Friday July 17th, 2009

Hi from Nogales, Arizona. We drove from Williams, AZ to Phoenix, and the temp was 43+C, so we drove through the city (of cement) and drove to Tucson, AZ (we past about 5 Cracker Barrel Restaurants which I wanted to stop at one, but it was never convenient or we were full from Mac D’s , yuck!), we were going to stop at Almado at a RV park, but ended up in Nogales on the Mexican border. We stopped at one RV place and it didn’t look great but while we were there we noticed Sanborn Insurance Agency (which Ross recognized from the internet). So we decided to stop there to get our Mexican insurance.

Well...........................................as we were getting our paperwork in order, we noticed that Kim (Ross`s words) did not have the registration for the Sunfire, which she had given to Ross to put in with the insurance, which he had, however he claims he never had the registration papers......(he says he never had the registration papers)! Anyway.....we phoned the registration office in Edmonton Centre where Ross had the phone number to and got a hold of the supervisor (at 5:10 when they close at 5:30) and told them that we needed the registration papers to cross the Mexican border tomorrow (Saturday) and if she could fax us a copy. She took pity on us and agreed to fax us a copy of the registration on condition that we fax her at the same time an authorization for my daughter Pam....whom I haven`t called yet.....to go to their office on Monday to sign for the already faxed registration form, (which the supervisor has never done before in her life) because she felt sorry for us, and said to me that if she was in the same predicament as we are she would want someone to do for her! So I now have the faxed registration form for the Sunfire. We paid $880.00 for the RV for a year and the car was$330.00, compared with $1800.00 for the RV in Canada and about $600.00 for the car. Wow! What a difference!

As we were talking to her she phoned an RV park to see if they had any room for us, they said yes but we might have to drop the trailer in the parking lot to get into a spot. We followed her instructions on how to get to the park and drove about 20 miles and found the RV park (which is on a lake (probably a reservoir)), we drove around looking for a large spot to park and couldn`t find one, so decided to drop the trailer. Well.................easier said than done. We couldn`t get the trailer hitch to come off the RV so I drove up to the office and asked if we could just stay in the boat parking for the night and he said yes. So........................we tried to get as level as possible (we are on a slant still) and went to pull out the living room slide and guess what? It wouldn’t slide out! Neither would the bedroom slide. Oh my! So if all else fails, read the manual.........It stated that the panel for the fuses for the slide outs are on the roadside panel, so we got out to find the fuses and after a bit found them and unhooked the cover of the panel (after pulling a shit load of stuff out of the way). We found the ignition bypass fuse and pulled it out to see if it was burned out and it looked like it was so we looked to see if we could find another fuse to replace it. Well, when we pulled the fuse out I noticed that when I opened the door the steps stayed out (which they weren’t before) so I thought what they heck let’s try the slide out..................well low and behold the living room slide came out along with the bedroom slide. However, when we put the cover back on the fuse box, the steps came in and will not stay out, which they should if we turn them off. Well, we now have slideage, both living room and bedroom, so we are spending the night in a parking lot at a small lake in Arizona on the border of Mexico with no front TV (cause I think it is because we do not have the fuse in) but the bedroom TV is working. We are not hooked into any power, because of course (we are in a parking lot) but have the genset on so we have air conditioning because it is still very hot outside. We’re supposed to shut the genset off at 9PM but I think we’ll keep it on since we’re in the friggin’ parking lot with no power or water or even a picnic table for cry’in out loud! We’ll see if they make us shut it off....

We took the dogs for a walk along the lake (reservoir) and Bigdog went into the water and lied down (just like at the lake) and had a smile on his face. He even had a drink and looked at us saying, wow, this even tastes like the lake, not that stupid water we ran in a while ago. (This was the ocean along the pacific coast in April). I don’t think he has been that cool for a very long time. Gracie wouldn’t go into the water but she had fun getting tangled on the picnic table.

Ross is now watching TV in the bedroom, which I am going to join him right away and I have been typing on the table in our wonderful kitchen area. Ross just informed me that the temp in here is 86C, it has cooled down considerably, he also left and just let me know that there is spectacular lightning off to the west!

Tomorrow is the crossing of the Mexican border, we are doing well.
PEACE, love and hugs
Ross and Kim

PS..................WOOOO HOOOOOO! (THAT’S ME, Ross talk’in)