 kilos – or 18.7 pounds of filets, for $650 pesos ($45.85USD). Okay, that works out to $2.45 USD per pound which we thought was quite a bargain!!! We had our five corvina and nine sea bass fileted by the fishermen for us, and we were prepared by taking our own bags.
After he got started fileting, Mario came to help out or it would have taken a long time because they didn’t have a very sharp knife. Most people don’t go to the camps to buy fish so they aren’t really prepared to sell filets.

I cooked a bass filet tonight for dinner and it was delicious. We will certainly miss eating fish fresh from the sea but are taking home some memories to savor later.

RV CAMPING – BAJA CALIFORNIA

March 15, 2015 - Bahia San Luis Gonzaga

We had a burst of excitement this morning before breakfast. We had gone outside to check out the weather and spotted a coyote at the campsite right next to us. He was about 3 feet away from the little dog – staring at it and not the least afraid of the people around.
I was able to go back into the RV, get my camera and come back before it started to go away! It just casually wandered down the parking area behind the palapas, checking out all the little dogs on the beach.As I stepped behind the RV to take a picture, I noticed two more coyotes in the field, coming to join this one! Everyone with dogs seemed to pass the word and kept them close for a good share of the morning!

We were pretty lazy most of the day, but this afternoon we hung out with a lovely young couple from Mexicali who are camped a couple palapas over. Rafael is originally from Costa Rica and was an exchange student in the US, and Sandra is from Mexico City. They have two dogs and we laughed because one of them is named “Toby!” They were so interesting to talk to, we visited most of the afternoon. They invited us to join them at Alfonsina’s for dinner. They had the chef (and owner) of the restaurant prepare shrimp tacos, fish and shrimp rancheros, a fish plate, and shrimp plate. Oh my gosh – everything was so delicious – and the food just kept coming! We had the most wonderful time and they wouldn’t let us pay for anything.

Life is good and it has been so much fun meeting so many interesting people. It will be hard to say goodbye to Mexico when we leave.

RV CAMPING – BAJA CALIFORNIA

March 14, 2015 - Bahia San Luis Gonzaga

The word for the day is “perezoso” – lazy! We worked hard at it today!
We walked south on the beach and picked up shells, then came back and hung out enjoying the calm day and sunshine.

After lunch we took money and walked down by the restaurant hoping to catch one of the fishing boats when they came back. No luck! We sat on the beach for a couple hours and came back empty handed.

We watched this sailboat head out for an afternoon sail and saw them come back in a few hours later. We added another kind of bird to our growing list of finds – looks like a duck of some kind.

The beach is filling up today with lots of Mexican families and groups. We talked to one guy from Tecate who told us this is a long, holiday weekend like President’s Day. We are more than happy to share our little section of the beach!

We do have four Americans camped one space over from us. They have a small boat and go out fishing every day. We joked with them this morning that they could catch the fish and clean them and give them to us to eat. When they came back in this evening they brought us a bag of sea bass they caught and cleaned! Thank you Jeannie and Norm! I guess it is okay that we didn’t get fish from the Mexican fishermen, after all. I baked cupcakes today, so we took some over for them and they thought it was a good trade.

We loved the sunset tonight. The water is actually to the east of us, so the first picture was taken from our campsite looking to the north. The last picture is the view behind our RV, looking to the west. Thanks for the Bronco sunset!
 

RV CAMPING – BAJA CALIFORNIA

March 13, 2015 - Gonzaga

Tobey was up in time for the sunrise today and got a great picture. As the day progressed, we had sunny skies, but it was very windy! We took the scooter up to the store hoping we could get WIFI and I thought we might actually fly there. I am glad it was only a mile up the road – we were buffeted around quite a bit!

Our “banda ancha” didn’t work, so we paid $15 pesos (just over $1USD) to use their WIFI for 30 minutes. Well, their WIFI only works with cell phones, not laptops, so we were out of luck and they gave us our money back!

We went back to the RV and hung out playing cards and watching the birds. We also watched a group of Mexican guys from Tijuana who had gone out in their kayaks to fish. It was so windy, they had trouble getting back to the shore. When they did, a couple of them were a long way from their campsite and didn’t have any strength left to paddle against the wind. Tobey went down and talked with them to see if he could help. One fellow had a hand-trailer and was able to pull his back; the other guy didn’t.

Tobey offered to help carry it back to their campsite. They offered him a beer, Tobey said no thanks, but he would take some fish tomorrow if they catch some!

This afternoon we walked back down by the restaurant, collecting shells and hoping that we would see some fishing boats come in so we could buy more fish. We found shells, but no fish. It was so windy that even the local fishermen didn’t go out today.

The wind died back a little and we enjoyed sitting on the beach watching the birds. There are so many varieties of gulls, frigates, herons, cormorants, pelicans and osprey here.

We’ve also seen lots of jumping fish. It is funny the way they leap out of the water 3-4 feet. So far, we haven’t seen any of the birds catch them when they jump. There’s always tomorrow …

RV CAMPING - BAJA CALIFORNIA