Spring must be near as the RV parks are slowly emptying. A weekend ago 3 rigs from here pulled out heading north. Last Saturday 5 rigs left. And that is only this park. All the others are emptying out as well. We will leave Ron’s RV Park on Sunday. There is a lot of movement in the RV parks though as the people south of Puerto Vallarta are heading north and pull in for a few days here before heading on farther north. There certainly isn’t a rush to get up north to cooler weather as most people will stay around AZ for a few weeks before heading home.
We had our rig washed Saturday and waxed on Sunday. Juan and his wife did the job for $70. Not a bad price at all as I would not climb up on the roof for a $1000. Too scary!!!!!! And Rick wouldn’t climb up on the roof for $1,000,000!!!!!! It looks beautiful and shiny. Now if it will only stay that way until we get to the Montana Rally!!
The place is looking empty and spacious. We don’t feel closed in at all.
There used to be 3 rigs parallel to the wall here.
There are only 3 rigs left on this side.
Now we can definitely find a parking place in the closed in parking lot at Ron’s.
We turned into true Texans again yesterday!!!!!! Now during the day around 2 PM – 4 PM it becomes quite stuffy and hot in the 5th wheel even though we have fans going in the living room and bedroom and the windows and the front door open. So we closed everything up and actually turned on the air conditioner. I love that white noise and the coolness. The a/c gets rid of the humidity. This is the first time we have run the a/c since October in Mazatlan. Of course, most of the RV parks here in MX do not have an adequate electrical power for a/c operations. Ron’s RV Park has its own transformer and regulates the power like in the US. They also charge for it by the kw hour, just like in the states too!!!! (CLICK HERE to see our earlier post regarding Mexican Electicity.)
There are basically 3 roads to take from Puerto Vallarta to Mazatlan, which is about a day’s drive. The decision to take one instead of another all have to do with the town of Tepic.
We could go straight up Highway 200 which is extremely curvy and up and down mountains to Tepic. There are 2 reasons we will not take that route. (1.) This is the road we took down here and our brakes caught on fire. (2.) Going through the town of Tepic was long and had very narrow roads for our 5th wheel.
We could take Highway 200 north about 20 km to Las Varas and turn left and go along the coast through farmland to San Blas. Then take the curvy, mountainous Highway 54 up to the toll road and miss Tepic completely. This is a much shorter route. This way you go up the mountain roads for only about 20 miles. Sounds like the best route? Yes, except the road is very narrow and the jungle trees and bushes are hanging out in the road. We are 13 feet 3 inches high and the possiblity of scratching our rig or tearing our roof is highly likely. The MX government trims the roadways with machetes (Spanish must not have the rule – change an e to an i and then add es HA HA). They trim it almost even with the highway shoulders. The question is when did they trim it last? Not this week, I’m sure. So that route is out for us.
The next choice is go up Highway 200 to Las Varas and turn right (instead of left), still on 200 and go 34 km to Compostella which is a curvy mountainous road. Then we get on a toll road for 37 km going toward Guadalajara and get on the toll road to Tepic, taking the bypass around Tepic. What is wrong with this route? Tolls are expensive and the route is about 60 kilometers longer. But this is our choice. We would rather pay and take the longer route and have less chance of a mishap.
Lots of people do take the other 2 routes. This has been the big discussion around this area for the past month. Which route are you taking to Mazitlan and why? We will let you know how our decision turned out next week.
