GrampaKoot
Fruitvale BC Can
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Joined: 05/24/2004
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Our trip with La Penita Express Caravan
On Oct 27th, 18 rigs (34 people) crossed the Border at Lukeville. Two thirds of us had arrived at Ajo a few days early and drove to the border and got our TIP’s and Tourist Visa prior to the 27th. Two had pre arranged their TIP’s online.
Because some still needed to visit the Banjercita we had to wait until 8am to cross. The two who had pre arranged online one had to visit the banjercito for their tourist visa and the other had to have the whole process redone. They even removed the sticker they had sent him and gave him a new one.
The entire paperwork process took about 2 hrs per person. So you can see that if all had to go through the process we would have been there all day. As it was, getting there at 8am, and only having 5 needing to get paperwork done, we were on the road by about 11am and made it to Santa Ana by about 4pm.
Much discussion has taken place among us and I believe it fair to say that for the group, the consensus would be, to ensure all paperwork is done the day before (including tourist visa) and thus avoid having to wait until 8am to cross. Getting though the Lukeville border crossing before 8 am makes it possible to reach Guayamas by late afternoon.
We are now in Mazatlan and our last night before arriving at La Penita. We have not had a single vehicle search, or been stopped at any checkpoint and saw no sign of any military activity anywhere.
Trip from Mazatlan to La Penita was uneventful, no searches on that stretch either. We split up just before Tepic. About half of us going through San Blas. Those with larger class A’s and air brakes, and some with confidence of not overheating their fifth wheel brakes went the Tepic hill way. As a newbie driving a class A, I found the narrowness of the road the most challenging of the trip. I made the mistake of giving up the middle of the lane to a semi truck and the jerk cut me off once he was half way passed me. Came so close to loosing it I won’t make that generous offer ever again.
At La Penita we all got settled in no time. Carol & I got an awesome site, #121, right next to the beach. It has been hotter than hades, 90+ and humid. The pool here is huge…been using it 3 times a day. A bunch of us worked about 3hrs to set up a wifi circuit. We now have good wifi at all sites. There is a proviso that once park fills up we may have to restrict our times to ensure everyone gets some time online.
Power is only 15 amps but have been managing to keep moho livable with fans. My EMS power surge protector has been kicking power off every night around 9pm and coming back on around 6am. Fortunately our 4 deep cell 6’s system keeps fans and my CPAP going overnight. We have been anticipating that as park fills up we would have less problems but we are now well over half full and last night EMS shut off at 9pm and power just came back on at 8:30am. During daytime my EMS shows 127-130 when it kicks out it shows 132-134. It’s doing it’s job.
All in all we are truly enjoying living our dream. The green foliage, the floral variety, the hummers, the surf…we truly are in PARADISE.
* This post was
edited 11/10/11 09:22am by GrampaKoot *
GrampaKoot says...la vida es corta para añejar el vino
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