Our pet butterfly

We always make an effort to get out for some exercise. Every day. It's at least a 4 mile hike of some kind and that's the minimum. In fact the last few days have probably averaged 6 miles (10 kms) per day.

And of course the terrain makes a difference. Some places we are trekking through the brush, and other places we are power walking on a paved pathway.

We do have a plan...

Yesterday morning we received notification by email that Texas State Parks were all being closed to the public by 5:00pm that day.

We went out for our morning hike and discussed what that meant for us. We had planned on using some of the Texas State Parks while making our way north. The only time it looked like it was going to be a problem was the upcoming Easter long weekend.

Sherman needs some minor repair

A few days ago, Sherman began acting up. Nothing serious, and I recognized the symptoms right away. The idle seemed high and erratic. And, the "Service Engine Soon" light had come on.

I checked the error code, and sure enough it was exactly what I figured. Sherman needed a new idle control module.

Sherman's 10 year old batteries are still doing fine

This last few days of dry camping have been a test of Sherman's now 10 year old Trojan batteries. It was in March of 2010 that we bought our new T-105 6 volt batteries. I knew they had a good reputation, but never expected them to last ten years.

I'm sure there has been some deterioration, but they are still doing fine!

Rain rain, go away...

Rain is in the forecast on and off for the next several days but we still get out for some daily exercise. We set out with Bob and Denise just before 10am to do another few miles of trails.

Although it spit with rain a few times, we were actually pretty lucky.

Could be a bread baking day tomorrow!

Some states have taken the drastic measures of totally closing all of their state parks.

Here in Texas, they have taken a more logical approach. Each state park has their own rules as to how they limit the number of people coming into the park. We are at Hill Country State Natural Area where they have very few campsites to begin with, and they are really well spaced apart. Campers with reservations are allowed into the park, and then they limit the number of day users and when that limit is reached that's it.

Finding places to overnight

We stayed our first night in Texas at the rest area on the I-35. The tourist office there was closed, but they gave a 1-800 number if you needed any info. And the bathroom building was open because truckers stop in as well and use the facilities. And they left the WiFi on.

On Tuesday, we filled up with gas at $1.70 USD per gallon ($0.64 CAD per liter). Sherman is happily full of cheap fuel!

March Expenses

Not a bad month, mostly because we sat at the Las Palmas Midway Inn for the last ten days of the month. That kept our entertainment expenses low, and because of the coronavirus we didn't eat out very much.

But, we did do some stocking up for the trip north. Mostly because we wanted to spend as little time as possible doing any grocery shopping, so Ruth had made a bunch of meals and froze them... in fact, the freezer is totally full. We also stocked up the liquor cabinet because most things are quite a bit cheaper in Mexico.

Adios, Mexico

I don't enjoy long driving days, but sometimes it makes sense. In this situation, none of the attractions we wanted to see along the way were open, and so we enjoyed one last day at the Las Palmas Midway Inn in Matehuala. Hard to believe we were there for 10 nights!

We hit the road at just after 7:00am. First thing we did was to fill up with some very cheap fuel.

The things that went wrong...

Eight motorhomes and 14 people touring Mexico together for four months and doing 7,000 kms (4,500 miles) worth of sometimes rough Mexican roads.

What could go wrong?

Well, as we explained to the group at the beginning of the trip, a lot can go wrong. It's not a matter of if there will be a problem... only when.

Highlights of a fantastic four months touring Mexico... part 2

Okay... if you missed part 1, you really want to go back and check that out first.

https://www.travelwithkevinandruth.com/2020/03/highlights-of-fantastic-four-months.html

Many people think of Mexico as "beaches". But there is so much more to Mexico, and we think the vast majority of the good stuff is actually in the interior.

Highlights of a fantastic four months touring Mexico... part 1

Not much going on here at the Las Palmas Hotel and RV Park where we have been holed up for the past week. No point in just writing about the same things day after day, so I thought we might review what has been a fantastic four months touring Mexico.

We crossed into Mexico at Presidio, Texas and into the state of Chihuahua.

We don't seem to have any problem keeping busy

Yesterday, I cleaned Sherman's awning. It was way overdue... probably because it's a pain in the butt to clean! When I worked at the RV dealership parts department back ten years or so ago, they had a thick liquid product that you spray on both sides of the awning, roll it up, leave it for a few hours, and then rinse it off.

But of course I don't have any of that... so I used Spray 9 and a scrub broom!

Margaritas by the pool

Well, we continue to wait things out at the Las Palmas Midway Inn here in Matehuala, San Luis Potosi, Mexico.

Yesterday, I got up on Sherman's roof and gave it a bath. Some regular readers will remember when I re-coated the roof back in September 2015. Considering that was almost five years ago, it was a good thing to do and it has held up well.

Nothing better than fresh air

We are of the opinion that the best place to be right now is outside and away from people who are not part of our group. Some readers even think that we shouldn't be associating with members of our group... but we think there is no logic there. Our group have been together every day for the last four months. If one of us were sick, we would all be sick.

So we stay outside, or inside the motorhome with all the windows open.

Will we stay, or will we go...?

Well, another day another decision.

As I said before, we are playing this thing one day at a time. Many of you have your own opinions of what we should or shouldn't be doing and one of the problems with putting our life out there the way we do is that people want to make their opinion known if they think they know what we should be doing. And while we appreciate the concern, Ruth said it best...

One day at a time

Nice to have some down time here in Matehuala. The rest of the group are keeping busy puttering around their rigs, getting some laundry done, and generally relaxing.

We walked with Bob and Denise over to the Walmart. Bob was looking for some oil do do an oil change on his rig, but we thought that the Autozone would have a better selection so we left Ruth and Denise in the Walmart and the two of us walked another km down the road to the Autozone.

Change of plans

Woke up yesterday morning at the run down El Banito Restaurant Balneario RV Park just south of Ciudad Valles. We wanted to visit some waterfalls in the area, but didn't want to base ourselves out of that particular RV park. I didn't even take any photos there!

Anyhow, online I found what looked like a decent parking area at the Micos waterfalls and I had read that they have a swimming area as well. And it was hot... calling for a high of 33C (91F). Nice to be somewhere to cool off in the water.

The odd surrealist sculpture garden of Edward James

We have known about this place for quite a long time and have never made the effort to visit. It's one of the reasons we came to this area besides the fact that we simply had never been here before and there is a lot of other stuff to see as well.

It was only a 25 km (15 mile) drive from where we had stayed Wednesday night at Club Palma Solas. So we headed out at 9:00am to try and beat any buses to the parking lot I had read about.

The most beautiful drive in Mexico?

Monday night we had been parked overnight at the Pemex gas station just south of the town of Jacala. When we got up Tuesday morning, several of us went for a walk in the countryside before heading out.

Even with a 10:00am start to the driving day, we should still arrive at our destination of Matlapa by 2:00pm.

And then there were five...

We started off this trip with 8 rigs. We had high hopes of finishing the trip with 8 rigs but then this Coronavirus (now apparently being called Covid-19?!) thing happened and people's plans change.

Larry and Martha decided their best option was to be back in the United States and they set off a week ago. Then a couple of days ago, Sue and Roy decided their best option was to be anywhere but the Unites States and they chose Valle de Juarez, Mexico (we were there at Christmas)... and Garth decided he didn't want to be in the Unites States either so he was going to visit his sister in Puerto Vallarta, but would go with Sue and Roy along the way.

Busy day with hot springs, caves, and waterfalls!

The tour buses began arriving at 7:00am. This is a popular spot, and especially so on holidays and long weekends. And they kept coming, all day long.

First thing we did was that I drove Sue and Roy's van down to the lower parking area before it got too busy down there. Roy would have had a tough time doing the climb up to the parking area where the rest of us are, and their vehicle can fit into a normal parking spot.

Yet another adventure for the group!

First off, let me address the craziness going on in the world. We do not talk about politics, our health, or the news unless it affects our travels. So far, what is happening in the world has not affected our travels. In fact, if it weren't for the internet we wouldn't even know about it.

And so that's all I have to say about it for now. If that changes, I will be the first to let you know! But for now, it is business as usual here at Travel with Kevin and Ruth.

Back to our regularly scheduled programming...

One of the prettiest campsites in Mexico

We were happy at the place we had stayed Wednesday night, and would have been prepared to stay another night. But Ruth and I had found a better spot just a couple of kms down the road. The sign at the entrance had said it was a community campground and it was 50 pesos per person to camp overnight. But there was nobody around and the gate was wide open. We had paid 200 pesos per rig where we were, so not only was the place down the road better... it was also cheaper.

We set off at 9:00am for what would be a very short driving day!

Yet another beautiful campsite in the mountains

We left the little ejido village of Tuliman right at 9:00am. Our host Josue insisted on leading us out of the area and up to the main road. Really nice people.

We were headed up to Mineral del Chico National Park.