Baja California with the Z's - Day 1

 Before I start on day one of our Baja California trip, we left on Tuesday, February 21, to displace closer to the San Luis de Colorado I Border Crossing.  We stayed at the Cocopah Casino near the village of Somerton, AZ.

We were under a Wind and Dust advisory so the winds were blowing quite strongly!

Spacious spots, no amenities...

It cost $10 a night to stay in the parking lot dedicated for RVs.  For one night, it was fine though a bit noisy at times what with the Yuma Airport and Marine Corps Air Station Yuma next door!

OK, onto to Baja California!

Wednesday, February 22

Lori caught the sunrise for me:

photo courtesy of Lori Z.

Navigating to the San Luis de Colorado I border crossing point proved easy enough:

photo courtesy of Lori Z.

As we approached the Mexican border agents, they opened up a lane for us specially.  Documentation for the vehicles was checked, a cursory search of both our vehicles was conducted and then we were cleared into Mexico's state of Baja California.

We had to do a bit of circling to a good parking spot to enable us to leave the vehicles and go get our FMM forms stamped.  It's kind of like a tourist visa in our case and required.  Chris and I managed to fill our forms wrong online, failing to include our middle names, so we got to pay the fee twice.  Doh!  

All in all, we lost about an hour at the border with the FMM paperwork redo and payment and yet were on the way by 9:30 AM!

The streets of the border town of San Luis de Colorado:

photo courtesy of Lori Z.

photo courtesy of Lori Z.

We motored right through town and Google Maps got us through the route that ultimately had us exiting San Luis via State 40 and eventually to Federal Highway 5.

Chris Z. was driving their overlander rig, Stewie, so Lori took pics as we drove along the 2.5 sometimes very windy hours or so it took us to get close to San Felipe.

photo courtesy of Lori Z.

photo courtesy of Lori Z.

photo courtesy of Lori Z.

photo courtesy of Lori Z.

photo courtesy of Lori Z.

photo courtesy of Lori Z.

After an hour stop at a pullout along Federal Highway 5, we found a nice spot close to the beach by the Sea of Cortez.  It's north of the outskirts of San Felipe and we had the place to ourselves.

Looking west, you can the dust blown up into the air

photo courtesy of Lori Z.

Our view of the beach from the Z's gazebo

photo courtesy of Lori Z.

Around 2PM I headed to a nearby market to check out their alcoholic selections.  We'd chosen not to bring any booze into Mexico to avoid any problems with customs you see.  The selection was, as expected, a bit weak and the beer was incredibly pricey!  888 Mexican Pesos for a 12 pack of Tecate!  I didn't get that needless to say.  

I did pick up a bottle of Jose Cuervo Tequila for a mere 320 Mex Pesos though, pretty inexpensive.

As I walked outside I saw this:

A quick text exchange with Lori Z. and I went and bought 9 tacos for 35 pesos each.  (I think this was the Gringo price and I didn't even try to haggle).    I'll have to learn!

I returned to camp with no issues, and we had us a late second lunch:

photo courtesy of Lori Z.

3 Tacos with Care Asada and 6 al Pastor (pork)

photo courtesy of Lori Z.

yes, that's a smile...dammit

photo courtesy of Lori Z.

Our first Baja California Sunset was OK:

An Easy Couple of Days + Drone Footage

 Sunday, February 19

Easy day today for me while Chris and Lori Z. decided on another chore in Yuma.

I did do a slow bit of hiking, looking for more abandoned mines for about an hour.  But otherwise it was just relaxing while the small amount of laundry I did, dried in the hot sun.

The Z's returned from Yuma bearing KFC chicken for dinner.

Monday, February 20

I repositioned the Uma's rear license plate from the right side behind the stock RV ladder over to the left side.

This is to make the tags easily visible (it wasn't before).  I don't want to give Mexican police an excuse to stop me while in Baja California later this week.

Here's drone video footage shot by Lori Z. today:

We'll head towards Somerton, AZ tomorrow in order to be closer to our planned border crossing station.

Chore Day in Yuma and Finding Abandoned Mines Near the Campsite

Friday, February 17

I rode as a passenger in Chris and Lori Z's overlander Stewie into Yuma to get some chores done.

We went to the storage yard and put away some stuff belonging to Chris and Lori that they did not need while in Baja California.

Next, we went to a FedEx print shop to print out documentation we had missed during the first round of printing.  I had missed printing out the actual FMM form, and Chris needed to print out the proof of payment for his and Lori's FMM.

The pickup of the package from Martha went fine as did the pickup of the Amazon package containing my replacement lens for the Sony A6000.

Then things got  annoying. While grocery shopping at Walmart, I went to stock up on RV toilet paper and there was none to be had!

I realized at that point that having so many RV campers in the Yuma area resulted in a lack of available RV toilet paper at Walmart even though I tried two different Walmart locations.  Finally found some overpriced TP after lunch at an RV dealership.  

I need to find, for the long run, better alternatives to RV toilet paper.  Septic tank TP will apparently do fine.

We got back to the campsite, and everyone was exhausted from all the people we had to deal with and be around today!  We also got more evidence of how many of the drivers in Yuma drive like idiots.

We were glad to be back in the desert!

Saturday, February 18

A pretty easy day today.  So much better to be out in the desert than in a crowded city!

I tried relocating the carrier for the TW200 from the front of the VRRV to the rear hitch point.  That went fine but the spare tire is in the way, so back to the front of the VRRV went the carrier.  I did reposition the front license tag so it's visible from the front, removing a possible excuse for police to pull me over while in Baja California next week.

After lunch, I went for some riding on Yagi, the TW200, and found an abandoned mine entrance not far from camp:

The BLM has barred access to the mine

A view past the bars....

View from near the mine entrance:

I returned to the hill I visited before, it still reminds me of a ziggurat. I was planning on walking to the top again, but some OHV swine showed up and ruined the mood.

I rode back to camp and relaxed with the Z's inside the gazebo for a while.  Later on, I went walking to the north of the campsite after taking this picture:

Found a couple more abandoned mine entrances in the hills pictured above.  The pictures didn't come out right, but just imagine man-sized holes in the ground, carved out of the rock.  The entrances had barbed wire strung on metal posts barring entry.  The obstacle really wouldn't stop the fools who'd go down these old mines.

I would be back up in among the mine-laden hills when the sun set, it's the weekend so there's more campers, more OHVs racing about raising large dust clouds and filling the air with noisy engines.

A Solution for Windy Camping Conditions and T'Dubing to a Nearby Mining Hill

 Wednesday, February 15

Well, we survived the "high wind advisory" conditions from yesterday.

Today, there were still winds but much milder and without dust storms.  It was chilly wind though, even with the sun shining down through clear skies.

I broke out the shade I'd bought that connects to my RV's awning but gave up on that effort as the winds rattled the awning once I started deploying it.

It was while debating whether to attach it to the RV to act as a windbreak by itself that Chris Z. remembered they had a pop-up gazebo!

In minutes, he had dug it out of deep storage and we were deploying it on the leeward side of the VRRV, which was the right side rear corner of the motorhome.

We were all amazed, once sitting inside the gazebo, how effective it was in blocking the wind using the optional solid material panels which are secured to the outside of three of the six sections which compose the gazebo.

We also all wished that this gazebo had been remembered and deployed earlier in our trips, say at the Indian Bread BLM area for instance.  Oh well.

Local desert Flamingos came visiting.

We spent the rest of the day, lounging in warm comfort, within the gazebo.  It was great, the blowing winds were blocked and I even spent some time lounging in a t-shirt and shorts!

Thursday, February 16

A milder day today in terms of winds but more time in the morning sitting within the gazebo made the winds moot.

I rode Yagi, my TW200 Dual Sport to a nearby hill with what looked like a trail to the top and some old mining wood structures.

I walked up the trail, no way I could have managed to ride what was horrendously rutted conditions filled with large loose rocks and gravel!

Above you can see the end of the trail leading to the top.  I elected not to scramble up the boulders to the very top.  

Here's some of the views from the top and on the way back down the trail:

Can you spot our rigs?

Some kind of mineral/rock processing plant?

One of two similar mining structures on this hill.

As I returned to camp, I stopped for this picture of our rigs at the campsite:

The rest of the day we spent either doing chores or resting in the gazebo.  We go into Yuma tomorrow to retrieve USPS/Amazon packages and other chores.