Welcome to Chihuahua!

Just couldn't sleep in yesterday morning and we were up before the sun. That's okay though... it gave us more time to enjoy another beautiful day!

We made plans to leave here with the group at 10:00am and walk the 3 kms (1.8 miles) to the historic central area. We wanted to go to the big Telcel customer service center... but we weren't sure that it would be open. Turns out that it was a statutory holiday here in Mexico and a lot of things were closed.

Fantastic first day in Mexico

We were on the road at 7:00am just as the sun was coming up. We won't always start that early on driving days, but we always plan to be at our destination by 2:00pm at the latest. That gives us lots of daylight hours to fix any problems that might arise along the way.

And, we did have a bit of a long drive ahead of us, as well as crossing the border. And you never know how long it will take to cross a border. Yesterday's border crossing turned out to be very interesting!

Meet this year's Mexico RV Caravan group!

Woke up this morning to a spectacular sunrise. I went out to take a couple of photos, but they really don't do it justice.

We had some hot drinks and breakfast, but it wasn't long before we had to get to work. I replaced one of the roof air vent covers, and then there was a steady list of things I had to get done.

The gang is all here!

Woke up to blue sky and sunshine yesterday and that's the way it was all day long. Definitely our best day for weather since we arrived here in Texas.

It was going to be a busy day. Ruth and I both had a lot to do getting Sherman ready for his big adventure. But, you can't let a beautiful day like that go to waste, so the first thing we did was to set off on a hike!

Sherman is raring to go now!

One of the reasons we arrived in Alpine, Texas a little ahead of schedule was to try to get some minor maintenance done on Sherman. We had a bit of a tough time finding someone willing to do the work. They were all either too busy or they couldn't fit Sherman inside their shop.

On Wednesday, I rode my bike over to BAM Complete Auto Care. I explained to the guy what I needed done, and he said "if you show up at 8:15am and can leave it with me, I will get it all done that day".

What did it cost for our last minute 20 day trip to Peru?

Note, the following prices are in Canadian dollars...

Flight tickets on Air Canada Rouge were $659 return per person. Not a screaming deal, but not bad either considering it was from Ottawa. So we spent $1,318 on airfare.

We flew into Lima and stayed there a couple of days before taking the first class bus to Huaraz. The return trip cost $90 per person, so we spent $180 on transportation in Peru.

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Wandering around Alpine, Texas.

The Lost Alaskan RV Park is located 1.5 miles (2.4 kms) north of the center of town. The temperature was still below freezing when we set out on a walk to see some of the town.

We were also still looking for a mechanic to do some minor work to Sherman, but we were not having any luck. I had made some phone calls, and so had Garth because he was looking to have some work done as well on his rig.

We just made it in time!

The weather forecast said that the front was to move in around noon yesterday, bringing high winds and a chilling drop in temperature to southern Texas.

So we got on the road at 7:45am trying to beat the storm to our destination in Alpine, TX.

We are moving along quickly

For several reasons.

We need to be at Alpine, TX to meet up with this year's Mexico RV Caravan group by Friday after lunch. That is actually the latest possible that we would need to be there. We actually had visions of showing up there on Wednesday just to give ourselves some relax time.

But, Sherman needs to get a couple of minor maintenance issues looked after.