If it's not one thing...

It's another!

Okay, we are STILL in the U.S. ... but TOMORROW is D-Day! Departure Day...

We had to delay a day because the "check engine" light came on in our new Jeep. Pretty much something you want to check out before driving the Baja and exploring some of the backroads of the Vizcaino Penninsula and other places we've been reading about.

It was an error, according to the Jeep Dealer in La Mesa, so no worries. We thought it could have been a stuck thermostat because we bought one of those OBDCII readers that hook up to the on board computer and tell you what the problem is. Nice to have! The code was something about the cooling system, and it came on when the car was cold, but went off when it was warmed up. Of course, it went off before we got it to the dealer, and hasn't been back on since!

This is a lovely campground (Potrero) - it's too bad that although this will be our third night, we haven't really had a chance to enjoy it much. Folks here are very friendly, and pretty much everyone is either going to or coming back from Baja. We had a good test of the new Banks exhaust system in the moho just getting to Potrero - some steep grades towing the Jeep! It did great. We are really glad we got it.

We had planned to go to Tecate yesterday in the Jeep and head over with the moho today, but when the check engine light came on, we went to La Mesa instead - the Jeep dealer couldn't see us then, but said come back in the morning, so we went back up to Camping World in San Marcos and bought a spare water pump... we've been a bit worried that ours is about to konk out, so we figured we'd buy it now and then if ours doesn't die, we'll have an upgrade (we got one that is variable speed, and more powerful yet more quiet - so higher water pressure for showers, and quiet for midnight bathroom breaks).

That was a long day, and today was another - we got up early (for us) and went back to La Mesa and the Jeep dealer, got a rental car from them, went to Sport Chalet to get some "cheap" snorkel gear (at the recommendation of friends Tonya and Rich Mandl, who gave us a great list of Baja people and places we look forward to getting acquainted with!). Of course, we had a guy helping us who was a dive instructor and was super helpful and funny - and he showed me the mask HE uses, after which all of the other masks were just not good enough!! So I got a really nice mask. And a cheap snorkel and fins. I'll probably want a better snorkel... but the fins should be fine. Devin found a nice set he liked with short flippers, which work better for him, and he bought some webbed gloves, since most of his power is in his arms. I look forward to trying them out in the water!! (I tried them out in the RV when we got home - ha).

After we got the Jeep back, we went to Tecate and got our FMTs (tourist cards) and some pesos, and scouted the road through town we'll take with the RV tomorrow. Tecate is Mexico. I mean, it's really Mexico. I was expecting a border town to be a little more, I don't know - Americanized... but it feels like a small town in central Mexico - you cross that border and you are immersed in a completely different culture!!! No one speaks English, all the signs are in Spanish, everything is different. From the colors of paint on the buildings, to the music pouring out of the buildings, to the street signs and stores... although there was a McDonald's! That was the ONLY sign of Americanization I saw. Oh, and drivers are much nicer there! Twice in a short period people stopped and let us into traffic. I didn't like the traffic circles - I've never liked those. Too many variables! But I made it through twice, though I freaked out a bit the second time because a truck went through with us and the lanes are NOT well-defined. I'm okay now, though. Yay beer!

Speaking of beer, we decided not to go to the brewery - too long of a day already. It smelled just like the Miller Brewery up off the 210, by Irwindale. Our friend Graci would have liked it!! We'll drink plenty of Tecates, I suspect. Maybe we'll take a brewery tour on the way home.

So tomorrow, we go through the border and head to Ensenada. We are staying at the high end Estero Beach Resort there, which will be a nice way to start - we will have plenty of time for boondocking on beaches farther south, but up in this region, a high end RV park is more appealing.

After Ensenada, we will head to San Quintin to camp on the beach, then El Rosario for lunch at Mama Espinoza's (where we will say hi to Roly from Rich and Tonya, and be sure to try the spicy lobster soup!) and Catavina area may be a camping spot - beautiful cacti and rocks, an old onyx mine (El Marmol) which our rockhound friend Greg Arnold would surely love, may be some side trips we'll take, or perhaps we'll save them for the way back so we can get to see the whales in Scammons and San Ignacio Lagoons before they migrate back north.

Bahia de los Angeles is one of the areas I know we'll want to spend some time, but maybe we'll go there on the way back north so we don't feel rushed to leave to catch the "tail of the whales." So after San Quintin, we may power through to Guerrero Negro and camp right on the Lagoon (called Ojo de Liebre in Spanish - Scammons is the same place). So we are about 3-4 days from whales, and after than, whatever we feel like!

The water situation will be interesting. We are going to fill our water tank at RV parks, and chlorinate it ourselves for washing, but buy bottled water for drinking and maybe for cooking. I wish they made "Potable Aqua" in large quantities for 75 gallon tanks, so we could use the neutralizer tablets like I do for backpacking - no bad taste! And the Iodine tablets kill even viruses. We have some good filters that we use to fill our tanks - some people add Chlorine before filtering, some after. I like the "pour the bleach into the hose before connecting and filling" technique, since it sterilizes the hose, and some of the bad Chlorine taste should get filtered out that way.

Well, I'm going to get back to my duty as trip photographer tomorrow! And I'd better get to bed soon, since it will be an exciting day and our first day in Mexico in the Moho.

Wish us Bien Viajes!!