It ONLY took 4 months!

It took us 4 months to catch up with Trent and Teresa but we finally succeeded!

If you are a regular follower here at a life made simple those two names may sound familiar to you! Yup the very same Trent and Teresa that I link to now and then.

I started following their blog - Trent and Teresa Canadian Snowbirds - just over four months ago as they were just heading out on their maiden voyage to the South! 

They came from the east - we came from the west - since we left Canada at the same time and took our time coming down we were usually at a similar latitude. Then we headed to Texas and they headed to Texas! How great I said to Derek - we'll be able to meet up with them soon!

Nope!

It was a bit sad as I watched them go south as we headed north.......after all this time 

we totally bypassed each other!

Well that was a few months ago. After Texas they headed over here to Arizona and after our fairly lengthy jaunt over to the deep south and Florida - and back again - we did too. 

And so - yesterday - we were FINALLY going to drive right by where they were camped! 

Here are the pics from our very enjoyable afternoon together! It was a very welcome respite and fellowship with brethern, we have been feeling a bit low since leaving Texas.

The cooks - well - Trent really - Derek was keeping him company.

The girls - nice for us to get some girl time in.

A great picture - one of my favourites!

And if the visit wasn't enough - TnT feed us - royally! They treated us well - tutoring us on the fine art of the afternoon happy hour that many snowbirds participate in. It sure felt great to sit and enjoy their company after many days of travel.

It was SUPER great to finally meet people we feel we know so well but have never met. Teresa and I are still working past the weirdness of having the same name - with the SAME spelling....

Teresa - without an H

It only took Cassia a few minutes to warm up to TnT - the gifts that they had picked out for Cassia of course helped break the ice with her! What a lucky girl! As Trent mentions in his blog, Cassia gave Teresa a chance to pour out the grandma in her! It was nice for me to girl talk with Teresa about their travels, the fun of small RVs and her kids and grand daughter.

All to soon the sun began to set and we had to move on to find an overnight place. Back on the trail west. We landed in Gila Bend - one of our favourite places since we have a history here.

Thanks for visiting!

Teresa 

Today's Interesting Link: The first time Derek and I stopped into the unlikely town of Gila Bend was way back in 2006. It was our first trip down south - we hotelled it for the whole three weeks! Probably the most memorable hotel was the Space Age Hotel right here in GB. We heard then that it was designed by an ex Nasa Engineer!

Ralph Epperson

While in Tucson we had arranged to meet up with Ralph Epperson! He was kind enough to come meet us at the Home Depot which was a bit of a trip since we opted for a HD just off the Interstate.

By way of introduction let me first just inform you all - that yes - Derek and I - have done quite a bit of conspiracy theory study. Well - Derek really - but I do enjoy hearing what he finds. We don't get into it as much as we used to but we still like to keep our 'ears to the ground'.

And so when we put it together that we were going through Tucson and that Ralph Epperson lives in Tucson - well - how could we not try to meet this man in person.

I will let him introduce himself by way of his website - here is the link - Ralph Epperson.

The closest place to meet was Burger King.

Perhaps you have heard or read his book?  The Unseen Hand...it is quite well known. In fact when we mentioned to a few friends that we were on our way to meet up with Ralph - they both knew of him and his book.

And so we sat down with Ralph to get some info first hand! He only had an hour to spend with us but it sure was nice to talk about the latest goings on in the world and his view of them related to his studies on conspiracy.

You can find out about it yourself with a visit to his site.

All to soon and we had to part ways! Thanks for the coffee and chat Ralph - we are glad we could get together! By the way for all of you on facebook you can also find Ralph there.

Teresa

Today's Interesting Link: We first head about Ralph from our friend Bruce Collins of The Bruce Collins Show now Fringe Radio. We had listen to him discuss Jesse James - which was truly fascinating. 

The WINDS of change

Tuesday morning we left Pancho Villa State Park and headed north to Deming. Along the way stopping at the our first Border Patrol Inspection Station. These stations are a common sight in southern areas but since we have been mainly central PLUS in the deep south we haven't come across one until now. But oh do we remember them well from years past - spent a lot of time going through last year since we were stationed in Arizona and California.

Anyway - I digress...

We stopped in Deming to stock up on supplies at Walmart and then got back on I10 continuing our trip west. 

Bad news right away! 

WIND!

It was windy when we left Columbus but we didn't give it much thought other then being happy that we were leaving the dust storm.

Now on the interstate we were going nowhere - very slowly.

Because of the climb in elevation west of Deming and the wind we couldn't talk the truck into doing much more then 30 miles hour!

These billboards line the highway along this route - for about 100 miles they keep popping up. Obviously a marketing ploy. Blacksheep warned us about 'The Thing' which is at a souvenir shop - has anyone stopped to see what it actually is? Blacksheep?

Wow - I actually found something about The Thing when I googled it!

Well I couldn't really photograph the wind.....but it sure was kicking up the desert sand.

We were thinking that once we hit the divide perhaps we would begin a decent and that would help with our speed - no such luck.

Nothing important about this sign but when you watch a fairly barren landscape for about an hour something this colour really stands out - plus I just like the sign!

By the time we reached Lordsburg we realized that we would have to stop and wait out the wind. There was just no sense trying to push through it.

And so at about 2:30 we pulled in behind a berm between the Comfort Inn and McDonalds. A very strategic spot of course - we wanted to get on-line to check the weather.

70 km/h winds! about 45 miles/hour

Good thing we pulled over! even where we were it was a bit scary at times..the trailer really won't blow over

will it?

The severe wind alert was predicted to last until about 7:00 pm. By 5:30 we decided to leave and at least try to get somewhere for the day.

We ended up driving all the way to Tucson. The winds had subsided and the slope was pretty much all down hill.

Ahhhhhhhhhh.............back to normal.

We spent the night just north of Tucson at the Home Depot pulling in at about 9:00 pm. We were glad that we had driven through Tucson in the evening and not the next day during rush hour.

Thanks for sitting through a fairly boring blog post - but hey - it's part of the story! The windiest travel day we have experienced to date.

Teresa

Today's Interesting Link: Here's a great link I found a few days ago - strange that I didn't know it existed! I found it through Ayngelina's blog Bacon is Magic - Where profiled her. It seems to be a great site about Canada - good for Canadians and for our fine American visitors to see a bit of our country - eh!

Palomas, Mexico

Monday we went to Mexico!

From the Pancho Villa State Park it is a quick 3 mile drive south down the highway. Once at the border we parked in the lot and walked into Mexico. All very easy...

Since we had done this before we knew where to go. Well we sort of knew where to go. We knew where the Pink Store was - pretty hard to miss. 

It's PINK!

But we were looking for Dr. Karla - a dentist I had read about on the internet.

hmmmmm

Either this area has grown since we were here last or our memories are a bit off. 

So we headed into the Pink Store to see if we could get some info there. Good news! Dr. Karla's office is in the Pink Stores courtyard.

On we went.

Bad news - no openings for today - not until Wednesday. We didn't really want to stay in this area that long - it would mean paying for 2 more nights at the park. So we carried on.

The border crossing from the USA side.

Derek FINALLY got his boots shined in Mexico - he thinks about doing that each time we cross over - I'm glad it finally happened. 

While that was going on Cassia and I enjoyed our bakery treats.

Two bolillos and 3 pastries for $1.50. They were good but not great so we didn't go back for more even those the price was great!

WoW! George did a great job for $3 - we gave him $5.

Looking south into Palomas - NOT where tourists want to go. Best to stay near the border.

Pancho Villa Commemorative Statue.

George sent us to a dentist that was 'cheap' and 'fast'. Hmmmm that should have been a red flag I guess but 'cheap' works for us. So we headed on down to the dentist to find out it was $25 each for a cleaning. We knew that some of the others were charging $40. Well, we did get our cleanings - cheap and fast - a little to much of both we think now. What would we have gotten for the $40. We'll never know unless we try again next year. We weren't totally thrilled with the cleaning job but they are cleaner - sort of.

After that we headed back to the Pink Store. We had seen a guitar there for Cassia that we wanted to pick up before we left. The Pink Store is a one stop border shop. Every type of Mexican souvenir is here.  I'm so glad that I have probably bought each of the Mexican things at least once - I no longer feel the need to buy anything.

Cassia's new little guitar that she can practice on BEFORE the ukulele.

Since our groceries were pretty scarce back at the trailer (no stores in Columbus) we decided to treat our selves to a meal at the Pink Store. Very good and we were stuffed for $20 including the tip.

And so that was our little trip into Mexico for the year. Certainly much different then planned when we left home back in October. Back then we had big plans of driving to the Yucatan Peninsula! 

Later when Derek returned from his walk with Roofous around the park he mentioned that he had been reading on the bulletin board that the Mayor of Palomas had recently been kidnapped and killed, a man was found with a knife in his chest and thrown in the central square with the word narc on his shirt, and a pit with 20 bodies had been found just outside of Palomas.

hmmmmm - well not much different from most of the other stories we hear about Mexico.

Lots of people warn us about going into Mexico - and of course one has to be careful when they travel - but we have never had a problem in all the years we have travelled close to the border or have crossed over. 

We just wouldn't have gone any further then we did......

Hey - I just found another blogger who stopped in a couple of weeks ago - check out Chappy Trails for some more pics.

Adios!

Teresa

Today's Interesting Link: So - ready for ANOTHER cooking blog.....sorry - I just can't get enough of them! Can you believe I have 321 'likes' on my fb page! This is one of them - the blog Two Peas and Their Pod...

Pancho Villa State Park, NM

Pancho Villa State Park, I admit is a bit out in the middle of nowhere. It is along the southern border beside the very very little town of Columbus. 

Not a whole lot out here!

But it is a nice park and we enjoyed our stay here back in 2008 - and so we decided to return.

PLUS - for us it is close to the best border crossing into Mexico - to the town of Palomas and the Pink Store.

A whole lot of history here!

Pretty good prices - $14/night with water and elec. Probably the best showers so far with a HEATED bathroom.

Site #20 at Pancho Villa State Park.

The Pancho Villa State Park Museum.

The first thing I did when we arrived was to go see if the Book Exchange still existed. It is located in the Custom House right beside the museum. I was so happy to know that it was still there and I quickly went back to the trailer for my books!

Two of my favourite words during our travels!

Not too busy at the park this time of year.....most of the rigs park on the south side.

A playground for Cassia - we made many many trips there over the 3 days.

Camp Furlong Headquarters.

A few of Cootes Hill.

Looking south from the top of Cootes Hill - you can see our trailer in the center.

Wow - this pic looks a lot like the one we took in 2008!

We spent three days at Pancho Villa State Park - Saturday to Tuesday. Sure glad we had electricity as it was pretty cool and windy - particularly the nights. Sunday was cloudy and so we spent most of the day inside. 

Monday we headed over to Mexico - a mere 3 mile drive south to the border crossing. A well kept secret  as a good border crossing to enjoy a bit of Mexico!

Thanks for visiting!

Teresa

Today's Interesting Link: Have you heard of Pancho Villa before? You may have I think there is a movie or two out there about this man. Here is the link to learn more!

El Paso, TX to Columbus, NM

We were up very early Saturday morning - mainly because we were at a busy rest area for the night and how long do you really want to sit at a rest area come morning?

PLUS we had El Paso to do and we may as well get on with it.

I know I am going on about El Paso! We are not fans of driving through big cities. We hadn't drive through El Paso before and we really weren't sure what to expect. We probably blow these drives through cities out of proportion - they usually work out ok.

Was Saturday morning a good time? 

It actually all went well. We stopped at the Love's on the east side to fill up at $3.25/gallon - the cheapest we had seen in a while - back in Sonora they were asking $3.79 - sure glad we didn't stop there!

The start of the congestion - looks like they are building some new ramps.

Starting to get busy - this is about 9:30 am Saturday morning.

Busier - ramps. By the time you are through all the congestion you have driven about 30 miles!

The drive through El Paso reminded us a lot of going through Las Vegas.

Looking towards the Mountain Route we took back in 2008.

I10 comes close to the downtown so we got a chance to see it - would be nice to see the historic downtown El Paso but wouldn't want to have to drive to get there.

Just after passing downtown El Paso the I10 comes close to Mexico. This is looking across into Mexico - looked like a shantytown.

Yaaaa - made it through the worst of it!

Our exit off the interstate.

Derek and I began talking about our drive through here back in 2008 recalling the landscape. Pretty quickly off the interstate we cross from Texas into New Mexico.

See you later Texas!

The highway here is wide and pretty quiet traveling through the suburbs and into the country. Just as we passed the airport and were looking for our turn onto the #9 we came across this...

A VERY WIDE LOAD!

We sat back and watched as several vehicles tried to get their away around the truck. Obviously they were in such a hurry that they couldn't wait. A little grey car actually went up and over the median. The pilot truck tried to stop him but he made it through.

The road we were on either continued south to the Mexican border or turned west to the 9 to Columbus.

Derek and I recalled the wide load that we photographed back in 2008 right by the Pancho Villa State Park - it was a part of an airplane.

And then it dawned on us!

This wide load isn't going to Mexico! It is going to Columbus!

OH NO!

Our turn off and yup the trucks turn off also!

Watching him make the turn! 

 We travelled at about 30 miles per hour....that is ok we told ourselves - it's early - we are not on a schedule.

But after about 40 minutes and coming across the sign that said - Columbus 39 miles - we decided to pull off and have breakfast. 

We took about an hour to do so and figured that the wide load should be pretty far ahead by this point.

Back on the road - a whole lot of empty land.

The town of Columbus on the horizon.

And who should we come across pulled over for lunch - yup - the wide load. It looked like they had just arrived.

Just past this point is the entry to Pancho Villa State Park our destination.

We pulled in, set up and were happy to have arrived. 

Thanks for visiting!

Teresa

Today's Interesting Link: We have driven through or by El Paso twice now without stopping and visiting. I'm not sure that we ever will - the logistics of doing so are way above me - where would we park? how would we get the truck and trailer through all that traffic? and all the other things to think about. The web site looks great though - I bet there would be lots to see!