25 November ‘09 Our Google Earth position is: 23.25996N, 106.45864W which is the San Fernando RV Park in the middle of the "Gold Zona", Mazatlan, Mexico.
We arrived here this afternoon after staying a night in Los Mochis. Sol was looking for a place to change the oil in his CHEVROLET and I was going to have the air conditioning system looked at again in Los Mochis, but we decided to push on to Mazatlan and get it done there. We traveled the toll roads all the way down to Mazatlan, primarily to save time and wear on the vehicles. The unfortunate side of that decision is what the tolls cost… This is just a guess, but for Louise and me, we had at least 7 toll plazas and the average cost per toll for us was $100+ pesos, or about $60 US. For Sol and Carol, who have a HUGE 5th wheel trailer and a HUGE 4x4 CHEVY pickup, it must have cost close to $100US. I’ve emphasized the fact that Sol drives a CHEVROLET because apparently I wrote “once” that it was a GMC (God forbid…). Anyway, we arrived in Mazatlan about 2 and fortunately the traffic wasn’t too bad as we were having a heck of a time trying to figure out where and how to get to our campground. It was supposed to be across the street from the beach and across the street from another campground that is on the beach. Well we drove by it and I was told (by Louise) that I should make a “U-Turn” and drive back the one block to get into the park…Well, I missed the place (the ONLY PLACE) that we and Sol could make a U-Turn, so we continued for EVER trying to find another spot to turn. Finally I gave up on the U-Turn and made the decision that we would just go around the block…BAD IDEA !!! When I made the turn (followed by Sol and that CHEVROLET pulling a 35’ 5th wheel) I started getting a bad feeling in my stomach. The pavement turned to inlaid stone and we passed under an arch with a name carved across the arch. We were now entering into a private neighborhood and the streets went from narrow to impossible. I guess it wasn’t completely impossible because Sol continued to follow me deeper and deeper into trouble. Finally we arrived at “THE” spot…a small fountain in the center of this stone pathway. No way was there a chance for Sol to take his rig around this fountain, through it, yes, but we really didn’t come to town to sit in jail. Well it came down to this, we’ve got to turn around. Impossible, yes, but we’ve got to get it done. Fortunately we had another corner sitting beside us but it went to a dead end 50 yards away and it was just as narrow as the one that we’re on. Talking it over together, we turned up into this new 50 yard long path. Now all we had to do was back it down and around the corner and head back the same way we came in…(you should have been there). First the sidewalk was about 10 to 12” high, second, there was a wall beside one of the sidewalks that was about 4’ away from the curb. Now on the other side we had a telephone pole that sat directly on the corner and wouldn’t give an inch.
We arrived here this afternoon after staying a night in Los Mochis. Sol was looking for a place to change the oil in his CHEVROLET and I was going to have the air conditioning system looked at again in Los Mochis, but we decided to push on to Mazatlan and get it done there. We traveled the toll roads all the way down to Mazatlan, primarily to save time and wear on the vehicles. The unfortunate side of that decision is what the tolls cost… This is just a guess, but for Louise and me, we had at least 7 toll plazas and the average cost per toll for us was $100+ pesos, or about $60 US. For Sol and Carol, who have a HUGE 5th wheel trailer and a HUGE 4x4 CHEVY pickup, it must have cost close to $100US. I’ve emphasized the fact that Sol drives a CHEVROLET because apparently I wrote “once” that it was a GMC (God forbid…). Anyway, we arrived in Mazatlan about 2 and fortunately the traffic wasn’t too bad as we were having a heck of a time trying to figure out where and how to get to our campground. It was supposed to be across the street from the beach and across the street from another campground that is on the beach. Well we drove by it and I was told (by Louise) that I should make a “U-Turn” and drive back the one block to get into the park…Well, I missed the place (the ONLY PLACE) that we and Sol could make a U-Turn, so we continued for EVER trying to find another spot to turn. Finally I gave up on the U-Turn and made the decision that we would just go around the block…BAD IDEA !!! When I made the turn (followed by Sol and that CHEVROLET pulling a 35’ 5th wheel) I started getting a bad feeling in my stomach. The pavement turned to inlaid stone and we passed under an arch with a name carved across the arch. We were now entering into a private neighborhood and the streets went from narrow to impossible. I guess it wasn’t completely impossible because Sol continued to follow me deeper and deeper into trouble. Finally we arrived at “THE” spot…a small fountain in the center of this stone pathway. No way was there a chance for Sol to take his rig around this fountain, through it, yes, but we really didn’t come to town to sit in jail. Well it came down to this, we’ve got to turn around. Impossible, yes, but we’ve got to get it done. Fortunately we had another corner sitting beside us but it went to a dead end 50 yards away and it was just as narrow as the one that we’re on. Talking it over together, we turned up into this new 50 yard long path. Now all we had to do was back it down and around the corner and head back the same way we came in…(you should have been there). First the sidewalk was about 10 to 12” high, second, there was a wall beside one of the sidewalks that was about 4’ away from the curb. Now on the other side we had a telephone pole that sat directly on the corner and wouldn’t give an inch.
Fortunately we only had 10 to 12 cars and vans coming through constantly (or at least it seemed like it) and the neighbors didn’t come out to take bets on our not making it, and we didn’t see or hear anyone screaming profanities at us. Now we haven’t known Sol and Carol very long, and I had no idea as to how he would handle such a predicament, but he did it with grace and with a good attitude. I don’t know if I could have done the same… One thing’s for sure, once we got parked at the park we got together and hit the bottle (well maybe just one cerveza…).