Turnkey Camping

Today brought our family's first organized tour.  The bus loaded up at 8:45 am and we headed about 10 miles south to a natural phenomenon called "La Boufadora".  This means "The Blowhole" in Spanish.  On the way, we saw large circular nets out in the ocean that companies use as fish farms for tuna.  Our tour guide told us that she loves food and that while we are here, we should follow the Mexican "T" diet -- eat lots of tacos, tortas, tortillas, tequilla, Tecate and tamales.   We were there for about two hours.  The way to the attraction was lined on both sides with market vendor stalls.  The kids had their first experience with souvenirs and bargaining.  Jude bought an obsidian necklace (I guess obsidian transports you to the Nether in Minecraft) and Lucy bought an embroidered blouse.  Pradit cautiously saved his money until he finds just the right thing.  I found a sticker for the door of the Airstream.  Stu finally had his ...

We are camped out at the Villareno Campground in Punta Banda - it's about 25 miles south of Ensenada and has a wonderful access point to the beach.  The group had an all day winery tour but we opted out to have a day of recharging and restocking.   We intended to start at Walmart but then realized that they open at 11 am on Sundays and it was only 10 am.  We opted instead to visit a local Costco to "kill time".  One of our caramates joined us and it was fun to see what Costco is like in another country.  It all felt very familiar -- with the exception of the prices -- but a friend taught us an easy way to estimate the conversion rate.  You remove the last number in pesos and divide what is left in half.  It may not be exact, but it helps you calculate the approximate price quickly. Because of limited storage space, we didn't go crazy at Costco.  We found a few helpful supplies and then moved on to regular groceries at Walmart.   Onc...

​ Our morning started early in anticipation of a  9 am departure. We rolled toward the dump station around 7:30 — after eating any remaining fresh produce before we crossed into Mexico. We were each assigned a placement number in the convoy and we use radios to communicate along the way.  The border crossing was fairly uneventful. They requested vehicle and trailer registration and did an interior and exterior inspection of the truck and trailer. We were given the green light and we followed three other trailers into Tecate. Mayhem quickly ensued as we were told by our local guide via radio communications to “take a right at the park”. We did as we were told, but the three trailers in front of us didn’t get the memo in time, so we suddenly found ourselves solo in Mexico with no real idea of where we were supposed to head. We heard a radio transmission saying to “follow signs to Ensenada” so we did just that. Thankfully a Green Angel suddenly appeared - a green and white Ford r...

The Airstream caravan group met up in Potrero yesterday (Jan 26).  It is a beautiful spot - the road to get to the county park was a little dicey pulling the rig!  I figured it was good training ground for what we will experience in the Baja.  It was a curvy mountain road with lots of semis traveling.  There was also a border patrol checkpoint because we were very close to Tecate.  Can you see our blue location dot? We arrived around 3:30 pm - just in time to get set up and join our fellow caravaners for happy hour.  Everyone is so nice!  We had a simple meet and greet.  Four of the couples have previously been on Airstream caravans to Mexico through the same tour group, so we feel like we are in excellent and capable hands. We spent today doing schoolwork and running errands.  A quick trip to Walmart, a stop for lunch and Starbucks (thanks for the gift card, Aunt Carol!  Even Buster got in on the action with a "pup cup").  The afte...

One more night of boondocking for us -- this time inside Joshua Tree National Park.   We stayed at Cottonwood Campground in the park.  We had reserved two spots because of our total rig length and I'm so glad we did!  Our sites were both sort of pull-offs along the road, so it was a little nerve wracking - but it all worked out just fine.  We put a pizza in the oven and watched a family movie.   In the morning, we headed to the visitor's center to learn about the layout of the park.  It ended up that we were at the southern entrance and the actual Joshua trees were in the central park of the park.   Our best course of action was to hitch up and take the camper through the park to see the sights.  This plan worked out great and we thoroughly enjoyed the scenery as we drove.   We are now on California Hwy 10 headed to our Caravan meet-up point in Potrero, CA.  We can't wait to meet up with our new friends!

We had two great nights boondocking in Lost Dutchman State Park.  It is seated right at the base of the Superstition Mountain range.  For non-campers, boondocking means you do not have "hook-ups" which are the water, electricity and sewer connections.  Our rig holds about 40 gallons of fresh water and is equipped with solar panels to help charge our batteries -- so you can run smaller things like a phone charger, but you can't run the microwave (poor Lucy!) or a coffee maker unless you hook up to a generator.   This was a great chance to test our systems and get used to having more limited options -- like we often may in Mexico.   The park has "generator hours" from 8-10 am and 5-7 pm - so that was helpful for making breakfast and dinner!  We ended up finding out (with lots of trial and error) that one of our rooftop solar panels is not functioning.  We thought it was the "solar brain" (controller) and replaced that, but our batteries were st...