Heading North

We spent many hours researching traveling in Mexico, reading forums, blogs and books. We discussed at length whether or not we could endure the noisy culture of the Mexican people and whether or not I had the patience for the slow pace of Mexico. In December, we left Montana with high hopes of finding a warm, sunny place in Mexico to spend the winter. Alamos, Sonora, Mexico was our first stop and turned out to be our last stop on that trip. Jazz, our 7 year old miniature Schnauzer became very ill in Mexico but even without that major problem, I don't think we would have lasted the entire 4 months in Mexico. The weather was perfect, the town of Alamos quaint and, the American population there was welcoming. But, we could not get past the incredible noise from loud music, roosters crowing night and day and traffic without the controls we have in the US. I could not get past the multitudes of starving dogs, the dirtiness and the poverty. We came back into the States with Jazz in early January and got her on the road to recovery again and returned to Alamos, this time renting a house. While the house made us more comfortable, the same noise, poverty, starving dogs and dirtiness was still present. I don't think we are cut out for Mexican travel and it is a disappointment for both of us.

While the granddaughter Laci and her friend Brittany were visiting, we rented a house in Puerto Penasco, Mexico. The neighborhood where the house was located was a largely American establishment with large beachfront homes and was cleaner, quieter and there were no starving dogs to speak of, only a huge population of feral cats. But, it was still Mexico in our eyes--in the downtown area of Puerto Penasco there was the filth, starving animals, loud music and guys trying to sell my granddaughter pot!! I guess we are still on a quest to find that warm, sunny and now quiet place to spend winters.

I took the girls to the airport at the ungodly hour of 5am this morning, returned to the RV and began packing up. We pulled out of Beaudry's about 9:30 and headed to Salome, AZ, an area we had read about with multiple RV parks. Well, we hit the jackpot when we discovered Desert Palms RV and Golf Resort. The park is a palm tree oasis with large sites, a few park models and a golf course. Its only drawback is its very restrictive pet policy; more than one half the park is totally off limits to pets. The park is very empty this time of year but the people we did meet were very friendly and welcoming. It could make a very nice place to spend some time in the winter. Salome is a small town with not much in the way of stores. Wickenburg, AZ is about 50 miles away and the outskirt of Phoenix is about 100 miles east of Salome.

I could not believe how beautiful this cactus was here in the RV park at Salome

The Puerto Penasco feral cats were very brave and came right up to the screen, Jazz would just go crazy! Here she is waiting for the next one to appear.
Seagull on the beach in Puerto Penasco
We are starting home to Montana, today was the first leg of the journey, hopefully I can keep Michael on a slow and easy trip north, reminding him that we are retired and in no hurry to shovel snow!