The Road South

By now readers, who follow this column on a regular basis, realize that we travel south of the border into Mexico about 600 miles to a place called Bahia de Conception on the Sea of Cortez. When I say “we” I mean, My wife Kathy, my dog T.S. and our 21ft travel trailer “the Turtle”.

All of us have made the trip before, several times; however the conditions continue to change and this trip had to be one of the rougher ones on record.

Actually crossing the border was a breeze. We had the pickup truck packed to the roof with supplies and the old 1969 Idea trailer had practically been rebuilt with new tires and wiring by our friend Dave the Tire man who greased the axle bearing good before we hit the road again.

We felt confident we could make the trip, however we had received some disturbing emails from other friends who had travelled south. They told about torn up roads and one deep pot hole which cost the front tire on at least two other vehicles.

So our travelling was slow and we made sure to stop well before the sun went down. Driving at night can be particularly dangerous because of the narrow roads and the speed of the trucks.

Frequently you have to play “chicken” with on coming trucks to make sure they realize how much of the road you need. You start on the middle line and then move over to allow them to pass as they get close; otherwise they will take the middle line and maybe part of your side of the road too.

We have had it happen and its scary but so far has not caused an accident.

Just as we had been forewarned, there was a construction zone south of Ensenada that was two mile and hour road and it lasted about a half an hour before returning to black top,. The Turtle took it in stride.

The second patch of bad road which was supposed to be just before we arrived at Catavina, had already been repaired because we looked for it and nothing appeared.

Still we spent the night expecting more bad road the next day on the way to Gerero Negro.

We weren’t disappointed as the road split in half and our half was dirt and loose sand making travel hard to almost impossible. We do have four wheel drive and decided to use it to get through the worst part.

Then we realized everyone else would have the same problem and would be driving slow, so we took the high road which still had some paving on it and was much easier to travel.

Unfortunately the bad road took its toll and just as we got back on good road, another vehicle passed us and was waving for us to pull over.

To our surprise the holding tank to the toilet of the trailer had broken loose and was laying down on the roadbed. What a mess and there was new slick surface on the road behind us.

By chance we had thrown a piece of sailboat rope in the rear of the pickup before leaving the valley and we were able to tie the remains of the holding tank into place.

It was not far to the next town where we hired a mechanic to weld a brace on the trailer and repair the holding tank. Only $100 for the time and effort. This would have cost $500 in the states and then the environmental control people would have been after us their white suits. But not in Mexico.

When we arrived the next day at our home at Conception Bay we found that same trap had almost done in our neighbor who’s Prius got stuck in the sand. She and her passenger had been lucky to get help from as passing truck driver who had his whole family with him.

He stopped and the family literally lifted the Prius out of the sand pit.
Other than that, the trip was uneventful. We never saw the giant pot hole and the

Turtle bounced its way into the parking lot by our home, no worst for wear.

We were greeted by 96 degree weather which was perfect for taking our first swim in the ocean.