We contacted the owner of the campground who had sold us a ride to CDMX and asked if he wanted us to get an Uber or for him to pick us up. He said he would be there between 9 and 10. He arrived about 10:30 due to traffic and we spent the next 2.5 hours in the car driving the 32 miles back to the campground. It took longer to get back than it did to get there (1 hour). Traffic in CDMX can be bad.
Howie was sitting pretty, but a bit dusty, and had been parked with good solar. I had forgotten to shut off the Starlink and I thought it would kill the battery after a week, but it worked like a champ. I could monitor the system remotely and it dropped to about 85% every day to keep the fridge cold and the Starlink on and then recharged by noon each day. I had to run in to Autozone, which turned out to be about a 4 mile walk due to incorrect references on the map.
I did manage to get an oil filter wrench and a spare filter, which I changed after I got back to the campground. I had been changing oil every 10K on this truck, usually with the dealer’s free oil change, but I had to change it in Montana at 70K and again in Baja at 79k. I could not get the filter off until now, so I will change it again at 85K with a new filter.
We packed up on the 17th to head to Patzcuaro to say hello and hang out with Graeme from A2A Expedition. I decided to take the toll roads since non-tolls was 7-8 hours of driving. We managed this trip in about 6 with a lunch stop in the middle. I think the tolls were about $50 along the way. Expensive on top of the fuel costs here. It’s good we have slowed the roll on this side. The first leg to Canada and Alaska we did 20K miles in 4 months. So far we have done 5K in 2.5 months, which is a lot easier on the travel budget.
The truck has been doing its DPF Regen thing again the past two weeks and I got an engine light yesterday. I am sure it is the code for “too many regens”, but I don’t have my code reader to be sure. I suspect it is this because it came on right at the time it did a regen on the way here. My overall goal with this truck is to leave it un-deleted until I have to delete it. It should run fine as designed, but I have read all sorts of things. If I do delete it, it will be nice to get better mileage. I am currently averaging about 12mpg, and would love to get it to 16-20 after removing all of the emissions. I am hoping for the best with this thing.
We pulled into camp at about 4:30 and set up for the next several days. Graeme came over and we got to meet the famous Chewy. We chatted for a while and compared notes. He has lots of experience and knows tons of people from his journeys. Blessed to be doing this. Life is Incredible.