Mar 30, 2011
San Carlos/Lukeville/USA!!!
We slept in!!!! We only left San Carlos at 8:25AM but the rest of our Tres Amigos friends stopped for fuel & Terri & Mike just kept visiting, so adios amigos!! We passed the prison on the far side of Hermosillo about 10:00AM where we saw a ?? Transito Policia take down a ‘surfer van’ plated California. He was our decoy and we got through sin ticket or ‘attempted’ ticket. Maybe he had seen our ‘Sindicatura’ signs in the windows! Just outside of Hermosillo the median has been planted with orange trees.
It does beautify the city which has really grown and improved over the past ten years....
...but I see it as a waste....look at the rotting fruit!
At KM 111 (after Hermosillo) we had a brief Military inspection where the only question was “where are you from” and no one came on board. Be sure to use the left auto lane here. In fact this entire trip coming & going we were only ‘boarded’ three times.
Just prior to Santa Ana there is about 10KM of single lane traffic which is slow going. Santa Ana itself has really spruced up in the past 12 months, lots of paint, color and new stores. Looks great! The road from here to Sonoyta (Lukeville) now has consecutive KM numbering. YEAH!!!!!!! The road is considered an Autopista as far as Altar with a speed of 110KM and just the one toll. For a 40’RV & toad is was 102 pesos.
Lovely old church in Alter
- From Altar on, the road is a newly constructed & paved 2 lane with wide shoulders which allows for passing without slowing your speed which is about 100km for the most part. Does anyone else remember the huge craters in the road and the years and years of road construction?
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As you can see, we are driving 1/2 on the shoulder as is the vehicle in front of us as are the yellow & red trucks coming towards us, thus allowing the oncoming red car to pass with no one slowing their speed. Brilliant!!
- At KM 92, which is about 10 KM before Carboca, we saw what is to be a new facility, possibly for those traveling to Puerto Penasco. Will this be the “new” location for Immigracion & vehicle import??? We did ask when we got to the existing facility but all they could say was “possibly”! “Who knows” “Maybe, no se”!!
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I see this as a great deal of confusion...as in not doing a returno of paperwork at the right place.
- What I found interesting is that the new turn off to Puerto Penasco is a few KM further along at KM 108!!
- We finally got to KM227, the current returno area for your vehicle permit and Immigracion paperwork and found a few changes. The Banjercito person requested we move the RV closer to the booth and did NOT have a hand held machine as I read on RV.net a few weeks ago. Instead she took a photo of the car VIN #, the serial # on the side of the car door and a photo of our sticker on the window and finally a photo of the document we were handing back. When I asked her why, she said they had a new boss and that this was the new procedure to be sure a vehicle was truly being exported!! We were the only ones there and this took 10 minutes!!
- We were not long on the road when at KM248 we had a detour.
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This was a 3 km detour that took just 10 minutes.
- The good news is that the road construction seems to be completed & with just a few minor adjustments should be open very very soon. At the end of the 3KM we had to cross over the new road and down to what we thought was another detour but turned out to be a military inspection. Be sure to use the left lane here and you should be waived through. One more climb up to the main road and you are almost in Lukeville. Good place to fuel up here, diesel was only 9.09/liter.
- As we approached the US border we saw a sign that read ” End of Hassle Free Zone”, we were laughing so hard that I forgot to take a photo. Colin said, ‘does that mean we start to get hassled now that we are leaving Mexico?’ You betcha!!!
- Enough for now. The entire border crossing deserves it’s own post. Meanwhile suffice to say we arrived safely in Ajo, Arizona about 5:30PM having driven 389 miles today.
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Certainly not an Isla sunset but still pretty. I just didn't know how to get rid of the Chevron station!!!
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we are leaving tomorrow morning where to you plan to b around 5 pm tomoorow
We are in Lake Havasu till April 2 and only heading north from the Bakersfield area on Monday the 4th. Guess we’ll see you at home.
Glad you arrived back in the USA safe and sound and had no problems with the drive.
Kevin and Ruth