it is slowly getting warmer

It was FREEZING in San Diego (Potrero actually) and last night in El Centro was the coldest yet. Both Jamie and I woke at 6am and piled on more blankets - the weird part of that is that we were in separate rooms. I spent an entire day in Potrero heading to San Diego and picking up all the stuff we had waiting for us there and getting yet more stuff. Thanks to the lovely Julie we got a new car seat for Sissy (Ellen got her Marathon), new contacts for me, a power adapter for Jamie’s “new” Thinkpad (hand me down from Dad) and software for the kids. I then picked up a router and two wireless cards (one for Jamie’s new ThinkPad and one for Jess in San Felipe) at Fry’s. Man oh Man, Fry’s is quite the experience in merchandise overload. I then headed to Trader Joe’s and purchased about 15 months of food. I got only stuff we simply cannot get in Baja as we’ll only be here a couple weeks; organic butter and cheese (now frozen), lots of organic stuff, Good Earth tea; I can’t remember the $200 of stuff I got there. I was also able to ship off my Sony camera to have it fixed; something I’ve needed to do since we were at Aunty Chris’s house. So errands were done! I stopped by a fruit stand on the way home and the kids powered through 2 Very Large Bags of grapes a few hours after I got home. The apples are now long gone. Apples are so expensive all over Mexico.  I put a picture of San Felipe in here just cause I wanted to. Look at all the shrimpers in the cove. It was WAY windy!

The kids were having so much fun at Potrero and I was involved in figuring out why I couldn’t get my Toshiba wireless (but Jamie’s ThinkPad was an easy install) that we spent another day there, hanging out and playing. The next day (yesterday) we headed to El Centro to hit Lowe’s. Last time we were there, boondocking, we were able to get free Wifi and we still needed to hit Target and Lowes anyway. Yesterday there was no free Wifi and I didn’t feel like setting up the tripod so we simply shopped. We got new rails for the drawers in the trailer. For over a year we’ve been struggling with these piece of shit drawer rails to the point that the boys have actually stopped using them and keep their clothes in their luggage bags (thanks to Aunty Michelle for the lovely Lands End luggage bags). Jamie installed one drawer guide on the “pots and pans” drawer and it is simply LOVELY! When we were last in Papa and Tata’s RV I was checking out the drawer guides and directed Jamie to his next project. It has been so worth it; he got one drawer done and we’ll do two of the clothes drawers when we get to San Felipe. The only problem is that there is no stopper for the drawers; in a moving trailer it is important to make sure the drawer doesn’t pop open. Not sure how we’re going to fix that. Maybe someone makes a special RV drawer guide like the ones we bought.

So, leaving Target with only toilet paper and wipes (oh, Jamie snuck in a couple DVD’s) we headed to Costco for dinner (Pizza) and to bed. It was absolutely FREEZING in the trailer and Jamie hooked up the generator so we could run the heater without draining the batteries. That generator was hands down, The Best RV Investment We Ever Made. We use it all the time boon-docking and even in Mexican RV parks without hookups. I am so glad he insisted on purchasing it.

We crossed the border this morning with absolutely no trouble and traffic was simply wonderful. All through Mexicali the traffic was light and easy, very different from our last experience of stop and go traffic. When we left San Felipe a week ago, the boys were DYING to play in the mountains that MX3 follows down the penninsula. We were trying to get across the border before dark so we put them off saying, “next time”. Today was “next time” and I found a wonderful pullout where I could actually turn around. It looks like there was once a community here; there are more than 4 or 5 slab foundations and we’re camped on a nice flat slab. I wonder if hurricane Mitch destroyed this area? You can see that when it is wet season, much of the area becomes a raging river. The kids were having such a wonderful time that we decided to simply spend the night. We don’t have a lot of water, so no dishwashing (Yeah!) but the kids were thrilled to stay here.

I also found it pretty cool to be able to get online. I’d looked up coordinates (lat and long) for both El Centro and San Felipe. I was able to extrapolate from them to get our general bearings and Jamie setup the tripod. I wasn’t sure we’d actually get online; not having accurate measurements, but we did. It is a testament to the training we got that we were able to.

The stars are simply AMAZING here and as you might imagine, it is indescribably quiet. It is much warmer than El Centro (or is it a state of mind?). On the way down we knew we were in Mexico when we saw the pothole crew working on the road. One guy had a shovel and got a shovelful of black stuff (asphalt?). He then looked up and down the road, ran to the pothole, dumped the matter, looked again for traffic, looked absolutely PANICKED and RAN to the other side of the road so traffic would pass. I’m sure this was repeated ad-nauseum to fill the holes.

Tomorrow we’ll be in San Felipe with a sink full of dirty dishes.