Bill and Cathy McArthur on the Road 2004: 14

    Tuesday, March 9 was a free day in Oaxaca. Bill was feeling pretty lousy with the onset of a cold, but we took an optional tour anyway. The tour went to the Montealban ruins first. Bill had noticed a few chigger bites earlier in the morning and painted them with bright red nail polish. When he climbed one of the pyramids, a German woman came over and pointed out that he was bleeding, thinking that the nail polish was fresh blood. The most impressive thing about the ruins was the view from the mountain top. For the next stop on the tour, we visited a village and a showroom for black pottery. The local villagers use a special local clay and a special burnishing technique to produce the pieces. Most of the people on the tour bought some items. We returned to the campground for lunch and discovered that we had no power in the camper. Our neighbor, Stan, checked out the electrical system and found no problem. This was a philosophical fix because the camper power worked once it was proved OK. We credited Stan with a miracle cure. We bought 10 gallons of purified water and poured it into our fresh water tank so that we would have water later. The tour continued with a visit to a village that has an ancient Water Cypress tree of huge size. There were also a lot of vendors selling textiles to occupy more time. Next we went to a village of weavers. We received a demonstration of the whole rug-making process. The most interesting part was that of the natural dyes that are used for the wool. Especially interesting was the red and purple colors that come from an insect that lives on prickly pear cactus. The pH can be varied to produce a range of colors. After the demonstration, the group had the opportunity to spend some more money on rugs. We bought two rugs for $300. The tour ended around 5:00 PM. We went across the highway to make some phone calls and found that Bill's brother Jack had entered hospice care. This upsetting news had us planning for how we could get to Colorado as soon as possible. We went to dinner at the nearby hotel.

    On Wednesday, the group drove the 230 miles to Puebla. Bill was still suffering from his cold, but was able to drive. The trip was very mountainess and scenic. We passed through a valley with a multitude of cacti. The temperature stayed in the 70s and low 80s as we drove. We arrived at our campground around 2:30 PM. We had a full hookup for the first time in several days. After we set up our camper, Bill went to bed for the rest of the afternoon. We tried to make some phone calls on the campground phone, but didn't get anyone. The Wagon Master gave Bill some cold medicine. While Cathy was making dinner, Bill tried our cell phone and found to our great surprise that it worked. We called our son-in-law Phil to get an update. Although it costs $1 per minute, it is more convenient that the Mexican phones. After dinner, we looked at the roads from Pharr, Texas to Denver. Bill went to bed early. About 11:30 PM, Bill awoke to find that the camper had no power. When he went outside to check on the situation, he discovered that his sandals were missing. This campground has a few big dogs that run loose and Bill figured that one of them stole his sandals. Bill couldn't fix the situation and went back to bed.

    Thursday started early with Bill checking the inline battery fuse at about 4:50 AM. He remembered that Stan's miracle fix had involved removing and reinserting that fuse. Bill discovered that the fuse was blown. Unfortunately, our spare fuses were of a different physical size, but Bill got one of our spares of the right amperage to fit. The power went back on. It's a good thing, because it was cold and we needed the heat. In fact, it was 40 degrees overnight! We borrowed a proper fuse from Duane a bit later in the morning. Also, the owner of the Doberman Pincer that swiped Bill's sandals found and returned one of them. Bill's cold felt bad all day, but he kept on going anyway. The group had a city bus tour from 9:00 AM to 4:00 PM. We visited the ruins at Cholula which include the largest pyramid in Mexico. This ancient site and the present day town provide for the oldest inhabited community in Mexico. The tour continued with  a visit to an ornate church decorated by its indigenous builders with figures of those builders. Then we went to the Zocalo for a couple of hours to eat and shop. We ate in Vittorio's Restaurant with Larry, Nancy, Melva, and Ann Marie. Bill and Cathy ate chiles relleno which were somewhat picante and very good. After lunch we stolled on the pedestrian mall for a while. The last stop on the tour was the tile-making area. Puebla is known for its beautiful ceramics, having learned the techniques from the Spanish. We bought a few trivets to bring back as gifts and shopped for groceries in the local markets near the ceramic stores. When we returned to the campground, we drove to a nearby market for a few more items, including ice for our cooler. Happy hour for the group was a good-bye celebration for Larry and Nancy who would be heading for Guadalajara so that Larry can spend a couple of months in a Spanish school there. They've been good friends and travel companions, but we'll run into them in the future I'm sure. The situation with Bill's brother Jack had us planning to leave the caravan a day early to make a run for the border on Monday, March 15. We ate dinner in the camper and called Bill's sister Joan on the cell phone.

    We finally left the mountains on Friday, but it wasn't easy. It was 42 degrees when we awoke. We broke camp and said "Hasta luego" to Nancy and Larry as we moved out of the campground. Since the motor homes had to hook up their tow cars on the dirt access road to the campground, we had to leave in stages. After the first stage, Stan and Lois in their Airstream, Joe and Kathy  in their fifth wheel, and we moved out. When we got to the turn onto the main highway out of town, we and Joe and Kathy posted ourselves at the end of the turn to help the next stage find it. Unfortunately, the directions were somewhat confusing and we saw the next group miss the turn and head out of town the wrong way. We radioed them and told them to find a retorno, which was easier said than done for one of the rigs which got caught on a ramp leading to a low overhead. Left behind were a rig with a bad transmission and our Tail Gunner. After a while, the group that went astray rejoined us and we proceeded onward. We were at an altitude of over 7000 feet and had to get down to sea level, so we knew that there would be some descents in the drive. By the time we got to the steepest part of the descent, the vegetation had switched to rain forest and we saw many banana trees and other lush growth along the road. One of the rigs dropped its transmission as it began the descent and our secondary Tail Gunner and another rig stayed behind. The rest of us drove down the steep, twisty road until we stopped for lunch in a Pemex still a couple of thousand feet in altitude. We regrouped with a third Tail Gunner and moved on down the mountain. The first 8 rigs took a wrong turn and started heading south down a decreasingly bad jungle road, while the last 3 rigs continued on correctly. After around 4 miles of descending, the wrongway rigs got turned around by unhitching and finding dirt roads for backing up. We lost at least an hour before getting back on the correct road with a fourth Tail Gunner. When we were about 30 miles from our destination, a rig toward the back had to stop to check on a suspect axle, so the last 3 rigs dropped off the caravan. At about 5:00 PM, 5 rigs including us arrived at the campground to join the 3 rigs plus Stan and Lois that had already arrived. A half hour later, the 3 rigs that stopped for the axle check arrived. Two hours later, the 2 rigs that stopped for the dropped transmission arrived. We were still missing 3 rigs: the two rigs with bad transmissions and our Tail Gunner. What a day! Most of us went to dinner at Marie's seafood restaurant and enjoyed a good dinner on the water. 

    On Saturday morning, Phyllis and Pete hosted a scrambled egg breakfast poolside in the campground. A bit later, we went into town to buy a few items and to call Bill's brother Jack's home in Colorado to check on his status which hadn't changed since our last check. We also filled up at a nearby Pemex. At 10:45 AM, seven of us went on a "Jungle River Cruise" trip on two small boats accompanied by Clara from the campground (who also does laundry and catered the group dinner on Saturday night). The trip was interesting and a lot of fun. We saw lots of interesting wildlife and practiced our Spanish talking to our boatman. Duane and Peggy, our Tail Gunners, returned during the afternoon. Both of the rigs with the bad transmissions had to await repair - one for a week and one for a month. Our leaders were upset at having to leave someone behind for the first time in all of their trips. Bill, with Joe's help, washed our filthy car during late afternoon and then we hitched up for maybe the last time in Mexico (on this trip). At 6:00 PM we enjoyed a buffet dinner in the campground with the Gulf of Mexico nearby. It was a beautiful scene and good food. Everyone was getting that bittersweet feeling when a great adventure starts to wind down. But, there are plenty of miles left to travel before it's over. Joe and Cathy told us that they will be leaving the trip a day early also and will help us make our way back to Texas. 

    Sunday was another travel day. We headed back to Tampico, where we had stopped on our second night of the trip. This was a tough drive over some very rough roads. Most of the group arrived at the campground around 4:30 PM, but the last three rigs in the caravan got lost coming into Tampico and arrived about 45 minutes later. Once everyone was in camp, we were able to say our goodbyes at happy hour. We ate with Gabe and Rosemary in the motel restaurant.

    On Monday morning, Joe and Kathy in rig 17 led us out of Tampico toward the U.S. border. We left at 6:45 AM and drove through frequent rain. We were fortunate to have good roads with light traffic for most of the way. We had some interesting maneuvering at the Mexican side of the border as we tried to park to turn in our vehicle importation holograms. We were too big to park in the normal parking lot and had to move a few times to find a suitable spot. We accomplished the job, however and then drove over the bridge to the U.S. side of the border. We were surprised that the border inspector didn't require us to popup the camper, but we were grateful. We drove to Texas Trails campground in Pharr and arrived around 4:00 PM. Kathy and Joe were to spend the night before driving back to Oregon. We arranged to store our camper there and drove to a Hampton Inn in McAllen after washing the car, exchanging pesos for dollars, and using an ATM. We ate dinner in a nearby Olive Garden and spent a long time in hot showers before turning in for the night. It was great to be back in the USA.

    We want to especially thank our tour leaders Jim, Gisela, Duane, and Peggy for their strong leadership, caring attitude, sound advice, and general helpfulness. This tour has been a challenge in many ways, but the leaders have stayed in control and managed the trip as well as anyone could ask. We highly recommend them as leaders to anyone considering an RV caravan adventure. 

    We have made a lot of new friends during this adventure in Mexico. Everyone in the group has been continually helpful to us as we've struggled to learn how to RV in a popup camper. We love to travel, but we love our home in Cape May Beach during the late spring, summer, and fall. We invite our fellow travelers to drop by for a stay with us when they pass through or if they would like to just point their rigs in our direction. All we ask is an email or phone call a bit in advance to be sure that we can clear our schedule. We can offer water and electric or we can offer a bedroom indoors. We have kayaking, fishing, beachcombing, birdwatching, cycling, walking, shopping (limited to seashore items), gambling (in Atlantic City), swimming, and sightseeing. Bill offers an optional tour which provides a detailed look at the history and geography of the Cape May area. Because all of us in the group spend so much time traveling, we're sure we'll see each other down the road as well; we look forward to it.

        Bill and Cathy