MA to AZ and beyond

[rob cote]

Wednesday morning it was slightly cool inside, with the breeze coming in through the window by our heads. Away from the window, it was much warmer. No real relief. We took a walk around before it got too hot outside. We brought our passports to get a couple color copies made nearby. I had considered how to fix the Starlink issue that I'd completely botched after putting it away. I came up with an idea. I could just follow the traces on the circuit board and solder the ethernet wires onto the board individually at their next termination point. Conveniently, they all connect to the pulse transformer, which is right next door. I put some freshly charged batteries into my soldering iron and tinned a wire. And I could absolutely not get anything to stick to the terminals on the transformer. Bummer. Perhaps if I had some flux, but I'm not even sure where to get it around here, or if it's available. I don't know the word for it, either. It was kind of a long shot anyways, but I had to try. It's not like I could brick it even more. What's it gonna go from not working to still not working?

I cleaned up my mess and we headed out. We were prepared to make a somewhat long driving day, so we set out towards Minatitlan, which was about 5 hours away. Just under. We got on the road and followed the coast for a while through a lot of small towns. The trouble with this sort of route is, while it's very pretty, there are zillions of speed bumps. For some reason, this one in particular is a major trucking route, too. So we had to constantly slow down for the topes, but the trucks we were following did, too. This made the going very slow. And we hit a section where the road was reduced to one lane with alternating traffic. We waited a while for a long line of trucks to pass by in the opposite direction before moving on.



Eventually, we got to an actual highway. We cruised for a while, but then traffic came to a standstill. We put the van in park after it became obvious we were not moving any time soon. Eventually, cars started shifting around, and some people ahead of us were getting off the highway to take a side road. I was just watching them, but then a trucker waved for me to cut across in front of him as well. So, I was like what the hell, let's try it. We drove perpendicular to the highway for a couple miles, then turned left to continue parallel to the direction we were headed on the highway, then left again to head back towards the highway. Unfortunately, that road only went to a bridge and didn't actually connect to the highway. So, as we drove over it, we could see that there was no traffic in either direction, but we couldn't get onto it. We continued following a line of cars on another speedbump-filled road. Luckily, it runs parallel to the highway, more or less, so it took us the direction we wanted to go mostly. It was just a lot slower than if we were on the highway. And since we didn't have internet access or maps in the navigation unit of the van, we couldn't get route guidance. We were truly kicking it old school. Absolutely winging it. We knew how Lewis and Clark must have felt on their expedition. Eventually, thankfully, we came to an entrance to the highway. It was blocked. A little while later, we found another that wasn't blocked. Success! As soon as we merged onto the highway at the end of the on ramp, traffic stopped. It soon became clear that we were not moving shortly, so we put the van in park. We kept it running because it was about 95F outside, so we wanted air conditioning. After a while, though, we noticed truckers out of their rigs and milling about the highway. We decided to shut it down and open the windows. It wasn't awful outside, but far from ideal. I asked a trucker next to us if this was normal? We knew there was a checkpoint ahead that the internet says is often backed up, and assumed it was traffic from that. The trucker told us there was actually a large accident ahead and it would be quite a while before we could continue. Mint. I hopped on the bike and rode ahead to see what it looked like. I counted about 60 truck-lengths ahead of us to the front of the jam. I couldn't see much, it just looked like one trailer jackknifed across both lanes, but it didn't appear much work was being done to move it. I rode back and reported to Mandy. We were starting to get hungry, so she heated us up some leftovers while we waited. I stayed in the driver's seat, just in case. We ate and she cleaned up, and we were getting ready to watch a show on the tablet when things appeared to begin moving ahead. We'd been there for a total of two hours and change. Honestly, it was the ideal situation to be in a traffic jam; we had a toilet, food, functional air conditioning, comfy seats, window covers to block out the sun. With a good internet connection, it could have been 10/10.



Anyway, we kept driving. As we passed by the accident, we saw that there were several other cars involved that I wasn't able to see beyond the trailer. I think there were 6 or 8, and they were all pretty severely damaged. Not sure what happened, but hopefully everyone involved was okay. It didn't appear like that was the case, but we can still hope. From there, the drive continued as we had originally hoped. The checkpoints were quick, and there was no more traffic or missed turns. We arrived to a restaurant - Los Mangos - where we'd read they allow overnight parking. We got a table and a couple menus. Loki was even able to join us, which was nice. And he was mostly cooperative. We each ordered a beer and tried to order food. There was an issue with the food though, that we couldn't quite understand. For some reason, we would have to wait an hour? It wasn't clear if we had to wait to order it, or if it would be that long before they started preparing it, or perhaps it would be ready in an hour? My Spanish isn't that good, and we weren't really interested in eating after 8:00pm. We weren't really even that hungry, we just figured we should give them some money for letting us park, and that the food would probably be good. We drank our drinks, and then went back to the van to sleep. It had been a long day; the van said 8 hours of run time, plus however long it was shut down for. Not a fan. We went to bed sweaty again.

 

[rob cote]

Thursday, we continued driving pretty much straight away. Loki took a quick walk around, and once he was back inside, we hit the road. We drove towards Orizaba, even though we wanted to get to Oaxaca. It's actually the shorter route, because to drive straight west goes up over a mountain pass and it's apparently a slow road. It looks shorter to go straight west, but Google says it's not. So, we drove north. We stopped along the way at a fuel station to fill up and I went inside the Oxxo to recharge the Telcel SIM. What a trip. We've done it online, which is quite simple, provided we have internet access. Doing it in person was a challenge. At first, the cashier wasn't sure if I needed a card or already had one. Then, I got that sorted, but had to select how much to recharge it with. The options are basically a dollar amount, and you have to just know what it includes. I just picked one in the middle. The cashier needed something, but I didn't understand what. Money. She needed payment. Oh, right, of course. I finally got it all figured out and put in the number and everything was all set but man I felt like such an idiot. She was laughing though, so I guess there's that.



We continued driving. We got off the highway in Orizaba but continued for a while thereafter. We actually stopped driving in a tiny town nearby called Zapoapan. We stopped at a really cool spot - Balneario La Cotorra. Situated between some mountains on a high plain, this spot is around 2500ft above sea level. The evening forecast was finally going to be comfortable for sleeping. We were greeted by Jorge as soon as we arrived. Somehow, he knew what we wanted to do, without us even asking. He didn't speak any English, but he spoke slowly enough and enunciated clearly enough for us to understand what he was saying, which was great. He had us park and walk the property with him. He showed us all the spots we could park, which was basically everywhere. He showed us all the pools, which are clean and natural, with no chemicals added. He gave us access to the WiFi, which was surprisingly fast. He showed us the toilets and showers, and then left us to our own devices. We parked alongside a large pool and walked around a bit. Loki went in up to his chest, because there was a nice easy ramp into the water, with no waves. His favorite!



We debated doing some swimming ourselves, but it just wasn't super-hot outside, which was amazing. We didn't feel a strong desire to go swimming. Instead, we just relaxed outside for a change. It felt like it had been forever since we could do that. As we were chilling there, I got another idea I knew wouldn't work to fix the Starlink. So, I tried it anyways. It's not like I could make it worse, you know? We have a couple containers of super glue, so I tried to affix the wires with super glue where the solder wouldn't stick. I at least knew the glue would hold, but I doubted that I could ensure a solid connection between the wires and the terminals. But I wasn't doing anything else so...Of course, it didn't work. But it did pass some time. And if it had worked...But it didn't. Oh well, it was free to try.



We wandered around all the pools, and by mid-afternoon all the other guests trickled out and we were left with the place to ourselves. We cooked some dinner and didn't overheat inside the van which was amazing. Steaks with caramelized onions and roasted carrots.



Then, with short notice, a heavy rainstorm rolled in. We closed up everything fast and hung out inside. It's cozy inside when it rains and it's not too hot to be comfortable. Of course, the rear doors are still leaking. I took a peek at it and I'm like 99% sure that the cause of the leak is the screen across the rear doors. It really seems to be coming from the fabric inside of the door gasket. Oh well. There's nothing to be done about it that I can see. And it doesn't really get anything besides the screen wet. I'm pretty sure the screen can handle it. We love having the screens, so they'll stay. We can just deal with it.

The rain passed through fairly quickly, so we were able to open things back up again afterwards before winding down to go to sleep for the night.

 

[ocdiver]

I hope all is well. It has been a month since your last report.

 

[rob cote]

Thanks for checking in. All's well here. Just been a combination of busy and lacking the motivational juices to sit and write. I'll catch you guys up in just a minute.

 

[rob cote]

Friday, we made a big push all the way to Santa Maria del Tule, back to El Rancho RV Park which, if you've been reading long enough, you may remember we visited before. A couple months ago, we were at this spot, just south of Oaxaca, for four nights. This time we stayed for about three weeks. I'm not going to write every day. Honestly, at this point, I couldn't. But also, it would probably be boring. We didn't fill all that time with exciting stuff. We had tons of downtime, and it was great. I did write you guys for a few days while we were there, but then I kind of lost interest. I felt like I was being somewhat anti-social by holing up with the laptop for hours a day. It's a wonderful spot to be social with other travelers. It's an awesome combination of setting/layout and people. Most of the RVs are arranged in a large field. There are separate sites, but only a small fence or some thin shrubs, or sometimes nothing at all divides the sites. It's very easy to just walk up to another site, or get pulled into a conversation while you're just passing by through the field. And it seems like the people that stay here tend to welcome it.

It's definitely one of our favorite campgrounds we've ever stayed at. As evidenced by it being our longest stay in one place ever. And the fact that we returned to it for a second visit. We arrived on the same day (or the day after, perhaps?) as Michael and Layne, who we'd met briefly last time at El Rancho, and again when we were entering Belize. They're lovely people. So, it was neat to see them again there. We were also ecstatic to be out of the heat of the previous couple weeks. The weather in Oaxaca is just perfect. Michael and Layne offered us a ride to Tlacolula de Matamoros on our first Sunday there, since Sunday is market day there. We wandered around the market there for a few hours with them and Greg and Duwan, collecting some items we wanted and more than our share of delicious food. I was stuffed on the ride home, but everything was SO TASTY!

Who are Greg and Duwan? So, they've got a rather interesting, if unfortunate, story. They arrived to El Rancho in January, limping a Ford Transit that wouldn't shift out of second gear. Through a series of parts shortages, shipping delays, and incorrect diagnoses, they were still without a van when we arrived back to the RV park. And to add to their stress, they were approaching the end of their van's import permit, so they needed to get it out of the country soon. It has a happy ending though, because in the final hour, Ford was able to get the correct transmission, install it, and they got out of Mexico just in the nick of time, back into the USA.

Michael and Layne didn't stick around for very long. A handful of days or so. During their stay, they mentioned they had some issues with the air conditioning in their van's dash (not the rooftop AC that they also have), so Michael and I took a look at it. It seemed like a blend door actuator was acting up, because it would blow cold air, but only at their feet. We took off each actuator one by one and assesed them all and each seemed to behave fine. We put everything back together and it worked mostly as normal. They could get cold air out of the top of the dash, which is what they were after. We didn't even change anything, so I've no idea, but they were happy with the results. On one of their last nights at the RV park, they came across a street dog who was on his own. He didn't have a pack yet. And he was trembling all the time, because there were always other dogs around. They took him in and fed him and got him to stop shaking. They have an older dog, Rusty, who wasn't super keen about sharing his van with another dog. But Rusty relented for the few days it took them after their departure to rehome the street dog in Mexico City with some friends of Michael and Layne. So, he has a safe and comfortable place to live now, which is awesome.



Our friends Steph and Alejo, who we met the day we crossed from Baja to mainland, finally caught up to us while we were at the RV park. They are working full time, so their pace is much slower than ours. There's about 8 hours per day that they can't travel or explore their surroundings, so they typically move from place to place on weekends or do short drives after work. The advantage is that they can stay travelling for much longer than we can. We'll eventually run out of money. Everything has pros and cons. But in any case, it was wonderful to see them again. They spent a several days there, so we got to hang out with them after work a few nights and we met up with them in Oaxaca one day to wander the city and visit the market for some lunch. That was a lot of fun. They're both fluent in Spanish and English, so I took the opportunity to get clarification on a bunch of words and phrases that I wonder about. There's the way they teach you to say things, and then there's the way people actually say them, and I'd rather sound normal than be technically grammatically correct, you know? We also sampled a bunch of foods and drinks with them that we hadn't yet tried. It helps when someone can say, "Hey, what's in that drink?" and translate the answer. Our Spanish got much better with them around, though. And Steph is a hardcore planner, so she found a bunch of cool sites around the city to check out which we'd have otherwise missed.



There was also the night we went out to get dinner in Tule with Steph and Alejo, and as we were eating, Matthew and Stacey popped in. We were at Restaurante Reynita. Or Reynita's? Or Reynita del Tule? Something like that. It's an adorable little restaurant, half inside half outside, which is perfect since it rains every night. So, you catch a nice breeze, but the roof helps you to not get soaked. Anyway, Matthew and Stacey are travelling to Ushuaia in an old Land Cruiser with a Chinook camper on the back, and they stayed at the RV park a few nights. We were fast friends with them. Not sure why, we just all clicked. We expanded our table, and they joined us and got some dinner and drinks. We stuck around after we'd finished eating, because the conversation was great, and then we all walked home together.

Matthew and Stacey had an extremely typical experience at El Rancho. That is - they arrived for just a few nights and ended up staying way more than that. Stacey had been under the weather for quite a while, so they took a few extra days to chill and arranged a doctor's visit during their stay, to try to get to the bottom of what had her feeling unwell. When they left, she had a diagnosis, meds, and diet restrictions, so I think she's on the mend. They make pretty good YouTube videos, so we'll continue to monitor on there, and hope for the best on their journey. They're Toyota World Runners, if you're looking for some new entertainment.

Our first stay in el Tule, Mandy talked very briefly to Dita on one of our last days there. This time, we got to spend a lot more time with her, and her husband Ike. They're just the best. We had some great, deep belly laughs in the middle of the field with them. We clicked with them straight away, too. Like we were old friends, even though we'd just met. Dita is from the USA and Ike is from Israel, and they're working on becoming Mexican citizens and buying some land to build a home near Oaxaca. It's been a long process, but they're approaching the end, which is exciting. Dita is learning tattooing, so we offered her some opportunities to practice. Being able to get tattooed at home, outside, was an outstanding experience. Mandy got the flowers on her arm re-colored, because they've faded almost completely since that work was originally completed several years ago. Ike's working on music, and we got invited to a house in town where his band played their first live show. They were followed by Nasty Agaves, who are a Mexican punk rock band. So, it was a really interesting show, overall, and very intimate with just a dozen or so attendees.



Jordan and Abi were visiting from Milwaukee in their Big Brown Bus with their four children. They were ever-present for much of our stay, mainly because four children are always everywhere and impossible to keep up with. But they were all so nice and we loved hanging out with them. We had a couple fire nights in the communal area to which most of the entire campground showed up. It was totally spontaneous the first time, which was pretty neat. The second was planned as it was the night before their departure. To prepare their bus for leaving, Jordan and I spent a morning securing their generator back in place. It's on a drawer that got hit by a speed bump in the city on their way into el Tule. With some persuasion with the whacky stick and a beefy ratchet strap, we were able to get the drawer closed and secured such that they should be able to get home without issue. They were very appreciative of the help and paid us in beers. Depending how jobs line up for us in the states, maybe we'll head up to their neck of the woods this summer. We've wanted to explore around Wisconsin, Michigan, and Minnesota for a while, and just never have. Perhaps we'll see them again soon.

We met Hue and Sue, who are traveling in a Defender with a slide-in camper in the bed. They showed us their favorite camp-drink nightcap beverage thing, which was delicious. Just a shot of Baileys and hot water, like a Baileys tea. Sounds odd, but isn't. It's perfect for those cool nights in the mountains, too. We spent a few with them, chatting about travels. We've been where they're headed, so we gave them some pointers. We met Andres and Tamara, who are also traveling in a Defender, but their camper setup is a bit different. It was more integrated into the body of the truck, with a pop-up roof tent kind of thing. They were lovely neighbors, and a huge help, too.

 

[rob cote]

Although we spent a lot of time meeting and getting to know everyone around us, we also accomplished some projects, too. The most challenging one was sorting out our bricked Starlink situation. So, if you recall, it was disabled because the ethernet socket was ripped clean off the PC board inside the antenna. I'd tried soldering the wires directly to the pulse transformer, skipping over the traces on the board, but I couldn't get any solder to stick. Probably because I didn't have enough flucks to give. That's a double entendre. So, when we arrived at El Rancho, we ordered another Starlink, since our address was in Oaxaca already, and we wouldn't need to change it for delivery. When it arrived, I cut it open to mount it to our roof and made almost the same exact error as the last time. I was so upset. At least this time, I knew how not to resolve it. I cut open the window to access the PC board, and unplugged the cable from the socket, rather than ripping the socket off the board. I spliced on the mini-HDMI connector and got everything working as it should. It's a little disappointing about the window I had to cut into the PC board compartment, but it should be fine with proper sealing. Duct tape seems to be working fine so far. From there, I was finally able to finish that job and get it secured to our roof. Of course, we were parked under some trees at the RV park, so this severely hindered the satellite connection. Luckily, I had an idea from before I even began that would allow us to reattach the leg and use the Starlink as normal, on its stand. So, we tested that functionality, which performed perfectly. And we got some practice installing it to and removing it from the roof of the van, whenever we'd need to drive into town. It was finally fixed!



With that under my belt, I figured I couldn't make the other, original Starlink any worse. Right? Plus, it was essentially trash at this point, I was just too guilty to throw it away. So, after chatting with Andres for a while about his Starlink mods (at the park, he flat-mounted a brand-new unit, and converted it to run on 12VDC), he offered up some flux-core solder as well as some flux paste. I hadn't looked exhaustively for either, but I wasn't even sure where to look, exactly. I do miss the inherent knowledge of what-is-where when we're in the US. Never knowing where to find specific things is frustrating. Some things I don't even know if they're available at all. Anyway, that's beside the point. The point is that with the flux on hand, I was finally able to get wires to stick to the terminals on the transformer on our original bricked Starlink. And once everything was stuck in place, it worked! So, we have two complete functioning Starlink systems now, and I'm not sure what to do with the other. We sold one 75' mini-HDMI/ethernet cable to friends, and the Starlink is missing its leg, but it's ready to be flat-mounted using Everlanders roof-mount parts. We've been trying very half-assedly to sell it as a kinda-janky-but-totally-functional kit. I dunno if anyone here would be interested, but I'd rather not throw it away.

Another project I took on during our stay related to the refrigerator. As you know (or maybe you don't, and that's fine), our fridge has issues. Before Belize, it was getting warm inside the fridge. But it was getting warm outside, too, so it was hard to tell at first if it was in fact a fridge issue or not. Ultimately, it got hot enough in the fridge that we could be certain. We were able to get refrigerant added by an awesome dude named Moses just outside Belize City. That got the fridge cold again, but the compressor never stopped running. I monitored it for a while and turned it over and over in my head. My best theory was that it had juuust enough refrigerant to get cold, but not quite cold enough to meet the setpoint and kick off. I thought, if I just had some hoses and a manifold with gauges, I could add refrigerant myself. So, I ordered some on Amazon.mx and they arrived very quickly. I got some refrigerant locally and added it to the system. After studying the high and low side pressures, I suspect we may have a partially clogged expansion valve. But the important thing is that the pressures are only just outside the specified ranges, and the compressor cycles on and off like it should now. That's a huge load off our batteries and should allow us to park overnight for more than one night at a time, now, without them going completely flat.

View attachment 783754

The main reason we were at the RV park for SO LONG, though, was a simple engine oil change. So, I'm not a hardcore oil fanatic, although I know those people exist and I take no issue with that. I just don't care as much as a lot of other people do. I also recognize it's a divisive topic. But our approach so far has been successful, so we're sticking with it because it's what the manufacturer recommends. MB spec. 229.52 oil at 20,000mi intervals. It's kind of pricey oil, but the long oil change interval makes up for it, and it's actually quite cheap to maintain. And easy. So, we hunted for the proper oil long before we arrived in Oaxaca. I was able to find it in a couple places for way too much money. About $350. Since we knew we'd be staying put for at least a little bit, we ordered some from Rockauto instead. Even including shipping to Mexico, it was far cheaper. Rockauto got the oil sent out straight away, and it arrived in Mexico in two or three days. We got a notice from FedEx that they needed information from the shipper documenting what was inside the package, and they also requested a payment method for the customs and import fees from us. That totaled over $120 and brought the order total to nearly the over-the-counter Mexico prices we'd seen. But, whatever, we were still saving about $40 or so. But then, they never charged us for the customs fees. And the tracking info never changed. It still hasn't. The oil has been in Toluca, MX since the 16th (OF MAY!!) with no change. Finally, it had been stuck for so long that Rockauto authorized a refund because we never received the package. Once we got the refund issued, we drove to AutoZone and bought the way-too-expensive oil and I did the change. Luckily, I'd had the foresight to bring a filter, so I didn't even have to go down that path because who knows what that would entail.

I also filled a lot of downtime with detailing the van inside and out. We cleaned the whole interior. I washed the whole exterior (except the roof because it sucks without a proper ladder). I checked suspension hardware for tightness. We routed the Starlink cable through the inside of the van and tucked it behind panels all the way, so you can't see it anymore, let alone stand on it. I hated that. I stretched (almost) every day. We walked dog a bunch. We visited markets in Santa Maria del Tule, Oaxaca, and Tlacolula de Matamoros. We ate delicious foods. We tried new drinks. We ate so many nieves! We bought local handcrafted goods. We stocked up on mole paste and powder for the long road ahead. We watched epic afternoon thunderstorms. We relaxed. We had fun. We enjoyed each other's company, as well as that of our new (and old!) friends. In short, we had an amazing time, and we are both excited to move on AND sad to leave Oaxaca behind. It honestly feels like we were there for six months. Arriving feels like so long ago. We dragged our feet leaving, in part because nowhere else could be so awesome. Of course, we were wrong.

 

[rob cote]

We left Oaxaca on Monday, June 5. We took our time in saying goodbye to everyone who was left at the RV park. Dita, who has been there several months now, told us that the crowd ebbs and flows. Sometimes it's packed and everyone is super friendly and there's constantly people to hang out with, and then other times it's a lull and the whole place gets pretty quiet. After we left, there was one more RV that was leaving in a day or two, which would leave only a handful of RVs left in the whole park. It was bittersweet, but the time was right for us to drive.



We made our way north towards Puebla. It's a gorgeous drive north, and we were pleased to find the northbound lanes in much better condition than southbound. We were expecting a bumpy, noisy ride. The route surpasses 8600ft over a mountain range and while we were at that elevation, we encountered a pretty severe hailstorm. Certainly, the most intense hail either of us has ever encountered. It was a radical shift from the mid-80s-and-sunny weather when we exited Oaxaca. The hail actually accumulated a few inches on the highway, and traffic slowed to a crawl. Our hood got annihilated. Oh well. We were just happy that our headlights and windshield - and Starlink! - all survived without any damage. Damage to those components would actually mean something. The hood is really just cosmetic.



Anyway, down the other side, the weather cleared up and we inched ever closer to the formidable Popocatepetl. Affectionately, Popo. It has been increasingly active lately, and the roads up the mountain blockaded for safety. Puebla has been getting dumped on with volcanic ash. But, it was our normal limit of 4 hours driving away, we knew it was a safe place since we'd been there before, and most importantly, it should be reasonably cool. Unless of course it filled with liquid hot magma. But we took that bet.

We stayed at a different place than last time in the city; this time, we parked at Victor's home. What a host! Victor is quintessential Mexican. He and his wife Nora live in a small, gated community and have a tiny driveway. They pulled their car out so we could park in the driveway, and they parked on the street for us. The opened their home to us, and their hearts. We felt so welcome straight away, it was just perfect. They are looking to move into an RV and travel the world in the next few years and so had all sorts of questions, which we were happy to answer. Victor sent us a whole list of places to see around Puebla. We asked him specifically about foods to try. What's specific to the city? He told us to try Tacos Árabes. Arabian tacos. These are very much like tacos al pastor, and yet, entirely different. The meat is roasted on a vertical spit and shaved off, just like al pastor. But the seasonings are totally different, with garlic and onion dominating the flavors. The taco is filled with just pork and onion, and then rolled into a pan árabe. Literally Arabian bread. It's like a small pita bread, I guess, that's the best analogy. So freaking tasty.

We originally set out in search of a specific spot Victor recommended to us, but we soon found it was closed. Within the next block, we found a vertical spit on the sidewalk outside a small restaurant, and we asked if they were making tacos. Yes! We ordered two each and took them to go. By the time I finished mine, we had to circle back to get two more for me because they were just so dang good!



It was just as well we turned back towards Victor's house, because a massive thunderstorm was clearly about to open up on us. We got back to the van just as the first sprinkles were beginning to fall. As the door closed behind us, a deluge fell, punctuated by intense thunder and a fantastic lightning show. At times, I think because of the landscape perhaps, it was difficult to tell if the noise was thunder or Popo erupting. Somehow through it all, we found sleep.

 

[rob cote]

Tuesday morning, we spent some time working on video before the day got too hot. Victor hung out with us a while when he wasn't working. We hadn't really planned to stick around for another night, but after talking with Victor about his lovely city, we decided it would be wise to explore more. Based on his recommendations, we came up with a plan. We headed towards the zocalo and found a spot to order some churros and a coffee. Loki was being a little rambunctious, so it wasn't quite the relaxing morning coffee and churros we'd hoped for, but it was perfect enough. By the end of it, he was getting really antsy, so I took a walk with him through the park while Mandy cashed us out. We had intended to wander around the zocalo more, but Loki cut that short for us. The air and the ground were getting toasty, so we stuck to the shadows and made our way back to the van. We are always struggling with wanting to show him the world and see it for ourselves and fighting against his homebodiness. He only wants us all to be at the van at all times.





So, we used the opportunity to finish editing and posting a video. Since we had to just sit around there anyway. But eventually, we had more food touring to do, so we left him snuggled in the van and escaped through the gate. Victor had assigned us to try a cemita, and he recommended we share it. Cemita is a sandwich, and I feel like it's a misnomer because it's huge. -ita implies something is small. They should be called cemas. But anyway, it's a breaded chicken cutlet with an actual mountain of quesillo on top, an avocado, and chipotle peppers. The bread is basically an entire loaf. We also ordered a molote, which we were totally unsure of what it even was. We ordered it with mushrooms, though! The molote turned out to be very similar to an empanada, but very long and narrow. It was really freakin' good. The cemita was the highlight, however. That sandwich was one of the best we've had in quite a while. Oh boy. Now I want another. Sometimes I'm so hungry I feel like I could eat a whole one, but we were glad of the advice to split it. It's a huge sandwich. But it's outstanding. If you're near Puebla, seek one out. They're easy to find.



When we finished eating, the rains had come yet again. We scurried across streets and along sidewalks under awnings as much as possible as we made our way towards the market. We didn't really need to visit the market, but we knew it'd be a large roof we could stand under until the rains let up a little. Once inside, we opened up the grocery list, just to check. We ultimately picked up a few pieces of produce. Passing by a stand, someone offered us a gordita. Not sure what it was, exactly, other than it contained potatoes, we bought one and split it. It was pretty good, but we agreed it'd be better if it was still warm. It seemed to be mashed potato and cheese mixed together into a patty and then deep fried. So, it was far from bad, obviously. The temperature was the only complaint, it was just about room temp. Warm would have made it perfect.



Moving on, we made our way generally towards Victor's. We needed some nuts and chocolate chips, which we just happened to find in a display window at a candy store. We stopped to pick those up too, which nearly completed our grocery shopping. So that was a score. Sometimes chocolate chips are hard to find around Mexico. And cashews, too. Peanuts are super common, but cashews not so much. Anyway, as we continued walking, we found the spot Victor had originally recommended - Tacos Vehkem - to get tacos árabes. Of course, we had to try them to compare, since he claimed they were the best in the city. So, I'm not sure if this is just me, or if this is a common thing, but when I try a food for the first time, it typically stands out as the best version of that food. Every time it happens, I believe a little less that I'm just getting that lucky. It must be some sort of phenomenon. Or I'm just weird. Anyone else? Anyway, these ones certainly weren't bad, but Mandy and I agreed last nights' were better. Maybe it's just the excitement of something new.



After tacos, we headed home to dog and to chill. We didn't do much the remainder of the evening. We walked Loki a short walk, but stayed close to the van because of the ever-present threat of rain. We got back inside before we got wet, and cozied up for the evening to listen to the sounds of rain on the roof. Again.

 

[rob cote]

Wednesday, we were more confident in our decision to leave. We weren't in a hurry, though, and we ended up talking in the front yard with Victor and Nora for a while before hitting the road. They were just so nice! We're excited for them to hit the road, they're going to have a wonderful time. From Puebla, we drove to San Miguel de Allende. It had been highly recommended to us by so many other travelers, and it was forecast to be somewhat cool at night. We drove straight through and arrived late afternoon. We checked into a tennis club/campground, which is a rare mix of businesses, but strangely works. Because Mexico, I guess.

We hadn't really planned any dinner for ourselves, so we set out to find a grocery store for something to make. The place we had navigated and walked to was mostly made-to-order food, but they did have a small selection of groceries. All the meats were frozen, and everything seemed very expensive. So we moved on to find a different grocery store. Somehow, there were almost none. Ultimately, we were too hungry, so we stopped at Taqueria Los Originales because they let Loki sit with us outside. We ordered several tacos and horchata. The staff were fluent in both English and Spanish, which felt odd. We were so accustomed to Spanish only, or very little English. We did almost all our communicating in Spanish, though, just out of habit. Everyone was super friendly and the tacos were delicious. Loki even mostly cooperated.



Afterwards, we found a small grocery that had most of what we needed. I got all the things I could that were on the list, and we headed back home. We opened up the van to let it cool off as much as possible before getting in to go to bed. We met a couple of the fellow campers at the tennis courts and they were pretty friendly. We chatted a while as the van aired out before getting inside to go to bed.



Thursday, we planned to stick around and explore the town for the day. We weren't eager to push on towards the weather further north, which we knew would be scalding hot. We hooked up Loki and took him for a morning walk into town. We wandered mostly aimlessly for a while. Mostly, we let him decide where to go. Eventually, we wanted to have a goal, so Mandy selected Office Depot so she could buy some notecards. She has to begin studying for Florida's pharmacy law exam in order to get licensed there, and her preferred study technique involves extensive notetaking. So, we walked to Office Depot.



It was much farther than we anticipated it being, but we eventually made it. We weren't looking forward to the walk back, though! Luckily, at least, it was all downhill. It was quite hot, though, so we took our time. We finally got to the van and we were all pooped. We spent a while just chilling and giving our feets a break. We took showers at the RV park and continued our hang until we started to get hungry for dinner. It was too hot for either of us to want to cook, so we left Loki inside the van (it wasn't too hot or that, at least) and walked over to Pork Belly. It was the first restaurant we found. We let our inner Americans out and ordered a couple of burgers. They were so good! After dinner, we continued walking around, just a couple blocks. We stumbled across an ice cream shop, and decided we should go in and get one. It seems like probably a lot of English-speaking tourists visit this town, because everyone working speaks English and Spanish both. The woman serving ice cream tolerated our mediocre Spanish, and she spoke clearly and slowly, so we were able to have a semblance of a conversation with her. She was fascinated by our travels and was so curious about how we'd found Mexico to treat us. We told her that everyone everywhere had been just lovely and that we were a bit sad to be leaving the country soon. She was so sweet, and she gave us each an extra scoop of ice cream because we just had to try the pine nut flavor. I think she said she and her sister make the ice creams and the cones sold there. Either way, everything was really good, and we thanked her a bunch.



From there, we made the short walk home to doggy and we all hung out outside the van for a while until it got a bit cooler and then we climbed back in for sleeping.

 

[rob cote]

Friday morning we took a walk around the city to check out a couple churches we hadn't seen. We just wanted to see the outsides, so we brought Loki. We realized we'd been just nearby on the opposite side of the street yesterday and didn't even notice. We'd been distracted paying attention to the dog. Oh well. As it started to get warmer outside, we made our way back to the van, hopped in, and set off.





We drove to Matehuala in San Luis Potosi where it was h o t outside. We got some groceries, then check into a hotel which allows RVs to park overnight. Luckily for us, they have a large in-ground pool. We parked and made some dinner early so the van would have an opportunity to air out and cool down before we had to get in it to sleep. We ate and then hopped in the pool one at a time - because dog - to cool off. We gave Loki a bath and he was so hot he didn't even fight it he just stood there and accepted it. Afterwards, he wasn't even panting at all, so I'm sure it felt nice for him. Plus, it made his fur super suave.

We called some family just to chat for a while and since there wasn't much else to do. Plus, we weren't really inclined to do anything too active because of the heat. We need to just chill. Mandy wanted to let everyone know she'd officially accepted a job in Florida, so we were now dedicated to ending up in Florida. It's per diem, but they told her she should have access to full time hours. She's excited to work again. What a weirdo. Actually, I am too. I don't know what or when or where, yet, but I've been looking. Mandy's already figured out what she enjoys, which is huge. I, on the other hand, don't know. So, trying to find a job is way too open-ended, which makes it a real challenge.

What I really want to do is build another racecar. I've actually been researching a ton in my downtime, which is why I haven't written nearly as much as I used to in the past weeks. I was really hoping to find a B3 (1988-1993) Passat wagon, but it seems like there are almost zero for sale. I've searched exhaustively throughout all of Canada, USA, and Mexico. The only ones for sale are in really good condition and worth way too much for my needs. I really only want the body and interior for this project anyways. I've changed my plan to an S124 instead. That's an 86-95 Mercedes E-series wagon. It's got to be a wagon to haul all the batteries, because it's going to be an EV conversion with a Tesla AWD drivetrain. As it turns out, the dual motor configuration can be modified to produce about 800 AWHP. Which should be pretty quick in the wagon if I add as much lightness as possible. My goal is to compete in drag and drive events like Hot Rod Drag Week, Sick Week, and Rocky Mountain Race Week. It's probably a year or two out at this point, but it takes a mountain of planning. The prospect of all the work that will be involved is really exciting, though, and I've been really sinking my teeth into a lot of the details. Right now, I'm trying to shop for a chassis to build from so if you know of any old Mercedes wagons for cheap...



Anyway, Matehuala met our expectations of heat. It was a poor night's sleep. We were hot and sweaty. Loki was panting some. Overall, suboptimal.

 

[rob cote]

The next few days are kind of a blur. I literally took no pictures because I was essentially driving the entire time I wasn't sleeping. That's a bit of a stretch, but not by much. So, Saturday we hit the road early. We decided we'd make a big push to get to the US border, which was about a 6-hour drive. We stopped for diesel along the way, which added about a half hour to that for reasons I still don't understand. It was taking so long that Mandy cooked us some lunch while we were waiting. All in all, the stop probably took us an hour.

We continued on pretty uneventfully to the border crossing. Here, things got a little odd. So, if you recall, we entered Mexico via Belize, then exited and reentered both through Cancun airport. And now, we were exiting to the USA. Well, when we left Mexico from Cancun, they collected our FMM. That's normal. But then when we returned, they didn't give us new ones, since Cancun is a "free zone" or whatever. So, when we were leaving, we weren't really sure how to proceed. I tried to get my passport stamped-out but the guy in the office was like no you don't need that, you can just leave. So, if you look in our passport stamps, it appears we're still in Mexico, but I think we did everything correct. It's just a weird situation that's probably not super common.

So, once we figured out how to navigate the roads through the crossing properly, we crossed the Rio Grande and entered the USA. The agent at the border asked us if we had any alcohol (yes), eggs (yes), fruits (yes), vegetables (yes). And then he was basically like, "okay come on in." It might have helped that we got him to laugh because when he asked where we were coming from, Mandy said "Mexico" and I was like "OBVIOUSLY we're coming from Mexico, he wants to know where in Mexico." Anyway, we were back in the USA and it was absurdly hot outside. So, we agreed to keep driving because that way the air conditioning could operate and we could continue not dying of heatstroke. It was like, what would be the point of stopping anywhere, unless we can all go inside and it'd be cooler in there?

We kept driving. All the way to San Antonio. It ended up being about a 10-hour drive day. We stopped at a Cracker Barrel just outside the city and pretty much crashed straight away.

Sunday was going to be hot. Shocker. So, we drove. We stopped in Austin for some groceries, and while Mandy went inside, Loki and I stayed in the van with it running to keep the air conditioning going, because otherwise we'd have melted. It was hanging around 91F inside the van. We continued driving afterwards out of Texas and into Oklahoma. Oklahoma sits around 1000ft elevation, give or take a few inches, so it's marginally cooler there. At least there are no trees, so an occasional wind sweeps through. This also keeps the driving spicy.

We stopped for the night in Sulphur, OK, which luckily denied expectations of the smell. We stayed at Buckhorn Campground which has a simple online check-in procedure. We were nestled under some trees, so I pulled the Starlink off the roof and situated it towards the front of the van where it had a view of the sky. It was not ideal, but at least it worked. We didn't need internet, really, but we've changed our cell phone plans to the most basic, cheapest option, which includes no data. So a lot of the time group messages and picture messages don't send or receive. I don't think that's how it's supposed to work, but that's been our experience. It was nice to have internet to be able to chat with friends and family, at the least.

Loki and I hung outside and did some stretching while Mandy worked to make us dinner. After dinner, it was looking pretty dark cloud-wise - the sun was still above the horizon past 8:30pm which was CRAZY - so Mandy was like, I'm going to go to the restrooms before it rains. A few minutes later, she was sprinting back to the van as Loki and I were hustling to close up the doors at the last instant because the rains came so hard so suddenly. We cozied up inside as the torrent serenaded us to sleep.

Monday, we took free, hot showers and then hit the road. It was weird to want a hot shower, but it actually got cool overnight, which was great. We made our way from there to Wichita, KS. Our friends Abe and Mel were spending some time working at a shop there, and we figured we could drop in and see them and say hi on our way through. Our over-arching plan is to check out Wisconsin and Michigan a bit, see the upper peninsula, and then either drive to Florida and fly to New England, or drive to New England and then to Florida. If we opt for the latter, Mandy may need to fly to Florida to make it to work on time. It depends how the licensing process goes. Her tentative earliest-possible start date is the end of July. So, we have some time to work with. We'll see.

 

[rob cote]

Anyway, Kansas was basically on the way, so what the heck? The shop that they are at is called Dark Wolf Artisans and their specialty is school bus roof raises. They're just starting to get more involved in more-complete conversions, but primarily the work they do is raising the roofs. They're affiliated with Tiny Home Tours, although I don't fully understand the nature of the partnership, so that's why Abe and Mel were there. They do production and editing for Tiny Home Tours. Anyway, we just wanted to say hi and move along.



While we were there, they asked if I'd be willing to look over their van's chassis to see if there were any concerns. By the time we had arrived and whatnot, Monday was getting on with. So, I figured Tuesday would be a good opportunity to tackle that work. It'd be easy. And, they offered to pay for the effort. So, I normally try to keep an eye on things on my own personal vehicles all the time. Inspections are kind of a continuous thing for me, any time I'm nearby, I'm looking at and assessing things. Any time I have something apart, I'm looking at everything nearby, too. As such, I didn't have a particular checklist in mind of things to look over. But I just kind of got to work on it and tried to be as methodical as I could. I think I was pretty thorough. And I made them a list of things I checked, as well as things I found. Ultimately, a lot of it was visual inspection. I checked the brakes over, which looked new as I expected, since I'd just replaced them about 6 months prior. But while I had the tires off, I noticed a little bit of uneven wear on the fronts, so I rotated them. The rear airbags were deflated, so I inflated them. All the suspension bits seemed fine, no play anywhere. The spare is about 1.5" smaller diameter than the rest of the tires, so I recommended replacing that with one that matches, otherwise it's essentially dead weight. Belts were good, fluids were good after adding about 250mL to the coolant. We discussed the transmission and decided the best plan was to flush the fluid with a gallon of fresh ATF, so I did that. I also replaced the engine air filter and the cabin air filter (which wasn't even present, initially). I gave them an unofficial report, and they gave me some money and everyone was happy.



Meanwhile I was doing all that in the parking lot, a lot of work was going on in the shop, of course. Wess, one of the joint co-owners or whathaveyou, asked how mechanical I am. Which is always a challege to quantify. Do I list all the work I've done? Do I explain how much I've gotten my ass kicked by car projects? I'm usually just like, "Well, I've been tinkering with cars for a couple decades now". He said one of their buses had a fuel leak and if I wanted to make some more cash I could try and diagnose that. I checked in with Mandy, who was just studying laws and didn't really care where she was located while she read her book. So, I took the offer. Wednesday, I moved the bus into a bay in the shop to have some shade while I worked. I started digging into the bus which was a 2003 E350 with a 7.3L Powerstroke diesel engine. Eventually I discovered a large pool of fuel sitting in the valley on top of the engine. For the less-mechanically-inclined, that's bad. With the key on to prime the fuel pump, I was able to peer through all the stuff on top of the engine to spot a slow drip-drip-drip. Further digging required removing the turbo and some plumbing which somehow came apart easily. I discovered the O-ring interface on the fuel bowl drain valve were failing. O'Reilly had one in stock, Wess lent me his car and card to pick that up and a few supplies. I threw in the new part and flipped the key on to test it and discovered the leak was WAY WORSE!! I called it a day at that point, and spent the night trying to understand the entire Powerstroke fuel system to see what I was missing.



Thursday morning, I had a solid working theory to test out. Unfortunately, I'd had such bad posture the entire time I was working on the bus that my entire passenger's side leg was dead. Still. I believe it to be a pinched peroneal nerve, which causes foot drop. Basically, the majority of the lower leg and foot are numb, and I can't lift my toes towards my knee. Pretty annoying, but I worked on stretching it out and made sure to avoid kneeling on it all day long again. The theory is that the new drain valve was bad out of the box. The O-rings sealed to the fuel bowl, but the valve leaked internally, dumping all the fuel in the bowl out onto the floor. I explained to Wess, he seemed to trust this guy he'd only just met, and sent me to pick up another one to try. Thankfully, that resolved the issue as soon as I got it installed. I was not prepared for what to do if that didn't fix it, because I'd basically be like, "hey sorry I made your fuel leak way worse but I give up". And I'd have felt like a total idiot. But it was fixed, so I reassembled all the plumbing after cleaning up most of it, and I tidied up a few things that weren't quite right with the engine before I started. The intake resonator box thing was shattered, so I just removed it altogether and capped that port. It'll make a bit more noise under acceleration, but at least it won't suck it all of the dirt. I seated the intake duct to the turbo inlet properly, which was never installed correctly before. And I soaked up all the diesel on top of the engine, you know so it wouldn't burst into flames.

 

[rob cote]

Meanwhile I was doing all that work, one of the producer/videographers for Tiny Home Tours, Jonluc, asked if I could help him out. Mandy and I discussed again, she was still studying and still didn't care. After I was done and the bus was fixed, I had a lot more confidence than during, so I was like sure. This case was a 1993 Toyota Pickup (back when that was the actual model name) with a completely seized AC compressor. I made sure he knew that we could find something else after the compressor was replaced, and that might not be the entire fix. Jonluc seemed to have a decent understanding of the fundamentals, he was just so busy with work that he couldn't deal with it himself and it was a better option to just pay me to do it. Plus, if they went to an actual mechanic, they probably would have to give up their camper for the duration of the work. I had no issue doing it onsite while they were living in it, which is a value. I made sure O'Reilly had the compressor in stock the next day and set to work installing it. I was shocked at how easily everything came apart in that truck, especially given its age. My Tacoma was 10 years younger, and I ALWAYS had to cut fasteners out of it to take things apart, it was so crusty. The Pickup was a pleasure to work with, honestly. Late afternoon, I was charging the system and we discovered symptoms to indicate a clogged expansion valve. Bummer. I'd JUST put new refrigerant into the system, and I don't have a recovery tank. It was Friday. No shops would likely be open til Monday to recover the refrigerant for him. Though the people were lovely, I wasn't super interested in sticking around the shop for two days with nothing to do, waiting for someone to recover refrigerant so I could replace the expansion valve. As I disconnected my manifold from his truck, the high side valve stem failed and sprayed all the refrigerant back out of the system. So, that problem resolved itself, but we all felt pretty bad about it at the same time. I really didn't want to dump it into the atmosphere, and it wasn't my fault, but I still felt bad about it.

Anyway, I ordered the expansion valve and a new filter/drier to O'Reilly, which would be ready to pick up Saturday morning. I got a lazy start mid-morning. I wasn't stoked to have to take the HVAC box out from behind the dash, because it's never comfortable work. Toyota, in their manufacturing godliness, designed the unit into three distinct sections - fresh air, cold air, and hot air - and they're all separately removable. I pulled out the cold air box in no time at all, and had immediate access to the expansion valve. The grille came off the front of the truck with ease - ALL the clips were still intact, somehow - and the filter came out with just a few screws. I got new parts, threw them in, charged the system, and everything worked! The truck was blowing cold air out of the dash and Jonluc and Jackie were STOKED. There was a leftover can-and-a-half of refrigerant, plus a package of AC system O-rings.



Wess said he'd disassembled and reassembled two AC fittings on his car a year ago when he replaced the timing belt, and then the AC only worked for the summer after that. It had a slow leak somewhere in the system. The obvious answer was the only two fittings he touched, which were thankfully the easiest to get to. I replaced the O-rings on those with new ones, vacuumed out the system and charged it with the remaining refrigerant I had on hand. Which, somehow, was just the right amount. So Wess' car was blowing cold air, too, after that.

And I'd finally completed work without someone saying, "Hey I have this other thing that's broken". So, Saturday night, we let everyone know we'd be leaving in the morning. The entire shop was awesome. We put a good impression on them, too, because they made sure we knew we were welcome back any time. I told them to definitely keep me in mind when their buses need maintenance. I'm not keen on staying in Kansas fulltime, especially since Mandy kind of has to be in Florida (assuming she passes the law exam), but I could definitely be interested in periodically visiting to take care of several jobs all at once. It was really gratifying to make old stuff work again like it's supposed to. So, I think that's a solid lead there. At the very least, I made a week's worth of money, which was awesome.

 

[ocdiver]

We are ready for your next update.....

 

[rob cote]

Sorry for the delay! I'm working on updates. It's been a weird combination of chaotic and boring that has amounted to me not feeling like stuff is worth writing, as well as not prioritizing writing as stuff has been going on around us. We didn't die. The wait is over.