Annual MexicoTrip

When you walk into Mexico it said that one should go early and leave early . That way the line to get BACK in the USSA is short.
Well not yesterday, I entered Mexico at 10am.
Checked on a couple of blankets, went to the pharmacy, went to the liquior store.
Everything was going good except there is a law that liquor cannot be sold until 11am, now I had 45 minuted to kill.

I walked around the streets for awhile, looked at all the stuff they say is made in Mexico and is actually made in China or South Korea, I had my Jeff Dunham " Walter" hat on, the vendors thought it was worn out, wanted to sell me a new hat (hey I paid to have it look that way) :)

I then visited the garden and took some pictures. (they don't worry about so called terrorists, you can take all the pictures you want, walk right in at the border, no one is even there to say HI :)

I Took pitures of this the first time I was down here with Ash's grandparents, thought I would do it again. (after-all I have the time)
The story of the not quite matching walls.
The Pavilion is one city block square, during construction it was deided to build an arched wall across the center. They decided to start on each side and meet in the middle.
When they got close to the center, it did not quite line up so they stopped.
Maybe they should not take so many siesta's, or have a better boss man, it does give the place some caricature, they did finish running the electrical and water lines.

This is inside the pavilion a very large TIKI hut

I finished taking pictures and still had about 30 minutes left, went bak to the Mexican blanket store, haggled for awhile, finally bought 2 blankets (they are so warm)

Back to the liquor store still waiting for 11am. I checked out the store more and waited (with everyone else)

11 am came and I had our yearly supply of the Good Tequila for margaritas..

The so called short line at 11am to get back to the USA was a block long now.
So it took 45 minutes standing in line to get to one of the 3 customs folks checking passports.

After leaving Mexico, back home to the trailer

 

Hanging out in Yuma Az

Left Quartzsite on Sunday and took my time to get to Yuma,

Met up with Willy and Irma when I pulled into sleepy hollow (some call it sleazy hollow), there are many empty spots especially in the full hookup areas.

Took the following day to set up ... more on the  stay later..

This is meant to be in all good fun to the RTR'ers

How many RTR'er'er'ers does it take to install a solar panel ?

owner of van

After two days they were getting close

The install was all done with pretty much assorted hardware that we all could round up in our junk boxes of parts and some creative engineering, the install worked out very well ..

Tiki Bar Night

Pheasant Nuggets, and Tiki Bar in the desert using off grid power

Everyone had a good time (only 4 birds fed everyone)

Since we could not get local stations to watch the football games, I hooked the satellite radio, and listened to the games on the radio.

We had about 22 people attending..

The weather for this day was very good

Rubber Tramp Rendezvous

Sunrise this morning at Quartzsite Az

A little breezy this morning, got up early to take down the awning, (because of the wind) the wind charger is hummin' along.
It is about 64* and max of 25mph gusts at 8am

Looking for a good spot to camp

Young couple showed up yesterday to attend the RTR. Verry interesting to talk to, I will have more on them later, it is a work in progress. But I like it.

Camp this morning during sunrise

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couple of folks wanted to see some pictures of the inside

It is still a work in progress but a nice start

 The rig is hers, she wanted something that would not fall apart.

The motor runs on many fuels, currently the are running on a mixture of gasoline and used motor oil

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Today is the first day of the rv show, quite a croud,

A friend Ken is about 7 ft tall he took the picture

The winds have been blowing all day, this evening the wind changed direction and caused dust storms
maximum  wind speed today was 45mph

Rocky Goat has his own blog

Our mascot for the International Order of Rocky Mountain Goats now has his own blog

http://rockygoat.blogspot.com/

We were using facebook, but found it to be a PITA
Plus with a blog no signing in is required..

Rocky is about to go on some new adventures this winter  hope you enjoy

Merry Christmas

Cody is moving so fast all of the time, it is hard to get a picture when we are hunting

Libby, guarding HER bird

On behalf  of  Our Family to yours ...  Merry Christmas

Chris & Brandon

Baby it's cold outside

We have developed a solar aeration that we hope to sell a few of:

Our first prototype has been sold and I agreed to deliver it to (of all places) Pagosa Springs, Colorado.. on the Colorado New Mexico border (30 miles south of Pagosa Springs, Colorado)

The weatherman (hint .. fed. gov. worker) predicted 1-2 inches of snow and a low temp of 21*

Yeah well right.. Below are the so called 1-2 inches of snow going over Wolf Creek pass around 3pm in the afternoon

 Not too bad at first

 At the top pretty close to white out conditions, now I now how helpful the poles on the edge of the road are:

I arrived in Pagosa Springs around dark, Oh, did I mention I was pulling the camper trailer ?

On the edge of town there is a restaurant ( Junction Restaurant) that has a large parking lot.  ( the only one in town with a large lot) I found out later ..

Last night the temps were not quite too cold about 19* but cold enough to freeze a 3/4 acre ponds some.

This morning I met with a couple of nice young fellas that are going to help with the installation.. ( especially the part of putting the diffuser in the water.)

We had breakfast at the Junction Restaurant, headed out on a 30 mile trip south toward the little town of  Chromo 

Parked on the side of the road unhooking the trailer, so I can go up the trail to install the solar aeration unit

before picture of the pond we are installing 2 diffusers into .. Looks a little frozen to me, I took this picture while the lads went after THE boat.

While they were gone after the boat I unloaded all of the parts and panels for the system.

The ice is about 1 1/2 inch thick .. this is going to take awhile ...

 

This about as far as they got after much hard work but it was good enough for me.

Right after this, the battery in the camera died, so I hooked it up to the solar and charged for a  bit, hopefully enough to take a couple more pictures..

 

 The guys helped with the assembly of the solar unit and were very good help, hopefully they will be intalling more units in the future, in this area..

 

I left the area and the guys told of another way back to Walsenburg without going over Wolf Creek pass,

 

"Go south to Chama down the road and take a left,  it will take you back to Monte Vista "

Well Chama is another 20 miles south into New Mexico ..  pretty drive at 30 mph  on snow packed roads..

 

The cool thing was I have never driven in this part of the mountains before,.. went past

The Cumbres & Toltec Scenic Railroad     Station

I really want to go back and take that ride someday. The old train station and R/R town look like fun..

 

So instead of going over Wolf Creek, we went over LaMarga Pass, talk about a deserted road.. saw about 3 cars on the whole ride over the pass, all snow packed another 30 - 40 mph drive. (but pretty)

 

Around 5:30 made it to Walsenburg and am stopped in the only truck stop for many miles hanging out with the furnace running alot .. It is about -7* below zero and is predicted to go to -10* tonight.. Not as bad as  in Alamosa which is predicted to go to -20*

That is the travel adventure for the last couple of days.

Awsome video of the west

Landscapes: Volume Two from Dustin Farrell on Vimeo.

To get the full experience, be sure the video is in HD mode, the sound is on, and view it in full screen mode — you won’t be disappointed:

I also let it load completely to get a smooth video:

There are some spots that I have camped at in this video

Rocky Goat

Chris and I belong to a group called the International Order of the Rocky Mountain Goats.

During the last outing we have the honor of taking our stuffed furry friend (Rocky) on adventures during parts of the year that we are traveling. Along with other members of our group. The Longs Peak Herd.

Rocky will be our ambassador for the goats this year, and if he behaves himself he will become a member of our group at the next Wadi in 2012.



Meet RockyGoat















Rocky's email ... rockygoatsob@gmail.com

Rocky's Facebook Page

Some pictures and folks from Smokin' on the Beaver







Mascot Beaver











Looking back at the area where most of the participants will be smoking

I arrived on Thursday a day early, to get a good spot







The beginning of our set up on Friday morning, the bar is coming together






Total set up done Friday afternoon







Let the cooking begin



These guys from Nebraska cooked with wood only







Some folks cooking below, click on pictures to enlarge them































The toys and peddle cars were back




























Gal from the local newspaper, she was taking pictures of us.
So. I took a picture of her











Saturday night there was a Husker game, we moved the bar and had sports bar night