Back in the U S of A..........

I wonder how many times that particular statement has been said....not enough to do the research on it, but I do wonder! We had a totally uneventful border crossing, just the way we like it...Bill thinks it may have something to do with the officer military stickers on our rig and car, but who knows. I had picked the Nogales border crossing because it was reported to be the easiest spot for an RV to cross. A few miles before the border we pulled over and turned in our vehicle "TIP" permits. They have to actually physically remove them with a razor blade. The car permits are only valid for the time your visa is good for (up to 6 months), but the RV TIP is good for 10 years. You have to give them quite a large deposit, on your credit card, when you get your TIP and you don't receive it back until you return your TIP. The problem with leaving it on the RV is that if something happens to that RV and it doesn't make it back to the country to have it removed, within those ten years, you will not be able to receive your $400 deposit back, or be allowed to bring another vehicle into the country. So even though we are planning to return to Mexico in December, we had it removed. Especially because you do not need a TIP for Baja, so, unless we do the whole Ferry crossing again and travel through mainland Mexico, we will not need it.

First stop in the states was at Costco for gas - surprisingly to us, gas is cheaper in the U.S (well, in Arizona anyway!) We stocked up on Bill's favorite - Costco's American Vodka; scored some amazing vegan black bean soup and a wonderful quinoa/brown rice blend as well and we were off to Casa Grande RV Resort for two nights to regroup.  The park was pretty empty but had a nice pool and jacuzzi in addition to a few pool tables. Bill washed Bebe, who was absolutely filthy from all of our travels and I caught up on...what, I am not exactly sure! Oh, maybe it was our blog!

We moved on to Yuma on Thursday - originally we were headed here to replace our house batteries that had been giving us problems since December, but after calling the store where we had purchased them two years prior, we found out it was cheaper to buy the golf cart batteries we had seen at Costco. So Yuma ended up just being a stop along the way to California. We stayed at The Palms, another deserted AZ resort at the end of April, but this place was "firsta classa," as my dad would say! The grounds are meticulously cared for, the guard escorts you to your site, the work out room is fabulous, the two pools and jacuzzi are great and the billiards room - spectacular!