Baja or Bust in the Roadtrek on a new route

We decided that since we didn’t kill each other on our 13 week summer trip in our new Roadtrek van that we would put solar on it and head south  to the Baja, Mexico for one last trip. It's been 6 years since our last Baja adventure so perhaps time to do some reminiscing.

Robin built a storage box for the back of the Roadtrek so we could take our Starlink for internet, inflatable kayak& a bit more gear. We left the big motorhome, the car and it’s trailer in storage - well stocked with mouse poison and left on October 12, 2023.

We decided to take a different route this trip so we headed east into Saskatchewan and crossed just south of Weyburn, Saskatchewan into the US on October 14. Very easy border crossing at Port of Fortuna, North Dakota.  No one in line and through in less than five minutes.

Lots of oil and gas activity, cattle, hay, antelope and some fields of sunflowers.

snow geese heading south as well

sandhill cranes

antelope

 We stopped in Belle Fourche, South Dakota to see the "Centre of the Nation" and check out a local museum. The temperature went down to 1°C overnight, so we actually had to turn the furnace on as it was 6° inside.

We took the Spearfish Canyon scenic byway, Highway 14 south towards Deadwood - lots of beautiful fall colours & rocks formations.  

an old mine in Leeds

 

We toured through Deadwood, South Dakota - a reconstructed & revitalized Old West mining town from 1876.  We wandered through the streets, had lunch & left $20 in a casino. Since we were nearby we drove to Sturgis, the site of the big motorcycle rally but since it was off-season there was nothing really impressive to see.

a quick drive thru Sturgis, nothing going on

From Deadwood we drove south to Custer, stopping to get a quick photo of the Crazy Horse sculpture. On into Custer State Park and drove the Wildlife Loop Road -  sunny 10°C. We saw deer, chubby Prairie dogs bison roaming free and antelope.  Another free night parking at a truckstop and back to Custer State Park to the visitor info center the next morning.  We watched an excellent video about the park and bison, did a drive on Iron Mountain Road -  twisty and slow through three tunnels carved from rock and some "pigtail" curves. Got a bunch of photos of Mount Rushmore.

Crazy Horse sculpture

wild turkeys

bighorn sheep with bells on!

Mt Rushmore in the far distance

Mt Rushmore

a pigtail curve

From there we headed into Wyoming - rolling grassland, lots of cattle. We did a quick trip into Nebraska just to say we were there (& to fill in our US map on the big motorhome).

We continue to use iOverlander -  in Cheyenne, Wyoming  found a shower for $2 at the pool, a free RV dump at the welcome centre south of town & parked at Walmart for the night. 

We did a walking tour in downtown Cheyenne where they have many 8 foot tall cowboy boots -  all with a different theme.

one of many bronze statues in Cheyenne

 From there we headed to Denver, Colorado -  we spent four hours walking around the Denver Zoo which was very enjoyable - lots of exotic animals and birds = pretty decent enclosures and things for the animals to play on - 14,000 steps today. Also Denver is in an elevation of 5280 feet so thinner air.

We stayed at our first Cracker Barrel restaurant in Denver -  another place for free camping and had supper there - 19 overnighters in their parking lot! We spent a day at Stanley Lake Regional Park, enjoying the sunshine, doing some walking & taking a break from driving.

Next stop Colorado Springs and the Garden of the Gods Park -  amazing red sandstone rock formations. We did a 4 mile loop hike all at over 6500 feet elevation and about 26°C.

Next stop the town of Manitou Springs, where there are eight mineral springs throughout town with spouts to collect drinking water from -  all bubbly, and each has a different mineral content. We got a glass full from Shoshane Springs - tasted awful, but historically famous as healthful.

Headed south into New Mexico via Trinidad, Colorado and then into Texas -  quite flat with mesas, seeing grain and sorghum. We stopped in Dumas at Texoma Park -  a free 24 hour stay with power and services, but we just used their dump.

We decided to pop into a corner of Texas since it was quite close -  so off to Amarillo -  first stop Cadillac Ranch - 10 old Cadillacs, partially buried in a field just west of Amarillo, covered in graffiti and spray paint. The paint was so thick on the cars that it looked melted and dripping . As you entered people before you passed on felt pens so that you could write your names to add to the graffiti. A strange but unique sight!

We were surprised to see on Google maps that there is a Lin’s Grand Buffet restaurant in Amarillo. We always thought it was a Yuma "one off " - so of course we had to go there for a buffet. We decided we needed to stay one more night in Amarillo so that we could go to the Big Texan - home of the 72 ounce steak. We spent the day at Palo Dura Canyon State Park - which is the US's second largest canyon.  Great displays in the visitor centre and a good overlook - great views of the different coloured layers of the canyon and it’s varied rock formations. We drove into the canyon -  it was 22°C at the top, 30C at the bottom & 36 °C when we left!  We did over 5 km of hiking and took lots of pictures.

Texas longhorns

 Next stop the Big Texan Steak Ranch  - a must see for Amarillo - (the 72 ounce steak challenge is if you eat a 72 ounce steak plus the sides in under one hour it’s free). We watched a young guy finish in 36 minutes while we were there! I had an 18 ounce sirloin steak, Robin had the chicken fried chicken, which was huge and local beer - an interesting & filling adventure.

a guy doing the 72 oz. challenge, it counts down from 60 minutes

yes we are piggies!

but we did have leftovers!

We left Texas where it was flat into New Mexico through Tucumcari, (an old route 66 town) into hilly and desert like conditions. We stopped in Albuquerque and toured around in the Old Town Square - it reminded us of Mexico. In the morning we were lucky to see several hot air balloons up in the air.

"Old Town" Alberquerque

 We spent the day at Petroglyph National Monument -  watched a video about the area and how it was formed 200,000 years ago by volcanic eruptions which created a 17 mile long escarpment that partially eroded, leaving an area covered in basalt boulders. Later the petroglyphs were chipped into the basalt boulders by early Spaniards and then by American Indians 2000 to 3000 years ago and 400 to 700 years ago. The Pueblo People believe the area to have spiritual significance and there are over 24,000 images there. We did some hiking in the Boca Negra Canyon and the Rinconada Canyon.

We continue to use local swimming pools for showers and park in Cracker Barrel or Walmarts for the night.

We left Albuquerque and headed south on Highway 25 where we crossed the Rio Grande River which was pretty low. We drove into the town of Truth or Consequences - the town that changed its name in 1950 for  a game show on the radio & noted for it's many hot springs, many piped into private baths in the local hotels.

We drove thru quite the storm - dark clouds, wind, rain, and we were surprised to see signs warning about the dust blowing and what to do in a dust storm - pull over, turn off your lights, no foot on the brakes & stay buckled up.

We drove through Hatch, New Mexico, the "Chilli Capital of the World", saw lots of dried chilies hanging outside. We turned at Hatch and headed towards Tucson, Arizona We had left before flu shots were available so we stopped at a Costco and got our annual flu shot, paid $20 each - and lo & behold we realized there was another Lin's Grand Buffet close by so we had to check that one out as well! (We do like a good buffet!)

We drove through Phoenix and arrived in Quartzsite on October 25 in time for Happy Hour at our old park, Kofa Mountain. It was great to see all our old friends.

BLM land outside Quartzsite

We drove around Quartzsite, did some shopping, had beers at Beer Belly's and lunch at Gringos - not much has changed. We made it to a Rock Club meeting and got to say hello to a lot of old friends. We spent a couple nights at our old park Kofa Mountain before heading south to Yuma - time for another oil change and yes, one more buffet at Lin’s Grand Buffet in Yuma - three times in eight days. Shameful!

Beers at Beer Belly's

We decided to stay in BLM land near Yuma, but unfortunately got a flat tire -  we called AMA, they transferred us to AAA  Arizona. The guy arrived within a couple of hours, put on our spare and the next day we had our tire repaired & reinstalled for free at Discount Tire in Yuma -  amazing!

We managed to get free Covid vaccinations (got to be at least our fifth) for free at CVS using our Quartzite address (Costco wanted $160).

We popped across the border into Algadones, Mexico to buy our FMM visa -  cost of 687 pesos or $35 US each, had brunch and stopped at a dentist for a $30 teeth cleaning.

We headed for El Centro, California and an RV park - Desert Trails RV park & golf course where we spent $25 for dry camping -  the first one we paid for this trip  - had showers and did laundry. 

We crossed into Mexico October 31/2023  at Mexicali west -  took a wrong turn and got stopped by the police! Were told we were going too slow in the fast lane - go figure - Robin had to get out, show registration and license and once the cop saw the drivers license was from  Alberta his demeanor changed, he was all smiles and we were free to go.

We made it back to Baja, time to relax & "Live the Dream!"