07/02/11

1st Quarter

January...

On January 10th we had to leave Valle de Juarez to make our way north.  Our first stop was at Boca Beach.  It was unplanned, but other campers told us how great the beach was there and it WAS.  We loved the beach, although the park had iffy electric and no water pressure (we are in Mexico after all), the beach made it worth while.  No pictures but we plan on going back.

Next we moved thru Puerto Vallarta, a rather touristy kind of town and stopped next at Celestino RV park near Celestino Garza.    We parked outside the regular campsites right on the beach, but we had access to water & sewer, just no electric.  No problemo.  We just ran our generator a couple of hours every AM and ran a load of wash when that was happening.  Solar panels kept the batteries up most of the day.  See our campsite and you'll know why we like it here.

By end of January we continued north and stopped at El Mirador RV Park in Huatabampito, Sonora.  Again right on the beach.  Beautiful views, but the weather is cooling as we trek northward, making much beach sitting not possible.

February

We arrived in Tucson on Feb 1 with dentist appointments on the agenda.  We spent a week parked west of Tucson taking care of errands, shopping and such.  While there an old friend Joe from Oklahoma called and he was driving thru Tucson, so we stopped at his hotel for a brief visit.    Then we moved to the east side of Tucson to the Pima County Fairgrounds to prepare for the Escapees Chapter 8, Mexican Connection annual rally.  This annual trip had a total of 68 rigs going on this trip into Mexico.  We had agreed to be helpers on this trip, leading a group down thru Benjamin Hill, Hermosillo and on to Bahia de Kino.  Here is a view of our group (the Banditos) of 9 motor homes and 5th wheel rigs at one of our many road side stops. 

Benjamin Hill was a delightful treat just as last year.  The rally group donated supplies to the local school.    Again they had a fiesta for us and had many of the local school children perform cultural dance & song as well as some with a Norte Americano theme.  A sampling is below.  Unfortunately some little thief stole our Pressure Pro tire monitor sensors while our jeep was parked in town, so it was a more expensive trip for us this year and put a blotch on Bennie Hill's reputation.

As we continued on, traveling thru Hermosillo, the Sonora Tourism department decided to make a news item on our group.  We were escorted to town by the Mexican Federales and thru town by the local Policia.  At nearly every corner there were photographers and they made a little tourism commercial using a lot of this footage.  It was an honor, but did make the trek thru town tedious. 

March

The first of March we arrived in Puerto Penasco, also known as Rocky Point.  Not much activity.  Donna worked hard to get over a cold.  We worked on our tans and being as lazy as possible.  We had great success.  This is the view out the front.

Tide is out	Tide is in