Raring to Go East

We're two days away from leaving the LVTA (Long Term Visitor's Area) near Yuma Arizona and heading eastward.  I have a couple of exciting developments to look forward to.

First, I'll be visiting an 'Intentional Community' toward the end of January in New Mexico.  I'm checking it out to see if this is a nice place for me and my mom to settle in.  We'd still live in our RV on community land. 

Intentional Community is the modern term for commune.  Many are also called 'Eco Villages.'  Basically I'm looking to work and share with a bunch of like-minded individuals in our own small community.  This could take care of my loneliness and might give me some of the purpose I'm looking for.  This one seems more independent and tolerant than a lot of others I've researched. 

What I want is to find a place with the following:

1.  Allow me to use my RV as my residence, because I still owe $64k on it and don't want to buy or build another house.
2. Put me around positive friendly people who I can become involved with in the mutual goal of being frugal, healthy, Earthy, and self-sufficient.
3. Give me the space, water, and permission to grow my own garden and raise poultry.  Layer hens, meat birds, and turkeys.  I might consider rabbits again if I really get self-sufficient and stop buying grocery store meat.
4. Not require minimum labor hours, because some places want you to work 20 hours a week, and I write full-time to make my living.  I will definitely pull my weight and be involved, but I need flexibility.
5. Let me connect to a sewer line, power line, and potable water line for the RV.  (And get a 250 gallon propane tank connected if possible).  This way I won't have to keep moving the RV around.  I do want to live on our solar power as much as possible, but if there's a heatwave I want the option of A/C.  I'd also use shore power during the short days of winter.
6. A community that won't require me to use a composting toilet, because it won't work with my health condition (no colon, loose stool 9 times a day).
7. Be within 40 miles of hospital and medical facilities so my mother and I can have access to the care we need.
8. Have a reasonable buy-in amount and reasonable monthly fee.  (This place does!)
9. Still be allowed to drive my RV or SUV as needed and wanted without violating community rules.  Some communities don't allow cars, some will make you earn 'negative-carbon' points to earn the right to drive somewhere, and others require permission for trips planned out ahead so others can go with you to take care of their needs also.  I don't believe this community I'm visiting has any of those rules, but this is what I need to check out personally.
10. Have a community that's tolerant of Christianity and does not require adherence to any pagan religions or practices.  (There are lots of communities organized around sun worship and the like.)
11. Have a community that's tolerant of the GBLT community, minorities, and the handicapped.
12. A community that won't care if I write erotica or gay romance for a living.
13. Have a community in the desert, because humidity just destroys me and my mom.  Our old bones can't take it.

I think I've found most of what I'm looking for with this community.  I hope they'll let me stay a few days to really get the vibe of the place.  This could be what I've been searching for!  I don't know if they're okay with me blogging about them so I'm not going to give the name or exact location of the place for now.  Check back at the end of January for my full report!

This is only a visit no matter how much we like it.  We have to continue east because we've bought tickets to Puerto Rico and will be flying out of New Orleans in March.  We're going to visit family--the first time in 12 years.  Originally I was going to go to Florida, but it turns out that the flights are cheaper in New Orleans.  This will give us a much shorter trip to get this major family visit out of the way. 

I will give a full report on Puerto Rico in March.  A lot has changed on the island since our last visit. 

So, while we were here in Yuma we were basically in a holding pattern.  The dark days of winter were short and depressing.  We couldn't run our TV after the sun went below the mountains.  We're also dieting so couldn't take solace in forbidden foods.  We got wretched cabin fever and gambled too much.  Every time we went out it was to a casino.  There didn't seem to be any other place that we'd like to go. 

I put an end to this in January.  NO MORE.  But how will I fight my malaise?  Well, I bought a metal detector.  That would get me outside, walking around, and would be something exciting I'd enjoy.  We doesn't like treasure hunting?  Here's what I got:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000VC1AOM/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

So, it's a pretty cheap metal detector, but it's usable.  Not as good as the metal detectors you see them use on 'The Curse of Oak Island' though.  In the beginning it was beeping all the time and only had one tone.  I put the batteries in in a way that smooshed them.  When I fixed this it started working properly with fewer beeps and multiple tones for different stuff. 

Honestly, it's not perfect.  I will wave it over a pull tab and won't hear the beep until I've swung past it, or sometimes not at all.  Other times I'll get all sorts of beeps and dig and dig and not find anything.  Then when I run it over again there's no beeps. 

That said, I have found some interesting stuff on a few occasions, and the pinpointer is helpful (but not perfect either).  I found a door hinge, a lug nut, shell casings, nails, pull tabs, and metal twine.  I've taken it out a few times and I get a lot of FOMO from observers.  I mean--it's something to do.  I've managed to stay out of the casino the last two weeks. 

Without Our Follow Car Again

So we’re in the LTVA (long term visitors area) in Winterhaven California.  We spent our first few days here in the lot of the solar place.  On Saturday they installed our new inverter.  It looks like our batteries are fine.  I think when we disconnected the fuse we screwed it up somehow, but now we have plenty of power to last us into the night.  The new inverter hook-up cost $80.  That was great.

What’s not so great is our Nissan Armada (the follow car).  We got a ‘Service Engine Soon’ light.  After ruling out a loose gas cap we went to Autozone to have them tell us the code and what the problem was (they do this for free, pretty sweet).  

We need a new catalytic converter.  Le sigh.  Fine.  We drove to the garage across the street to see about getting this done.  This is Alice Auto Repair in Yuma.  Can’t say I recommend them.  The guy made up some malarkey about us needing OEM parts and quoted $1,700.  When I claimed I didn’t have the money he suddenly decided we didn’t need OEM parts and went down to $1,200. 

I was pretty pissed.  You could see the dollar signs in his eyes.  And we expect to be ripped off at mechanics, but by one or two hundred bucks.  Not $500+.  I claimed I’d have to ask my brother for a loan, paid $35 for the quote and high-tailed it out of there.

Someone on Facebook said that I should go to an exhaust place for this kind of repair.  On Saturday I took the car to Meineke on 4^th Ave in Yuma.  As I was driving there the car was not doing well.  I’d step on the gas and it would take a few seconds for it to actually go.  Every stop sign was a struggle for me to get moving again.  This was a 30 mile drive and I felt that if I couldn’t get the work done the same day I was going to be screwed.  I couldn’t manage another round trip. 

Meineke quoted me $350 over the phone, but my Nissan is a fancy expensive car and needed a fancy expensive catalytic converter.  I wasn’t surprised when they told me the part was going to cost more in the range of $600 and would take hours more labor than they anticipated.  This jived with what the last guy quoted me. 

What I didn’t expect was to walk under my car and see that my muffler was rusted out and clogged with carbon.  It’s supposed to be hollow, but when he knocked on it it sounded like it was stuffed full of crud.

So I need a new muffler too.  Yay.  I got quoted $1,400 for both repairs, labor, tax, etc.  Is that good?  I don’t know, but it’s still less than the first guy quoted me just for the catalytic converter.

More importantly, I barely got it there and I wasn’t about to start driving around trying to find another quote.  In fact—I wasn’t even going to drive it back to the campground.  That thing was staying there until it was fixed.

Since we’re going to Mexico I told her to do a full diagnostic and see if anything else needs to be repaired.  Then I installed Uber on my mom’s phone and got a ride back to the camp.  I’d never used it before.  I got a drive home with pleasant conversation and no complaint about making him go out to the middle of nowhere.  I’ll use this again if I need to in the future.

I explained to my mom that I had to leave the car there.  We agreed it was the best way to do it.  She had gotten our solar work done while I was gone and was happy to report it was only $80. 

Later on I hear the solar workers saying that the woman in the RV was waiting for her daughter to get back and couldn’t move the RV off their lot herself.  I yelled out the window that I was back.

“What?  How did you get home?”

“I took an Uber.”

“Wow!  You’re brave!”

What?  I didn’t feel brave.  I wasn’t sure if I was dealing with a technophobe or a sexist.

Anywho, I took the hint and moved the RV off their lot.  We dumped and got water, though before finding a spot to settle in.  No sense in moving it twice.  We’re parked a few hundred yards from the solar place because I wanted to be close in case anything they did for me wasn’t working.  This is also close to the Christian Service Center where we’re getting our mail forwarded.  It’s good to be in walking distance to stuff when you don’t have your follow car.

After the diagnostic, new tire rods, a leaky transmission line, an oil change, and a cracked power steering line added another $500 to our quote.  Ugh.  That’s $1,900.  But I don’t doubt the things they’re telling me.  It’s a ten year old SUV and the previous owners did not do routine upkeep.  Yes, we have to put money into it to keep it running well.  It’s better that than buying a new car.

Hopefully the work will be done by Thursday.  At that time I will see if this one guy who offered to give us a ride is still willing to do it, or I’ll call the guy who Ubered me the first time and see if we can work something out.  There’s no Uber in this remote area.

In the meantime, we’re stuck home.  We need groceries.  I’m stretching out the last of our food as best I can.  If we don’t have the car by Thursday we might have to go camp at a Walmart so we can get provisions while the work gets finished.

Back to Yuma

Today we left the Salton Sea to go back to a reliable boondock we wintered at last year.  It's the Imperial Dam LTVA (Long Term Visitor Area) in Winterhaven, CA, right by Yuma, AZ and Algodones Mexico (where my mom got her teeth done last winter).

This is the area we want to be in with our current travel goals.  We also like it because this is a place made for people who live in there RVs.  For $40 we get a 2 week permit that lets us camp, dump, fill water tanks, and dispose of our trash.  (You can get a season long permit for $180 which would cover Sept 15 to April 15).  There's also a coin shower at the more expensive camping area on the water.  It has everything we need and is quiet, peaceful, and safe.  We stayed in this area all winter last year.  I'm sure we'll do it again in the future.

We came here because this is where we got our solar installed for the new motorhome.  As you know, we blew our inverter and I couldn't install the new one because we upgraded to a 2,000 watt inverter and the leads on our wires won't fit.  We also think we have a battery problem because we get more life from our engine battery than from our six battery bank.  As soon as the sun goes down the auxiliary batteries read empty. 

This may be because we damaged them by draining them to empty, but we followed the instructions originally given to us by the solar place to the T.  We never let our charge control display drop lower than 12.1.

Anyway...

The solar place is on vacation, but the workers live in RVs surrounding it so one of them greeted us and explained they'd take care of us Friday after the holiday.  In the meantime they let us set up camp on their lot and gave us an electrical hook-up.  This is the solar  place by the Christian Service Center.  I can't recommend them enough.  They have done great work for us and always treat us fantastic.

We are loving this because we've been limping along on a 410 watt cigarette lighter inverter for the last couple of weeks.  It doesn't allow us to watch TV and use the computers at the same time.  Every time we disconnect the TV and satellite receiver we have to go through a long riggamaroll to get it started again.  It takes about 10 minutes for the satellite to finish its tests and find a signal every time we want to watch TV.  It's been a pain in the butt.

We're settled in with power once again.  We bought a 2 week permit, since there is no shorter option so we'll be here until December 5th.  We dumped, got rid of trash, and took on water.  It's nice to be back in familiar territory.  :)

I Don't Even Know Where to Begin

Well...we bought a new RV. 

We got it last month February, 2016

After we drove to Yuma in December and I hit a post with the trailer I never wanted to tow again.  I kept telling myself to just stay put, months at a time, and wait until the travel trailer was paid off before buying a new rig.

I mentioned before how I was stressing over the thought of a huge RV payment for the next 20 years.  I thought I could resist the lure of an $80,000 new motor home.

But I couldn't.  I never want to tow again.  NEVER!  I hate towing!  I HATE IT!  I hate trying to get gas at these gas stations meant for tiny cars.  I hated hitching up.  I hated not being able to boondock for extended periods because hooking and unhooking the trailer was such a pain in the ass.  I hated not being able to back into RV spaces and having to beg or bribe men to back in for me EVERY SINGLE TIME.

I don't hate living in the old RV, when we were parked, unhitched, and new we were staying put for a while.  The problem was that it was tough to write with all the distractions.  I needed more privacy and a better place to work besides a dinette where I was facing my mother.  Mostly though...I needed something that wasn't Hell to transport.

With this motor home and its generator we are going to be able to boondock on BLM land the way I'd always intended.  In fact, that's what we're doing right now.  We got out of Yuma to BLM in California and plan to stay here the month.  It's the LTVA near Senator's Wash.  If I have the energy (I've been lacking that lately) I will take pictures of our beautiful temporary home.

The new RV is awesome.  We already had a long trip in it when I went back to Nevada to register it.  I love driving this thing.  It handles like a dream.  I'm not stressing at the prospect of moving it here or there.  Getting gas is easy.  If I get in a corner it's easy to back up and turn around. 

It can incognito boondock in a parking lot too!  It only takes two spots.  The coach is fully accessible with the slides in!

 I have an office now.  Sadly the fricking table ripped off the wall, but I've put a new table in place. 

Here's how it was before.

I had to do a ghetto fix.  Yeah.  Making the $80k RV look dumpy already.

The table ripped out of the wall.  There just wasn't a good fix for that table.  It had one point of connection and the screws were in particle type wood.  I guess it wasn't meant to be in dinette form when we drove with it.  This is actually a bunk bed, but I keep it as a dinette to have as my office.  There's a curtain I can hang up for even more privacy.  I'm working here now.  I love it!

I also love my loft.  The cab over bunk is huge and I can sit up in there.  It's another place where I can use the computer.

Here it is before we moved in.

Here it is now.  My mom didn't want to be in the picture.

There's a bunch of other stuff to report on top of this.  We got a washing machine so we can truly stay off the grid.  We have solar getting installed on Friday.  We have new crappy inverters instead of my old mac-daddy one.  I will post about this stuff at another time.  I really need to get writing on the next book.  This $80k RV ain't gonna pay itself.  x_x  I also need to update the blog image.  Yargh.

In love with Yuma AZ

Welp, we've found our winter spot!  We're going to stay here until at least the end of March.  Yuma is everything we've been looking for with low crime and a low price tag.

I'm at an RV park with a gym again, something I booked deliberately.  The difference between this RV Park and the one in Nevada is that this gym has classes.  Add this to the fact that I'm on a diet with all my food delivered and it's just like being at an expensive spa!  (If I could get up early enough to do most of the classes).

We've got casinos, we've got big box stores, we've got low traffic and low RV rent.  I went swimming today!  Swimming!  In December!!

It's warm during the day, but does get really chilly at night.  We've had the heat kick on a few times. 

The people here are SUPER FRIENDLY.  We're all snow-birds!  There's no local clans like in Pahrump, though the locals I've met are super nice too!  I've actually gotten to know two of my neighbors here.

On top of all that...there's a church for my mom in walking distance.  She went yesterday and was welcomed warmly with a gift bag.  How cool is that?!

Yep...we're good here.  @-@  Time to dig in for a few months.

Shopping for a New RV?

Yuma Arizona is a bit of an RV Mecca.  It's not solely for RVs and snowbirds the way Quartzsite seems to be, but it is a very RV-Centric city.  The population swells in winter and lowers in summer, but there's a large static population that gives you year-round amenities:  Target, 99 Cent Only Stores, restaurants, department stores--things we lacked in Pahrump, NV.

Pahrump has the casino culture my mom and I love, but in that respect Yuma shines also.  We've found numerous Indian casinos all around us.  (I want to say 'Native American' casinos, but 'Indian Casino' appears to remain the standard term, even by the Native Americans who own and operate said casinos ::shrugs::.)

We drove through Quartzsite with thoughts of boondocking there a month or so, but we were wholly unimpressed.  What does Quartzsite really have going for it except for the level boondockable land?  A few big festivals...and what?  I don't like living in a place that's convenient to no where.  We already established this during our Thousand Trails days.  I'm not going to boondock in Quartzsite just because it's cheap.  I need a good quality of life to go with my frugality.

Yuma offers that, and it's several degrees warmer than Quartzsite.  We don't have a clan like many Quartzsitesians.  We're new to this and don't have a network of other RVers to connect with.  Quartzsite just isn't for us.

Yuma?  Now in Yuma I can see sticking around long term.  All winter in fact.  That's the current plan.

Many months ago I was shedding the chains of Thousand Trails and excitedly booked our next few months at various RV parks.  Pahrump, then Yuma, then San Diego. 

We were booked at the Mission Bay RV Park in San Diego for the month of January.  This park costs $875/month but I felt I could swing it, and I felt it would be worth it.  I'm sure it is worth it, but I'm not sure I can swing it.  I'm a writer who depends on selling ebooks for a living.  The climate has changed with new Amazon rules and I'm faltering right now.  I could probably still afford the RV park, but I wouldn't have any money left over to actually enjoy San Diego.  The huge rent would be a stressor. 

I'd given a $220 deposit back when I booked the park.  A pleasant conversation with an understanding reservationist today cancelled my reservation and will get me back the deposit minus a $25 fee.  I really hope to see that credit on my card in the next few days.  Then I can breathe a deep sigh of relief.  San Diego is not in the cards for us right now.  Saving money is!

The $350/month rent at this park in Yuma is much more doable for me right now.  After that accident I had on the way here I'm ready to dig in and just stay here until the end of March...maybe even April.  We'll see how it goes.

I don't like towing the RV.  I'm still not able to back into a space and I struggle to get gas on the road.  My little SUV huffs and puffs to pull our home and needs gas way too often.  I don't get to gas up at those big diesel gas pumps.  I have to struggle into gas stations that were meant for cars.  It's a huge pain.

The answer to my travel woes is a Class C or Class A RV.  Yuma is loaded with RV dealerships.  So we spent the day visiting three of them.

La Mesa RVs had a 2004 Itasca on it's web site that I felt would suit our needs well and was under $30k.  So we went there first.  The unit I want is not in Arizona.  :(  The sales agent showed us a bunch of other options, all over $60k.  We oooed and ahhhed at the beautiful rigs--and my stomach and chest got tight with worry.  There really wasn't anything perfect for us, so we moved on.

My mom liked RV World, and the salesman was super nice an helpful.  La Mesa had preapproved us for $60k worth of financing.  RV World said $100k.  And my stomach got even tighter.  We were showed immaculate brand new rigs with all the bells and whistles.  Gorgeous fixtures.  Wondrous space.  Cab-over bunks I could climb in with full sized beds.  My mom fell in love with the priciest rig we saw.

And I started feeling sick.

We escaped without any paperwork signed.  I told the guy to call us if a nice used class C came in with the floor plan we needed that was under $30k.

As we're driving back I told my mom that I just couldn't buy a $60-$100k RV.  What I valued about our life above all was our freedom, and a gigantic monthly payment every month for the next 20 years was going to take that freedom away from me.  I'd be scrimping and scrounging and working my ass off to try to keep up with the payments.  No matter how many 'good' months I had in the future I would likely never have enough to pay down that debt significantly.  It would be a millstone around my neck until I was my mother's age.

The better solution was just to move the trailer less frequently and tough it out when moving time came.

Our current trailer has one problem:  Moving it.  This includes going from point A to B where I'd have to get gas, and parking it when I got to the multitude of parks out there that don't have pull-thru spots.

But once we're at our destination, parked an unhitched, this is the perfect RV for us.  My mom has her bedroom with her nice new mattress in the front.  I have my bedroom with a shelf for all my stuff in the back.  We have a nice big bathroom that's easy to maneuver in.  I have my 'office' in the RV dinnette.  My mom has her computer/lounging space in the RV sofa.  She has a card table in front of her to eat her meals and use her computer.  We like being able to disconnect our propane tanks and drive them somewhere to get them filled.  We like boondocking with our solar panels.  We have a nice kitchen and plenty of space.  We just like our RV!!

And I only owe $22,800 on it.  Seven months ago this was $32,000.  I've been paying it down like crazy and at this rate I may be free from that payment in two or three years.  That's less stress on me to hustle and make money.  More freedom to spend time having fun instead of worrying about bills.

This is our only debt and debt is a curse that robs you of your freedom.  I just can't take on what amounts to a house payment!  If I get a motorized RV it has to be 10 or 15 years old so I won't be saddled with huge debt.  And then I might be buying a host of problems and a short life-span of usable full-timing.  I just don't want this.

So we're sticking with the EVO.  I'll just have to keep struggling to tug it along.  It's worth it!  It's freedom, and that's the most important thing in the world!     

Yuma Arizona and Dental in Mexico

So yesterday we went to the RV park I'd booked in Yuma Arizona and settled in.  It's a day early, but Pahrump was just too cold and we were itching to go.  After the accident on the way I'm now itching not to go ANYWHERE.  I kind of want to cancel my San Diego RV park booking and just stay here the rest of winter.  Yuma's a really nice city.  It has everything me and my mom like and it's as warm as we're going to get it seems.

Anywho, my intake flange for my water connection cracked in half in Pahrump due to getting brittle with cold.  I just replaced it myself with a new flange from Al's RV shop here in Yuma.  Hopefully I did the repair right and it will work out.  It seemed simple...but RV stuff seldom is.  I'll keep an eye out for leaks the next few days.

After getting the part from the RV store I took my mother to Mexico.  She had decided against getting dental work done there after seeing some crazy prices online.  We still came down because she's never been to Mexico.  I wanted to stock up on those antidepressants that worked out for me too.  We parked in the Q casino lot for $6 and walked on in.

I got my pills and we wandered around.  Spent $20 on a stupid hat that I'm sure my mom will only wear once.  She bought the same ball in a cup toy I'd bought for her because she wants to give it to her grandson.  My price: $10.  Her price after speaking in Spanish:  $5.  Mierda!

Anyway, the sidewalks are cave-like due to the shop canopies.  You can't walk five steps without being harangued.  This woman chased my mom down with a hooded shirt, and she just didn't want it, you know?  I looked at jewelry at a stand and the woman started the same scam the guy did the last time I was there, 'Please buy something.  I'm so hungry.  I don't have money for a taco for lunch.'  Ugh.  I bought earrings for $8.  I'm a sucker, but I also applaud her entrepreneurial spirit.

We finally went into one of the little dentists just to have a break from the peddlers.  This was a pretty enough office, and who knows, the guy might be a good dentist.  But he claimed my mom's teeth were too loose for a bridge (something the other dentist refuted with an X-Ray) and tried to sell her a $900 removable plastic denture thing instead.  We really wanted something permanent for her.  (Not implants, however, since a blood disease makes any surgery potentially deadly for her).

We continued on and found a dentist with ADA certified plaques.  So we went in.  I believe we found one of the quality dentists, Isaias Iniguez D.D.S.  The office was nicer and better equipped than many USA dentists.  The customer service was top-notch.  They drove us back across the border at the end of the session as a courtesy.

That's not to say that they aren't out to upsell you and try to get you to buy more services than you need.  The woman at the desk (a sweetheart) is a shrewd saleswoman and she was aggressive in trying to get rid of the mercury fillings in my mother's mouth.  Not something we cared about.  Not something she really needed.  Every dentist offers us veneers.  This is a want, not a need.  Being able to chew is a need for my poor mom.  (The friendly professional woman also pitied me for my yellow teeth, which are the color of aged parchment.  I don't care.  I'm not whitening them.)

Anyway, my mother is suffering with a 30 year old removable denture thing that is causing an allergic reaction in her mouth and damaging her gums and other teeth.  It's WAY past time to get rid of that junk.

We're getting her a 7 tooth permanent bridge for her upper teeth made out of posh zirconia (I couldn't get them to offer a cheaper material) for $3,500.  It's expensive, but cheaper than in the USA and direly needed.  Her appointment is next Wednesday.  I'll post an update on how it goes.  FYI, they could have done it tomorrow, but we need time to gather the cash.

Tomorrow we're going RV shopping.  I dream of a class-C with an easy to climb up bunk  ;_;  I'm so over towing this trailer.

Leaving Tomorrow and a Mexico Mix-Up

Tomorrow we hitch up and get the heck out of this frozen tundra.  We are going as far south from Pahrump Nevada as one can go without being in Mexico, Yuma Arizona. 

Since we're leaving two days early we're probably boondocking one night in Quartzsite and then one night in casino parking in Yuma.  Then we'll move into the RV park that I booked and paid a deposit on.

The truth is...I actually already drove down to Yuma two days ago.  I've been having issues with my antidepressant for a while and finally just stopped taking it in October. 

Once it was out of my system I had a crisis I'm not going to go into.  It told me I needed to be on something, but I wasn't going to go back on a medication that wasn't taking care of the depression.  I got in touch with a psychiatrist friend who advised me to get on a regimen of Wellbutrin.  It's an antidepressant derived from amphetamines, so you can benefit from the effects in a few days rather than weeks.  Unfortunately I couldn't get an appointment with him or anyone else to prescribe me the new antidepressant.  It was Thanksgiving week.

You can walk into a pharmacy in Mexico and get prescription pills without a prescription.  I left my mom and the cats in Nevada and drove the five and a half hour drive to Mexico alone.

I had hear you just go to the Quechan Casino, pay to park in their lot, and then walk to Mexico.  This is true, but there are two Quechan Casinos, Quechan and the "Q".  I WENT TO THE WRONG ONE.  I was driving around like an idiot trying to find the border crossing.  Finally, I just asked some guy on the street how to get to Mexico.  The guy sent me to San Luis Mexico.  Not Los Algodones.

Los Algodones:  Safe during the day.  Tourist Trap.  Easy in, easy out.  Everyone speaks English and takes American money.  Pharmacies, Doctors, Dentists, Glasses.

San Luis:  Desolate.  Scary.  AK-47s

The border crossing for San Luis is 20 miles from Yuma at the end of the 95.  I wanted to get the stupid pills ASAP, so I went into Mexico after 4pm Mountain Time, with dusk fast approaching.  I thought maybe 'San Luis' was the province name and that this was Algodones. 

No.  This is not where you're supposed to go.  This is not where any gringa who doesn't speak Spanish should be going, particularly when the sun was descending fast.

Once I had crossed the border into San Luis I was greeted by a man in military fatigues holding an AK-47.

@_@  WTF IS THIS?!

There were several more armed soldiers scattered around.  The street I entered into was empty and the stores were already closing.  There were none of the pharmacies, dentists, doctors, etc., I'd expected to find en masse.   

It quickly dawned on me that I was NOT in Algodones.  My wide-eyed horror caught the attention of an old man who quickly ushered me off the street.  I found myself in a store that had bottles of Viagra and Cialis in a glass display case.  So I asked the worker in my horrible broken Spanish if he had Wellbutrin.  He offered to sell me 15 pills for $35.  This was an obvious rip-off (though in retrospect, maybe he meant Pesos?) but I figured I could just get some here so I could at least start on the prescription and then I'd go to Algodones tomorrow and get more.  

He called two places but couldn't get anyone to bring the pills.  So he said that he could just sell me Xanax in the meantime and then I could send him a Moneygram and he'd mail the Wellbutrin to me when he got it in. 

"Yes!  Of course!  That sounds awesome!" I gleefully said like idiotic moron, "I'll just carry a scheduled drug over the border and have it seized by Federal agents who will probably charge me with drug trafficking!  Oh, and we've known each other so long, a whole five minutes, I'm sure you'll send me pills after I send a Moneygram that I can't possibly get back once it's sent.  This sounds great!" 


I got the Hell out of there and ran back to the border crossing to get back into the USA. 

There was a line...a HUGE line...a monstrous line.  When I got to the front I realized there were two lines and I was in the stupidly long one.  They both went to the same place.  x_x  Ugh.  It took me two hours to get to the checkpoint.  I hate lines.  It was cold.  The sun went down.  I was in Mexico after dark, but the soldiers with AK-47s were wandering around us and made me feel slightly safe.  That was probably naive.  I obviously don't know anything.

It was easy enough to get through the border with my passport card.  I ran back to my car and went to the hotel I'd book in Yuma.  Still without pills.  Today was Thanksgiving and in my rush to get to Mexico I hadn't eaten all day.  I drove around until I found a Chinese restaurant that was open and finally got something to eat.  Then I bought a GoPhone from Walgreens (because I hadn't owned a cell phone prior to this) and called my mom.  She had a much nicer Thanksgiving than me because the pastor of her church had invited her over to share their feast.

The next morning I researched online and found the correct 'Quechan' casino called the Q.  Things went a lot easier.  You park in their pay lot for $6 and walk into Mexico.  This time I saw a true tourist trap and no soldiers with guns.  Hawkers hassle you every few steps.  I was suffering from lack of sleep and proper medication and was rude to them.  I shouldn't have been, but later, when one of them tried to scam me, I felt less guilty.

I was sold some Mexican version of Wellbutrin, 100 pills for $35.  This was at the purple Liquis pharmacy you see right as you cross into Mexico.  No prescription needed.  Great.  I bought some prozac as a back-up but probably won't be taking it.  That was $4 for 100 pills. 

(The Wellbutrin seems legit, and I am having positive effects from it. I will be going back to stock up.)

On my way out I stopped at an open-air gift shop place and bought my mom a Ballero or ball in a cup toy, since she'd played with one as a child.  The guy selling the Ballero asked me if I wanted Xanax, Oxycontin, Adderall, or Ativan--all drugs that are generally illegal to take over the border. 

I said I wasn't interested in going to prison, but thanks anyway.  He assured me it would be fine, because he truly cared about me from the two seconds we had spoken.  He tried to take my arm and walk me down the street to the "Pharmacy" he ran out of his house.  He assured me once again that I would not get caught because they put them in fake bottles so I can carry them across the border.  WTF!!  I broke free of him and headed back toward the crossing. 

As I'm leaving this is what he said, "You got to eat a big feast of turkey yesterday.  I didn't have no turkey.  I have nothing.  You should buy at least something."  -_-  I did buy something.  I bought the overpriced Mexican toy.  And he was awful portly for someone who doesn't have anything to eat.  I'm insulted that he tried to pull that shit.  Is any tourist this dumb?  Why am I seen as an easy mark?

I'm really annoyed that I have to fight so much in order to do business in the 'good' Mexico.  Everyone has such a low opinion of the country.  I felt this was unwarranted ignorance, and that the places that are safe to go should not be prejudged.  But when people are trying to do this shady business, for someone who wasn't even interested, it's making me understand the bad reputation.  People like this creep are just ruining Mexico for tourists. 

Algodones is relatively safe.  Go during the day.  Leave early so you don't have a long line at the checkpoint.  Don't go to the shady brothel/bar.  Don't buy stuff you know you're not supposed to.  Don't trust anyone.  Don't pay for something unless you have the merchandise in hand, even at the big Liquis pharmacy.  Don't assume you're getting what you asked for.  Write down the name of the active ingredient in English and Spanish before you go and make sure that's what it says on the bottle.  Don't pay someone a large bill and let them run off to get you change--they won't come back.  Don't stay in Mexico after dark!  The police are as corrupt as these vendors.  They will not be on your side.  You're just a walking dollar sign.  You're a privileged American and they are in a land of turmoil.  They don't feel any obligation to deal with you fairly. 


I've also heard not to go to the dentists the hawkers try to take you to.  There are reputable dentists there that don't use hawkers because word of mouth brings them traffic.  A Canadian RV blog tells of the horror in his mouth after going to a dentist a hawker brought him to.  They're not all good.

That's the impression my short visit left on me.  When I return with my mother, maybe I'll see it differently.  As it stands, I'm not impressed.

What I am impressed with is the city of Yuma.  It looks like a fine metropolis!!  I can't wait to live there.  I'll report more on that later on.  Hopefully this will end up as our winter base, since it looks really nice.