Vinton, Louisiana

Our record of no precipitation has ended! We heard raindrops on Sherman’s roof last night for the first time since November 13th! That was a pretty darn good run of beautiful weather we had. But it’s over now. It was drizzling when we got up this morning, and it rained on and off all day.

Tomball, Texas

Had a great sleep at the Walmart in Beeville, Texas. A couple of readers (thank you Evelyn and John and Ellen!) mentioned Spring Creek Park in Tomball, Texas as a possible destination, so that’s where we headed.

Beeville, Texas

I went to sleep okay last night, but the loud music woke me up. Chris said later that it was after 3:30am when it stopped. So we were kind of tired this morning, but we said goodbye to Chris and Juan and still got on the road shortly after 7:30am.

Made it into the U.S.A.

Just a short note to say that our drive from Monterrey and our border crossing at Laredo were both totally uneventful. We are now in Texas. Not sure where we're going to end up tonight, but we will try and post a complete update later on today, provided we have internet access!

Potrero Chico (day 2)

A bit of a loud night last night. There was music coming from somewhere until the wee hours, not real loud, but just loud enough to be annoying. No worries, we still got up fairly early, and went for a morning hike.

Our route to South Carolina

Tomorrow (Sunday) we will enter Texas at Laredo. We plan on being in South Carolina a week from tomorrow, and that's about 1400 miles (2,258 kms), or 200 miles (322 kms) per day. Should be no problem, since we will stick to the Interstate for the most part, even though it's not our most favorite way to travel.

Potrero Chico, north of Monterrey

We didn’t leave our parking lot at the hotel until almost 10:00am, figuring that most rush hour traffic would have died down. It was still pretty busy leaving Saltillo, but we made it through with out issue…until we got to the outskirts.

Saltillo

We were up just before 7:00am, and after saying goodbye to Alejandra and Tonio, we were on the road before 7:30am. We stopped for gas on the outskirts of town ($0.75 per litre $2.83 per gallon) and then as we were slowing at a speed bump, we were flagged down by somebody.

Zacatecas (day 2)

Today was a relax day, especially for me and Whiskey. Our friend Alejandra had some errands in the morning, and of course her son Tonio was in school for the day. But she left us the key to her house, so we had showers and spent time on the internet.

Zacatecas

Around 9:20am we left Whiskey to look after Sherman, and walked to el Centro (downtown) which was only about a 15 minute walk. We’re on a busy street, and we wanted to explore some of the churches and buildings so it didn’t make sense to have Whiskey with us.

February living expenses and blog income

Well February turned out to be an interesting month in the finance department. It was actually our cheapest month so far this trip.

Aguascalientes

Got up just before 7:00am, and we were pretty much ready to go. Barb and Sal were at the gate ready to say goodbye when we drove out around 7:30am. We had a GREAT time at Hacienda Contreras, and we look forward to spending more time there next year.

Hacienda Contreras (day 9)

It was another beautiful blue sky day. We have had pretty much perfect weather for over three months now, and we just don’t get tired of that at all. We never left the campground today, instead we enjoying our final day here just puttering around.

Hacienda Contreras (day 8)

We didn’t do very much yesterday, but we sure made up for it today! Sal had to go into town to get some auto parts, so around 9:30am we hitched a ride with him and he dropped us off at the Los Cazos area the other side of the town of Mazamitla. Los Cazos is a pine forest subdivision that has cabanas (cottages) on cobblestone roads, and a trail that leads to a waterfall.

Hacienda Contreras (day 7)

Well, today was supposed to be our last day here, but the week has flown by, and we haven't seen everything we wanted to see yet. So, we're staying put another couple of days.

Hacienda Contreras (day 6)

The day actually started off very foggy and cloudy. But the sun started to burn through around 9:00am and once again it turned into a beautiful day. We had planned on another hike this morning, and once we saw the sun we decided to go.

Hacienda Contreras (day 5)

We just lazed about this morning, and in between spending time on the internet I did some more cleanup of Sherman (wouldn’t want to get it done all at once!) and Ruth did some laundry.

Hacienda Contreras (day 4)

Some of the campers were going with Sal and his mother to the Las Jaras hot springs water park about 45 minutes from here. It was back the direction we had come when we arrived here, and we remembered passing by it at the time.

Hacienda Contreras (day 3)

We had a beautiful day today, and it was a perfect day to climb to the highest point overlooking the valley. It was a little hazy, but otherwise the view was fantastic.

Hacienda Contreras (day 2)

Temperature inside the motorhome when we woke up this morning was 11C (52F), which is the coldest it’s been for us since mid December! Had to put on jeans and a sweatshirt!

Hacienda Contreras, near Valle de Juarez

Today was a driving day, so we got up at 7:00am and we were on the road leaving Maruata by 7:30am. We would love to spend more time there, and next year that will be in the plans.

Maruata (day 2)

Ruth got up at 7:00am and went right out to the beach to see if there were any big sea turtles still up laying their eggs. We had meant to try and get up earlier, since they don’t usually come up to the beach after sunrise.

Maruata

We slept for almost ten hours! Obviously needed some catching up in the sleep department! Felt much better, and we got under way around 8:15am. We only had 47 kms (29 miles) to our next destination at Maruata, but that could take hours on these roads…

Zapote de Tizupan

We got up at 7:00am, and got ready to head over to the big Comercial Mexicana grocery store. As I was out walking around Sherman to make sure everything was ready to go, who walks by but Wendy! She knew we were heading to the store and hoped that we hadn’t left yet so she could catch a ride. So we gave her a ride up there.

Zihuatanejo (day 4)

The day started off cloudy, in fact it was almost overcast. Seemed a little odd not to have the sun shining. But it didn’t take very long and the clouds had disappeared so that it was blue sky and sunshine again for the rest of the day.

blueskyscrubs.com

Don't ask me why I'm blogging about scrubs , because it seems like an odd website to review on a blog that is essentially about travel.

Zihuatanejo (day 3)

Valentines Day is apparently a big deal in Mexico, with lots of young couples walking around holding hands and carrying heart shaped balloons and stuffed animals and other gifts. We didn’t do anything special just for Valentines Day, but I think it seems like we do special things every day!

Zihautanejo (day 2)

Took Whiskey for a walk along the beach this morning, and then left her with Sherman while we walked over to the market. Didn’t bring the camera this time, so no pictures. Picked up a few fruits and veggies, as well as a tortilla press for our daughter Lindsey.

Zihuatanejo

We slept great last night, and we didn’t notice any cars pull into the parking area until a pickup truck pulled in about 6:45am and a couple got out and starting exercising! Around that time we got up and made coffee and tea and opened the blinds to a beautiful sunrise.

Piedra de Tlacoyunque

The waves coming in from the beach were crashing in so loudly last night that the force actually rocked the motorhome. I didn’t think that was possible, but it really did. We didn’t get to bed until almost midnight in the first place, and then we were woken up by the waves while it was still dark. Still, we didn’t get up until 7:00am.

Acapulco (day 3)

Well the reason we stayed here another day was to get some more cleanup done to Sherman. Ruth had a major bathroom and shower cleanup to do, and my job for the day was the carpet.

Acapulco (day 2)

Up early this morning and got caught up on the internet. Ruth did some hand washing and walked Whiskey on the beach, then we went grocery shopping.

Repairpal

So http://repairpal.com seems like it could be a useful website. They have a section called "My Car" where you can keep track of all of your repair bills and it also has maintenance reminders.

Acapulco Trailer Park

We didn’t rush to leave this morning because we knew it wasn’t a real long drive to Acapulco. Still, we were on the road at about 9:00am.

Playa Ventura (day 3)

After our morning walk on the beach with Whiskey, Ruth and I walked into town to buy a couple of grocery items, and a six pack of beer to help celebrate my birthday!

Playa Ventura (day 2)

We actually slept in this morning…didn’t get up until almost 7:30am. It’s funny, you would think the noise from the waves crashing in would bother you trying to sleep, but I think it actually helps me sleep. I was out like a light last night.

Back at Playa Ventura

We were up at our normal time around 6:30am , and started getting everything ready to go. By 7:15am, we went and woke up our friends in the house, and everybody came out to say goodbye.

Puerto Escondido (day 8)

Well today was a coasting kind of a day. We slept really well at Tracy and Jims, and they drove us back to Sherman around 10:00am. We knew Mary would be concerned about us not being there in the morning, although when we got back she had gone into town with Sylvia, her mother in law.

Puerto Escondido (day 7)

We like Puerto Escondido. It’s one of those places that we can’t seem to leave. We really should be heading back up the coast by now, but we’re still here. The first time we came to Puerto in March of 2009 it was supposed to be an overnight stop and we ended up staying for ten days.

Puerto Escondido (day 6)

Mary’s sister in law is from a small village about a half an hour north of here. We were told that they were holding a rodeo there today, so even though we thought it was a little odd to do something like that during the day on a Wednesday, we thought okay, let’s go.

Puerto Escondido (day 5)

We decided to go to the beach today. Ruth packed up some sandwiches and we stopped along the way to buy a roast chicken for takeout.

Puerto Escondido (day 4)

This morning, a woodworking guy showed up to build the tables for the restaurant. Why buy tables, when you can hire a guy to build them for cheaper. By the way, I found out that the guys who showed up yesterday to help with the concrete floor were each paid 200 pesos ($16.67) each for about six hours of pretty hard work.

January living expenses and adsense income

We had a pretty cheap month in January, only spending a total of $1,067. It's a good thing because for some reason our adsense didn't have a great month, with not nearly as many people visiting our advertisers, even though we had an increase in visitors.

Puerto Escondido (day 3)

Mary took Ruth into town today to do some shopping. Ruth wanted a new swimsuit and we are both better off if I don’t have to be there for clothes shopping!

Puerto Escondido (day 2)

This morning, our friend Mary and her daughter Nataly and her niece Danna came with us and we took the collectivo into town and did a grocery shop at the relatively new Bodega Aurrera store in Puerto Escondido. It’s not a very big store, and I don’t think it was well planned.

Return to Puerto Escondido

We pulled out of our spot at Playa Zipolite at 7:15am. We wanted to make it throught the tight streets of Mazunte before there was any traffic, and we did okay. Still, the first 8 kms (5 miles) or so was pretty slow going.

Playa Zipolite (day 7)

Well I guess it was a 24 hour stomach bug! I woke up this morning surprised that I had slept so well through the night, and proceeded to feel better throughout the day. Now, I feel just about fine, I think!

Playa Zipolite (day 6)

One thing I forgot to tell you about regarding the downside to RV’ing in Mexico. Every time that we have been here, we have picked up some kind of stomach bug at some point during our stay. Usually related to eating out…

Playa Zipolite (day 5)

We each went for our walks on the beach this morning. We pretty much have to go separately now because Whiskey doesn’t seem to enjoy it. It’s about a 2 km (1.6 mile) walk. Although she was a little more chipper today…I think she just wasn’t feeling well for a couple of days.

Playa Zipolite (day 4)

We don’t talk much about the downsides to RV’ing in Mexico because we feel the benefits far outweigh the drawbacks. But there are some minor issues that you have to deal with if you want to RV inexpensively in Mexico.