Author: Sean-Admin

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20251203-05 – San Felipe – Part 2

We are loving this place. The local transplants are amazingly friendly and welcoming and the locals are so nice. We headed down to the meeting Wednesday after putzing around the beach and walking the pups. We spent some time walking through each street to look at the cute little houses and RV conversions that make up Camp de Pesca. We met a couple of other folks at the gathering (Pam and Rob) at the meeting and leaned much more about the camp. There are a lot of full timers and part timers here that really enjoy this town and have added a bunch to the community. One group, Crystal, here dad are here to help with taking care of him after the Canadian social system failed them. Crystal’s mom is here and helps out a bit, but their story is heart felt and really makes us feel grateful.

Kathy befriending three local strays at our camp.

The group at the meeting today was large, probably 8 or more, and they cannot say anything negative about the place and on many occasions, invited us to move here. The sun started to set behind the buildings, and it grew colder, and the “meeting” was adjourned. Bozo asked if we wanted to get dinner and Kathy mentioned she wanted to try some of the Pizza at Fat Boys. So off we went in his shaggin’ wagon.

We met Jamie Jo and her mom there just by chance. We were discussing a cool sign that we had seen on a house; “be aware of the energy that you bring to this house”, and Jamie Jo piped up and said “that’s my place”. And from there the night took off. Jamie Jo is a recent transplant here from Oregon, but her mom has been here for 40 years, and here parents were here before that. Jamie Jo works at a dog rescue place (Kathy was all in at this point) and told us of how the dog mission has reduced the number of dogs here by taking them to get spayed and neutered, and in many cases getting them adopted out; all the way up to Oregon. Even the dogs on the street are taken care of by this non-profit. It turned out the center has a dog-walking day on Thursdays where you can come and volunteer to walk the pups (again, Kathy was ll in). They also told us of the great music scene in San Felipe and that Jamie and her brother, a violinist, will be playing Saturday night. They convinced us to stay for the event, which also includes a Christmas Parade in the town. Her brother is a great musician and has a free school for kids here as well as up near Ensenada. Wow, this place.

The pizza was good at Fat Boys, and after we all finished chatting, Bozo took us over to Al’s bar, where they were supposed to be doing Karaoke. It turns out they were not, but we had a couple of drinks anyway. Bozo played a dice game with the bartender, where high hand picks the tequila and the low hand pays. Bozo lost I think three times. Needless to say, I drove the shaggin’ wagon and Bozo and Kathy back to the camp that night.

Thursday was a big day for Kathy, though. We packed up Howie and headed in to town to volunteer at the dog rescue. TBH, it was really fun out there and the dogs are at every stage of leash training. We all got a good work out of arms and shoulders, but the pups were really happy to get out of the kennels and walk the desert. We met a couple of other cool people that live in RV parks on the other side of the mountain. Tom and Sarah. Tom bought a place with a 5th wheel, a garage, an outdoor kitchen, and a shady area as well as a place for his travel trailer. He is from Illinois and moved here about 8 years ago. Sarah has a couple of places here; one in town and another south of town. I asked him the process of purchasing and he said it was pretty easy. You lease the spot from the camp owner, but everything above is yours.

Well, I wanted to check out the other side of the mountain; which amounts to about a 10 mile drive in to town. It’s a bit remote out there, but again, another set of communities like Club de Pesca, all with their own flavor. Unfortunately, when we got back to camp, Kathy noted the internet was not working. I knew I hit a tree but didn’t think much of it, but sure enough, the Starlink mount was broken off and the dish was no longer there.. so we mounted Howie back up and headed to the scene. Fortunately, I found it, again (as this is the second time I did this on this trip) and this time it was not broken. I will construct a mount for it soon so that will not happen again.

We managed to get groceries at the store, find a place to get Maggie her haircut, and drained the grey and black water tanks on the camper on the way back home. And we still made the meeting and met a new local, Louis, who is newer here, but loving the camp and its people. We talked a bit about healthcare and how to accomplish this while living here. Louis still has American insurance and goes back and forth to Yuma when needed. Bozo uses local folks, but is on a pension from Canada, and recommended a place for us to assist with billing.

And thinking of the things I am not getting done, I need to get on those. We still need to set up a mail box forwarding service, I still have to install the rear view camera/mirror, and I started on my app but have not made much progress on that. So I am going to post some photos here and publish this.

https://www.overlandadventureexcursions.com/photos-albums/nggallery/album/20251204-san-felipe

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20251201-02 – San Felipe – Part 1

We rolled in to San Felipe, a beachside town on the northwestern coast of the Gulf of California (Sea of Cortez). We looked on iOverlander to find some camp spots and decided on one close to the Malecón (boardwalk, sea wall, prominade) called Club de Pesca. The cost for the hookup was $45 per night by the ocean but the dry camping was $25 per night. We found a nice spot on the beach in the dry camp area and paid for 4 nights. They offered US or MEX pesos but the rate for 500 pesos was $29, so we paid US cash.

The temperature in this area varies from low 50’s to low 70’s this time of year and the beach is perfect for just hanging out. We walked down to the Malecón to do a little shopping and have some snacks. The beach is very clean and area is pretty nice; a lot nicer than the Puerto Peñaso area, and much less congested. Walking is just about a mile and very accessible. The shops are all about the same with the typical trinkets, shirts, sweaters, etc. that are found in Mexico tourist areas and the restaurants and bars are pretty large due to the massive amounts of people that converge here during the spring and summer.

We had some shrimp tacos and some beverages at a nice little place and then walked back on the opposite block. We passed several neat looking places and then cut back to the beach. When we got to our campsite, we stopped by the little bar, which is really a store, to see what was going on. We met two local transplants, Bozo and Fred, who invited us to hang out and chat. Fred has been coming here for 30 years and Bozo, 12 years, and both live here semi permanently. Both are from Canada, BC and Alberta, as are quite a lot of the folks down here. They invited us back to their daily “meeting” from 1-3:30PM. Bozo gave us a ride back to our camper and a quick tour of the campground. There are several places to purchase here and he quickly pointed them out. A lot of activity for our Monday.

On Tuesday, we enjoyed the beach, explored the campground, and just basically hung out. We did not want to intrude on the meeting, so we headed down around 2:45 to meet with the group. It turned out that the meeting had adjourned early and Bozo was driving out. He stopped and we chatted and he said he was going to a local place and asked us if we wanted to ride along. So we ended up at Fat Boys, on the corner of where everything in San Felipe happens.

Fat Boys is a local bar/pizza/hamburger joint owned by an American transplant. He is doing good business and has lots of “locals” that congregate here. Bozo seems to know everyone. We had several beers (I think 6) on top of the 3-4 consumed at the meeting and Kathy enjoyed a fresh margarita. We BS’d for a couple of hours, talked with a group that was hanging at the bar, and then Bozo was kind enough to bring us back to our camp.

What a neat little community. We feel so welcomed and at home here.

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20251130 – Drive to San Felipe

We packed up the gazebo, chairs and matting and cleaned out Howie for the next leg of the adventure. We changed things around a bit for this leg and things seem to be fitting better. The campsite has water and dumps at the campsites, so we filled up and cleaned up and made sure we were all set. We decided to get a shower on our way out of the park instead of packing last. The showers were hot and clean and it was nice to get the salt and sand off.

We saw they had a Walmart in town so we wanted to take a look. There are several other Mercados in the area, but we were trying to find some pods for the black tank and thought that would be the best bet. It turned out the Walmart did not have an RV section and we couldn’t get the pods. We did find some water and some other necessary supplies. We spent about $17 for water, tortillas, a bell pepper, and some bathroom supplies for Kathy. Across the street there was a Pemex station so we topped off the Diesel. The cost was $40 for about 7.5 gallons, which is $5.25 per gallon. We were paying about $3.50 in the states before we left.

A couple of posers at the Penasco sign….

We headed to the Malecon (Boardwalk) area of Penasco to see if we could get a sticker and to check out some shops. I managed to find a parking spot for Howie and actually parallel parked the beast. Kathy also found some vitamins at one of the “pharmacies” for about $10. The pharmacies are not like Los Algasdones in that they seem to only have a few of the items, and not a full store. The Malecon ares is nice and filled with tons of vendors selling all of the typical Mexico items from shirts, to talavera, to silver trinkets.

Parallel parking in Penasco.

We headed out towards San Felipe around 12:30. We needed to get on the road since we agreed to not drive at night and that put us there at around 5PM. Or so we thought. LOL. The drive was through the desert and sand dunes up and around the Sea of Cortez. on Mexico highway 4 at El Doctor, there was a military inspection point. We got in the line with personal vehicles and after 20 minutes waiting, the soldier told us we had to turn around and get in the line with the Semi trucks. He had the gun, and I don’t know spanish yet, so I turned us around. We were #5 in line and it took about 60 minutes to get to the inspection, which went pretty quick. The soldier looked around inside, asked about our bin of alcohol (left over from our move out) and poked in the closets and cabinets. 5 minutes and we were done after a 90 minutes wait.

We headed north and then turned south on MX 5 but realized that the time change also changed the sunset time to 4:38PM and we would not make it to San Felipe before dark. So we got on iOverlander and found a wild camp about 400 meters off the road that was next to some sand dunes. It was easy to find, easy to get to, and quiet. The night stars and the moon later in the evening were amazing. I took some pictures with the night settings on the iPhone and they came out like it was daylight.

Nighttime photo of the local sandy desert.
Nightime photo of the sand flats, looking North. The lights are cars on the highway.

The night was peaceful and quiet and we got a great night of rest. Tomorrow we will make the 90 minute journey into San Felipe and find a place to hang out for a few days.

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20251129 – Rocky Point

We have been enjoying the nice weather and the beach here in Rocky Point (Puerto Penasco) since Thanksgiving. The weather has been around 75 degrees and I think the water is pretty much the same. We have been exploring the beach here, playing with the crabs and sea creatures that are very abundant here. There are a lot of people, but the beach is not crowded like you would see in San Diego. The place is pretty vacant considering the large hotels and condos along the coast. Maggie loves the water at the beach and Zuzu prefers the sand to run.

The campground at Playa Bonita is packed in like sardines. The site they gave us at the end of the row is quick to get to the beach, but I have to be careful not to bump the slide in of the RV that is backed in over the curb into our spot. The Canadians next to us are quiet and nice. We set up our gazebo for some shade, and it has been fun watching Kathy kill the flies that get in with her electric zapper.

We walked in to town today to look around. It was not the main downtown area (Malecon), but it was a nice walk. For a Saturday things were not crowded or busy at all. There are tons of rental shops for quads and side-by-sides up and down every street. We stopped at a nice little cafe and had a couple of drinks and some tacos. It ended up being $480 pesos, which was about $28 for two beers, a margarita, two bottled waters and three chicken tacos. It’s definitely tourist prices.

Tomorrow we will be heading up and around to the peninsula and are shooting for San Felipe. It is supposed to be 250 miles and should take us 4.5 hours of driving. We are slowing it down on this leg and not doing 250 miles per day like the northern part. So far it has been nice with this change in travel.

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20251127 – Crossing into Mexico, Puerto Penasco

We woke to a nice morning just north of the Organ Pipe National Monument on some free BLM land. Last night when we arrived I noticed two sets of campers as we parked, about 100 yards off. This morning, I see there are dozens of people out here. Love BLM land. Kathy had looked up some insurance for Mexico and found a site that has 20+ years of history called Baja Bound. They have an online quote and purchase option so we looked it up. A 6-month liability policy was about $200 and full coverage for Mexico was $1200. We decided to go with the comprehensive in case something arises we might have an option to recover. We purchased it and set the active time to 11AM.

I took the pups for a long walk through the desert and got to stretch my legs a bit. It felt nice to be out camping again. Zuzu was happy for a walk, as always, and Maggie trots along with a big smile every day. I made a quick breakfast of Hashbrowns, bacon, and eggs and we lounged a bit waiting for the time to leave. We decided to try and get out TIP for the truck as it was only 17 miles down Mexico Highway 2 and had good reviews on iOverlander. Around 10:45 we left and headed toward Lukeville.

The border crossing had a line of traffic leaving the USA with not much coming back across. There was a fuel station just before crossing so we topped off the tank and then got in line. The line moved quickly and we were sent through with a wave. We parked on the other side and I found some help getting our visas stamped. That process was also very easy as we had the forms already filled out and permits paid online. We proceeded into Sonoyta and then on to the Banjercito (customs). I waited in line for about 30 miutes and then was asked by someone what I needed. He explained that it would be s 2-3 hour wait since their power and systems were down and everything was manual. He checked Howie real quick, looked through the paperwork, and said I needed two copies of my visa for the next Banjercito we stopped. He showed me multiple places in Baja and on the mainland and said there was not time limit since Baja and Baja Sur were Tourist Zones. Super nice guy. We headed back to Sonoyta and then turned south to Puerto Penasco (Rocky Point).

It was only about an hour’s drive and we looked at iOverlander for some RV parks. One was pretty well rated called Playa Bonita, so we navigated the streets and checked in. It’s an RV lot, not really a campground, but it has power and water and showers and restrooms and a dump; we are good with that. I asked for a spot by the beach, but we had to get 5 nights, and we are only staying here 3, so we got one just across. It is an OK spot. I probably should look for a shade tarp down here since the sun is not like Alaska. It’s 75 and sunny and beautiful here.

We will be here for a few days, and I will use that time to catch up on the plog for things we did while back home (Orlando, New York, Repairs, etc). I may back-date the posts to keep them organized. We only took a couple of photos so far, but we will get better at it as we go.

Thanks for following.

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20251126 – On the Road Again

It’s been a month and a half since the last post. We’ve been really busy, first with Dr appointments and more recently getting the house ready for rental. The medical appointments all went well except for the fact that the colonoscopy and heart monitor did not happen. The butt doctors in the USA are not the best for getting things done. They require an office visit for a consultation before you can get scheduled for a procedure. I’ve tried to force a procedure schedule but so far it hasn’t helped. The scheme they use is that it takes 1-3 months to get a consultation, and then they will schedule a procedure. Problem is they tell you the scheduler will call in 1-3 weeks to get the procedure scheduled, which can take another several months. And when they don’t call, it is nearly impossible to get an appointment. I called and called and left messages and never received a call-back to get checked. Unfortunately the consultation appointment was paid and I have no recourse other than giving them a poor review in Google and on the United Healthcare app. It’s going to be great with the coming of robotics and AI as that will remove most of these roadblocks the butt doctors have in place.

The same seemed to be true with the cardiologist, although they did call back with an appointment at the end of December when we will be out of country. All of this was noted to them when I set up the appointments at the end of September/early October. I am still impressed with the Alaska Heart Institute, as they managed to get all the testing done and worked through our travel schedule. It took several trips back to Anchorage, but they had a proper management system.

So other than that, all of my bloodwork, tests, and health checks look great. Kathy also managed to get tons done and has a clean bill of health. We are stocked up on meds and ready for round 2. The house looks amazing and I’m sure renters will love it. Here’s a photo of the completed patio ceiling (the last part not completed).

I took a bit of time trying to figure out how to “have it all” with travel and keep the house unrented, but in the end I realized it’s not good fiscal policy to pay a mortgage on a place we will not reside in for a while (thanks Kathy for that deep dive). So beginning in November we packed up the house, cleaned it, finished some work on the patio, repainted, and hired a company to manage it. Crossing our fingers it rents quickly and we get great, responsible tenants. Some great friends offered a space in their old home to store our stuff so that helps with the travel budget (thanks Tim and Donna). We hope we can get them down to Mexico or Central America during our travels. My brother Rick and his wife Terry are also helping with storage of my FJ and our 5th wheel.

We left “home” again and moved back in to Howie on November 25 and traveled to Willcox to drop off the bike and tailgate at my brother’s house. We had a quick visit with Rick and Terry and my parents and then today headed south. I was planning to cross in Nogales so we can get a TIP for the truck, but that route was 120 miles longer than going through Lukeville. We will be traveling in Baja, Baja Sud, and some of Sonora and a TIP is not required there. Plus we can try the Banjercito in Tecate, Ensenada, or even La Paz when we get there. We managed to navigate the Mexico visa paperwork and have paid our visitor fees and have paperwork to be stamped at the border. So tonight we camped on BLM land just north of the Oregon Pipe National Monument and will head to the border in the morning.

Thanks for following our journey. Thanks to Garret for suggesting a sway bar for the truck as that improves the ride with Howie immensely. Thank you Tim and Donna for housing our stuff and Kathy’s car. Thanks Beau and Makensie for watching our place and pulling the mail. Thank you Rick and Terry for storing our big camper and FJ. We hope to see you soon somewhere on our travels.

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20251009 – Appointments and cleaning.

We’ve been home a few days and have been getting things cleaned out. The truck camper is emptied out and we’ve started to clean it thoroughly. Kathy went straight to work getting the shrubs in the yard trimmed. I noticed a bit of a leak in the patio ceiling so I got up there and applied some acrylic roofing material. I need to put a few more coats up there but we are getting rain this weekend so I’m hoping it will be enough until next week. We trimmed and cleaned the yard, got the waterfall and hot tub working, and began to get settled in. The house was actually pretty nice inside; we were expecting Arizona dust, which was not there.

I am still having clarity issues on what to do with the house. I want to rent it but storing all the furniture and the cars is costly. We may rent it furnished because that might be easier. Still working this out. We have been to three dr appointments already this week and got Maggie’s haircut. Next week we will have more appointments and hopefully will get the house cleaned out.

I ordered an air conditioner to replace the large unit in Howie. This newer DC unit should use less than 60A on high, or about 750W. The old one was pulling twice that.

thanks for reading of our progress.

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20251006 – Home

We made it home by noon. We stopped to weigh the truck to see what we had actually ended up with at the end of the trip. We shed about 300 pounds during the trip. We have quite a few items that we’re planning on not taking them with us further, so that should drop some more weight. The total mileage for the trip was 19,500 miles. Diesel cost was approximately $6,600. Groceries and restaurants was about $4,000. Camping and campgrounds were about $1400. We ended up about $4000 over our budget, which we were blaming on dog treats. Lol. Here’s a map of our tracks.

Screenshot

We were very surprised by the house, considering all the storms and dust storms around Coolidge. The house is in great shape. The yard was a bit overgrown because our landscaper dang near cut off his fingers a couple weeks back at another job. Kathy grabbed the shears and started working on the backyard. There’s a bit of cleanup to do, but I got the waterfall filled in the hot tub filled and we were able to relax in it last night.

We will be working at getting the house packed up and ready to rent, getting our trailer moved down to my brother’s house, and finding someplace to put the cars. The next phase will be Mexico and Central America and that will start sometime mid November in Baja Mexico. We are scheduled to finish up whenever we get done.

We had not really missed the house while we were gone, but once we got there, we realize how nice it actually is, and we settled in really quickly. I will post you every couple of days just to keep track of what we’re doing. Thanks for reading the blog (David, Garret, Tony and Debbie, Moms and Dads, and all of those following Kathy on Facebook). Thanks for all the support. I look forward to keeping up with you guys as we go further.

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20251004-05 – Last Stop, Willcox

We left El Paso and stopped for fuel in Las Cruces. I remembered there was a great restaurant there called La Posta and since we were close, we stopped. It has been there since 1936 and serves excellent Mexican food. The place is kind of unique in that in the waiting area there are several McCaws in cages and some piranhas in tanks to look at. We enjoyed some authentic Mexican food before getting back on the road.

We arrived in Willcox around 2pm and visited with my brother, David; sister-in-law, Leslie; and my parents. This weekend it was Rex Allen Days, a local festival, and we headed to the park to look at the vendors while mom and dad napped and then went to church. We all met at Isabelle’s for dinner and a great visit.

Sunday, our last day on this keg of the trip, I cooked a skillet breakfast for my parents and then we visited with my other brother, Rick; sister-in-law, Terry. Terry and Rick invited us to do a corn maze at Apple Annie’s. That was pretty fun one only took us 46 minutes to complete the complicated maze.

Mom made lasagna and salad for dinner and we all had a really nice visit. We said good bye to my parents as we planned to head out early to get to the house. It’s been 4 months and 4 days.

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20251003 – White Sands and El Paso

We were up early to get on the road. Today was going to be the longest travel day of the trip. We planned to visit White Sands National Park and then drive onto El Paso to visit Mike and Mari. The government shutdown however thwarted our national park visit. There were two park rangers blocking the locked gate. Oh well, that would have been #57 on the trip.

We arrived in El Paso and spent some time catching up. It’s interesting the different stories we get from the boys. Mike and Mari took us to their bar, Three Pints Pub, a really popular local hang out that they’ve been building for many years. The food was excellent, the people were fun, and we loved catching up in their recent trip to England, Ireland, and Scotland.

We enjoyed coffee the next morning in their lovely backyard and planned to meet them in Honduras in May where they will be coordinating with our sons. Gonna be a great family vacation. I know Riley and Peyton are looking forward to it.