Recharged our Mexico SIM card for use in Canada!

I recharged our Mexico cellular account yesterday. I had let it expire at the end of April because I knew that we didn't need it while we were here at the park. But we'll be hitting the road tomorrow and so I wanted to make sure I was going to be able to recharge it online from here.

It turns out that it was fairly easy to do, but there are a lot of options and some are fairly expensive if you're not careful!

We are boondocking for the next couple of days!

Can you boondock in a developed campground?

Well here at Cabri Park you can!

We've been parked in a full hookup campsite for the last week and a half. And while it's been nice to have our electric heater on to take the chill off in the mornings, and have our fridge plugged into electric, and be able to use the office wifi... we really wanted to be parked in a nicer place.

12,410 days and counting...

On a Saturday afternoon in May of 1984, Ruth and I strolled down the aisle and said "I do"!

We had only known each other since March of 1983... fourteen months. Many people thought it wouldn't last! But here we are, after 34 years of wedded bliss!

Who reads our blog?

Well obviously YOU do!

I find it interesting to follow who is reading what, and where our readers come from. And, to see the continued growth of readership of this blog. Blogger (Google) is the hosting platform I chose ten years ago. I kind of wish I would have chose Wordpress because I've read that there are more options, but I'm not going through the hassle of changing it all now, especially since this is working fine for our needs.

While we were in Mexico, this blog achieved two milestones! Apparently there were a lot of people interested in our Mexico RV Caravan adventures.

Some pics around the park...

Windy day yesterday, but we still managed to get more cleanup done. Two out of five bathrooms are up and running, but they are calling for cool, windy and rainy today so it's not likely we'll get much done today.

I knew we were going to get spoiled with the great weather we had for the first week. Today, they are calling for a high of 11C (52F) and 13C (55F) tomorrow, then back to nice weather on the weekend.

Installed our weBoost Drive 4G-X RV Cell Signal Booster

A bit of a rainy afternoon yesterday so I took a couple of hours and finished the installation of our new weBoost cell signal booster. We don't get a very good signal here at the park, so I was excited to try it out here and see what difference it makes.

Heading up to the wilds of the Yukon and Alaska, we want to be able to share our adventures with you, and there aren't that many cell towers up there. So if this thing works as advertised, we should be able to get much further from a cell tower and still be able to get on the internet.

One week down, one week to go!

Wow, it sure seems odd to be working here at the park and knowing that we're half way through already! Mixed emotions though... we will miss the park this summer.

We had been doing really well on leaf cleanup, until yesterday afternoon when the wind picked up and changed direction. A storm blew in and swirled everything around. Fortunately, the leaves had already been removed and dumped, but even when it's cleaned up more leaves seem to appear out of nowhere!

We know how to deal with mosquitoes...

There have been several comments about the possibility of us encountering mosquitoes on our trip north. Yes, we hate those little bloodsuckers as much as the next person, and we would rather not be in an environment where the mosquito thrives... however we've dealt with them before, and we won't let them win!

So... we're going into this with our eyes open, and we are well prepared!

The plan for the next couple of months

We both belong to a facebook group called RVing To Alaska 2018. The people in that group sure do a lot of planning. We think it's kind of funny because there are some people there asking questions about their possible trip in 2019 and even 2020! I'm afraid we don't put much thought into our trips until it actually gets closer to the date.

And, it is getting closer. We start heading north on May 15th, so I figured I would begin looking at our route, and things to do along the way.

We had a visitor!

Spring cleanup continues here at the park. We've been really lucky with the weather, probably the best early May that we've ever experienced here.

We had a visitor the other day! It was a little bit funny, because neither one of us recognized her. She started off by saying "You probably don't remember me..."

And it was true!

Keeping Yourself Occupied on Long Road Trips

While travelling the length and breadth of a continent in an RV is nothing short of a thrilling adventure, the day-to-day reality can actually be a little bit different. Watching the landscape change while conversing with your travel buddy is one great way to pass the time, but even this can become tiresome surprisingly quickly.

Reflecting on our Mexico RV Caravan Adventure

We promised you all some insight into our Mexico RV Caravan adventure. And now that a month has gone by since we exited Mexico, it's a good time to give you some of our thoughts about that trip and what we feel about the possibility of us doing it again.

The trip was scheduled for 86 days. Just under three months. There were 11 other rigs, each carrying a couple. So including us, there were 24 people.

It's a good thing we have Sherman with us.

There are two water systems here at the park. One is used for trucked in municipal water, and it feeds the concession building, the house trailer, and the cookshack, as well as an outdoor tap for the campers. The other system is for the lake water and it supplies non-potable water to the washrooms and campsites.

Well normally, the first thing we do here is get the municipal water supply turned on to the house trailer because that's where we have been living the last four summers.

Received an interesting email yesterday

From Amazon Mexico.

You'll remember back in early March when we were stuck in Puebla and had ordered some parts from Amazon Mexico for the motorhome. These parts were purchased through Amazon Mexico, but sourced through Amazon in the United States, and then shipped to Mexico.

Well it turns out that we're getting a refund!

April Expenses - Yikes!

Well, we knew it was going to be bad.

We spent a record high $6,302 CAD ($4,950 USD) during the month of April. Yes, we spent a lot of money on motorhome parts and repairs, but even if we subtract that $3,493 we still spent $2,809, which would have been a high month anyhow. We're going to have to tighten our belts for the trip up to Yukon!

Our two year North America RV Adventure

Yesterday, we drove from Lafleche, Saskatchewan to Swift Current, and then to Cabri Regional Park. In our mind, this completes the first quarter of our two year RV trip!

We left Ottawa on November 16th and picked up the Mexico RV Caravan group in Mission, Texas on January 6th. From there, we toured Mexico for 86 days, and then have spent the last four weeks making our way from Texas back to Cabri Regional Park.

Back in to Canada!

We weren't originally planning on crossing the border yesterday, but with an early start and several other factors, we decided to make a late day border crossing.

We've been battling the winds the last few days, and it is usually the most calm just after dawn. So we got up when the sun did, and began driving immediately.

Another great free campsite!

We left the Gillette Airport at just after 9:00am yesterday. Beautiful blue sky all day long and with a temperature of about 75F (24C), it was just about perfect.

Heading north out of Gillette, it is coal mining country. We had seen the long trains full of coal that run the rails along the highway south of Gillette, and it was interesting to pass by some of the facilities that fill the rail cars.

Heading north through an accident scene

We said our goodbyes to our Boondockers Welcome host and headed out around 9:00am. First stop was the town of Douglas, about 65 miles (104 kms) north.

We actually wanted to stay in Douglas... I had read about a city park where they allow three nights free camping and have a water and dump station. We stopped in to have a look. One other rig there, but a nice park. If we didn't need to put some more miles on, we would have stayed and visited the town. Another time.

Installed our new Winegard RV Internet Antenna

They were calling for a nice day yesterday and our Boondockers Welcome host Sally had generously offered to let us stay a second night, so we decided to take a day off from driving. We'll have to make that up though with a couple of longer driving days because we want to be back at Cabri Regional Park for Sunday, giving us only four driving days to get there.

I took advantage of the beautiful day to get up on the roof and install our new Winegard Connect 2.0 RV Internet Antenna.

A chilly day exploring Cheyenne, Wyoming

Up early, and our Verizon cellular internet ran out and I'm not going to renew it because we're only six more days in the United States. If the price was reasonable, I would... but at $35 USD for 2 GB of data, they can keep it!

So we got up and drove into Pine Bluffs, NE where we parked outside the library and used the free library wifi while sitting in the motorhome and having breakfast.

50 Campsites, and we were the only ones there...

Yesterday, we continued north from Brush, Colorado into Kimball, Nebraska. Kimball is at about 5,400 feet and is very close to the highest point in Nebraska. But the municipal park campground in behind the fairgrounds wasn't the nicest and looked to be on soft ground and they were calling for rainshowers yesterday evening.

We carried on east a little bit to the Oliver Reservoir State Recreation Area where they have about 50 numbered camp sites... and it's totally free!

Who said there's nothing to see?

Sure, the scenery may not be fantastic, but there is still stuff to see if you look for it.

Yesterday, we drove from the Neegronda Reservoir north up to Brush, Colorado. No, it's true that the scenery is not fantastic. But there are still some interesting things to see along the way if you look for them!

It wasn't worth taking the chance...

Yesterday, we drove from Boise City, Oklahoma to a reservoir at the Queens Wildlife Conservation area just north of Lamar, Colorado. I had a few ideas of where we could park for the night, but there was a heavy rainfall the night before and many of the gravel side roads were still pretty soft.

We ended up walking in to what would have been a beautiful spot, but I was worried Sherman would get stuck!

As expected, that was an expensive repair bill...

Well, I had guessed the bill would be around $2,000 USD and it came in at $2,273 USD.

Of course that's hard to swallow, but it really becomes a lump in your throat because we have to pay for it with Canadian dollars... almost $3,000 Canadian dollars!

But, we have spent very little money on Sherman over the years so I suppose we were due for it.

Sherman is almost ready...

The first day they did the transmission service, tightened the power steering belt, installed new front wheel bearings, and new front brake pads. The front pads weren't terrible, but they had the wheels off anyhow so I figured why wait until they are terrible.

Yesterday, they installed the new inner and outer tie rod ends on the driver's side and had a look at the rear brakes. It's not easy with the rear brakes because there is only a little inspection hole unless you take the brake drums off. I told them to take the drums off so we could all have a better look. It's a big job because you actually have to remove the axles. I'm glad we did though.

Jack Sisemore's RV Museum

We left Sherman in the capable hands at S&L Auto and Truck Service in the east end of Amarillo and we took off in the rental car to do some exploring.

First stop was Jack Sisemore's RV Museum.

Into the city of Amarillo... and we picked up a couple of packages for you all...

We weren't in a huge rush to get into the city of Amarillo, but we did want to get there before the winds picked up. That would mean before 10am or so. We were a little later than planned because we filled up with water and stopped at the dump station before pulling out of Palo Duro Canyon State Park

Fortunately, the day started with a bit of a tailwind.

We took the detour, and it was worth it!

Woke up to the wild turkeys gobbling. We got up around 7am, and they were all outside, probably ten of them. The males had their feathers spread wide as they showed off for everybody.

I took some pictures through the window, but only one turned out half decent...

From one state park to the next...

We woke up at Caprock Canyons State Park, and went to sleep last night in Palo Duro Canyon State Park. Yes, making as much use of our Texas State Parks pass as possible.

We didn't have a cell signal at the campsite at Caprock Canyons, so we drove over to the interpretive building where they have free wifi. But as with most campgrounds, the public wifi is either not good to begin with, or if more than two or three people are using it, it's almost not usable. But, from that location I managed two bars of Verizon signal, so between the two managed to get the blog posted yesterday and some internet work done.

We got a nice site in the horse camping area at Caprock Canyons State Park

We were up at 6:00am yesterday morning and on the road at 7:00am in order to drive as much as we could without the wind, which was forecast to increase after 9:00am. And the forecast was pretty accurate in that regard. The winds did pick up, but at least it was a head wind... not great for gas mileage, but at least it was relatively comfortable to drive in.

At least until we got to the town of Turkey. After that, we had a minor problem.

Heat warning on Thursday, wind warning on Friday!

We had planned on leaving Paul's place at 9:00am in order to beat the worst of the winds, but for some reason we were a few minutes later than that. We knew the forecast was calling for wind, but it was supposed to be from the south so we were hoping for a tail wind.

Instead, it came from the west and we had a nasty cross wind that got worse as time went on.

Boondockers Welcome

Woke up yesterday morning after  a great sleep at Foster County Park, free camping for the night. Nice little park by the river, and quiet during the week, although I've read that it can get busy on the weekends.

One of the things we love about the transient RV lifestyle is opening the windows in the morning to see where we are! Yesterday morning, we had ducks and geese and turtles to see!

No logic at San Angelo State Park

We woke up to a beautiful sunrise at Menard County Park in our spot by the river. Didn't have to get an early start, so we puttered around on the free wifi and took our time getting ready to go.

But by the time we did leave, it was getting windy. We should have left earlier!

A perfect day

What a perfect day we had yesterday. Perfect weather, and a perfect campsite by the river. If we didn't have more exploring to do, we might have stayed even longer but we want to see San Angelo State Park today, and we have a booking with a Boondockers Welcome host tomorrow.

Spent most of the morning cleaning Sherman. Then after lunch, we took the kayak out on the river!

Yup, this will do for a couple of nights!

Knowing that it's still winter in Canada, we made a conscious decision to stay here in Texas as long as possible where the temperatures at this time of year are more suitable for human habitation.  If that means we have a few long driving days in the last week of the month, then that's the price we are willing to pay!

But, we still did some driving north yesterday.

March Expenses

Okay, have to post this mid day to get caught up. If you missed the earlier post, you can read it here...

http://www.travelwithkevinandruth.com/2018/04/not-thrilled-with-south-llano-river.html

We spent a total of $2,763 CAD ($2,200 USD) in the month of March. Yes, quite a lot higher than expected. Most of that was due to Sherman's breakdown, but we were also far higher in gasoline and toll road expenses than we would have preferred.

Not thrilled with South Llano River State Park

First thing in the morning, we drove over to the library in Junction, Texas to use their free unsecured wifi internet. I checked Verizon's coverage map... for some odd reason there is simply a huge gap in this area. Very strange.

But, at least we know it's not our device that's the problem.

Then, we did the short drive over to South Llano River State Park.

Very pleased with Junction, Texas

We weren't in a rush to leave Garner State Park, but we left our site at about 9:00am to drive through the park and down to the store where the laundromat is located. Haven't done any laundry since March 29th in Mazatlan.

That's also the last time we emptied our holding tanks, so it had been 8 days and we can normally go 10 if we're careful, so the grey tank was starting to get full. Probably could have gone another few days on the black tank though. Anyhow, we got the laundry done and emptied the tanks on our way out of the park.

Not that we would really mind if somebody stole them.

We rode our bikes over to the office again to pick up our windshield pass for our third night here. That was our morning exercise.

We then decided that we had better get some cleanup done to Sherman, so Ruth worked on the interior while I cleaned the bugs and grime off the front exterior. They were so plastered on that I had to use Greased Lightning spray cleaner to get them off. That, and some elbow grease.

Exploring Garner State Park

Woke up to a bit of an overcast day yesterday, and we didn't see any sun until late afternoon. But, it never did rain and the temperature was perfect to go out and get some exercise and explore the park.

Like I said yesterday, it's a big park so every time we go anywhere on the bikes, we know we're in for some exercise. That's okay, because we were kind of lacking in that department over the last three months and we need to get ourselves back in hiking condition because we're planning on doing lots of hiking and biking over the next six months!

We are liking Garner State Park!

Yesterday morning, we did the short drive from Uvalde to Garner State Park. Amazing how much the scenery changes when you get into Texas Hill Country. Of course it's called Hill Country for a reason... there are hills!

We wanted to arrive at Garner State Park early so that we could enjoy the day there. Plus, we had read that it's a big busy park, so we wanted to ensure a good site. In fact, Garner State Park is the most popular state park for overnight camping in all of Texas. Turns out we had nothing to worry about!

Knock, knock, knock... "It's the police..."

Got on the road early yesterday morning, and headed to the Carizzo Springs Walmart to do a big grocery shop and use their free wi-fi. But the Walmart in Carrizo Springs is just a basic Walmart store without much of a grocery section.

We did some internet and bought a refill card for our Verizon mi-fi so we can stay connected to you all for the next four weeks in the U.S..  Only bought a 5 GB package for $60 USD ($77 CAD) so we'll try and make that last. Still have some data remaining on our Telcel SIM card, and it's supposed to work in both the U.S. and Canada, so we'll see.

We are now into the United States!

But boy, they don't make it easy. Having been to 34 different countries, we have crossed a lot of borders. The United States makes things the most difficult.

And of course we have to put up with the border circus because it's part of travel. But sometimes it just makes you shake your head. Such as it was yesterday.