Only 2,210 miles to go to get home!

Second post today - first one from Mazatlan before we left this morning. 
So now hello from Los Mochis, Mexico. Yes we really did manage to get on the road.

Woke up early this morning and first thing I did was look out the window to check the weather – then also went on line to check it. This was sunrise this morning. The dark clouds lightened up quickly.

After Bill got up we finished packing up everything inside then went across the street to Torres for breakfast. Do you see why we like to go there. The building on the left is the restaurant.

After leaving there back to the Alfa. Bill hooked up the car, we pulled in the slide and we were ready to go. Left Mazatlan at 9:30. 246 miles later at 2:15 we pulled into the truck stop [Pemex] in Los Mochis and parked.

I asked Bill about the road today and he says on a scale of 1 to 10 – with 10 the best it was a 9. Also traffic was very light, hardly any wind and it didn’t get real hot. Perfect day for travel. He drove about 58 - 62 mph. 

So back to the road. The tolls were high 1105 pesos for the car and motorhome. About US $74. But this was one of those days we didn’t mind paying it. The road was good. Parts of it from Mazatlan had just been repaved – or as Bill said repainted. Notice there is even a shoulder there.

Last year we got stopped at a agricultural inspection not too far out of Mazatlan at Celestino – this year it was closed. But we did get stopped at one just before Guasave. The inspector made us open the door then he just stood on the step and asked us if we had any fruit. Oranges, bananas, guava, mango and I forget what else. We just told him no – we knew the routine. He could have checked the refrig if he had wanted to. Nothing in there.

Just one of the pretty pink trees that are blooming now.

The highway from Mazatlan to Culiacan is so smooth and straight that every once in a while they have added these buttons to keep drivers awake. They don’t rattle you like a tope but you do hear them.

We passed three of these trucks. I think they have found a great way to transport holes. See the metal wrapped all around the hole. Keeps the holes from falling off the truck.

Just a little bit of construction. One lane for about ½ mile. There were only a very few short bits of rough road – no pot holes just patches.

Of course between Guasave and Los Mochis there were topes/vibradores [ I hate them] and more traffic, including the ever present farm tractors.

We stop at Pemex 7407 by the Zar Hotel on the east side of the highway just south of Los Mochis. Easy in and easy out. We even managed to get to the restaurant in time to watch the end of the Barcelona vs Manchester City soccer game. Barcelona won 1 – 0. Bill had a chicken salad and I had a BLT – very good.

that is the manager of the team on the TV

Now we're back in the Alfa with the generator and AC running. He is reading!!! And I’m listening to the trucks coming and going. It is fascinating to watch these big trucks - they have two 51' trailers! They are just zooming around in here! Just saw two 5^th wheels come in. When we’ve stayed here before it seems like the trucks stop coming and going around 10 p.m. and don’t start up again until 6:30. I hope that goes for tonight too - as it sure is noisy here now. 

Tomorrow between here and San Carlos is where we’ve heard the really rough road is. Not looking forward to the drive. But have also heard parts of the road have now been paved. We’ll see I guess. It is about 240 miles with a fraction, I hope, of it in really, really bad shape. Like 20 mile per hour bad.