We do maintenance, repairs, and cleaning on a fairly regular basis with the RV. But it’s been ten months since I’ve had a good place to bust out some of the larger projects on my list.
By my estimates, we’ve got at least another four months living full-time in the RV, then maybe some time in Canada in the fall. Or, we’ll try and sell the RV, once we know what’s next. Or maybe store it. Who knows.
Either way, I’d like to make a dent in the list before we get back to the Pacific Northwest, so I can be doing other things than just RV projects (as “fun” as they tend to be).
Our Mexico-USA RV Journey 2024-25
On today’s list, repair the accordion shade on the dinette window, replace the TPMS sensor batteries that got fried in the Veracruz wind storms, and get the new Starlink kit installed and running.
Next it will be wash roof, clean roof hatches, spray down undercarriage and lube joints, clean out garage, wash RV body, awning, and windshield cover, drain and adjust water heater, and the list goes on.
I’ve been trying to entice Noe to help me with RV projects for a while, and finally convinced him today. I consider that a small victory in itself.
Riley’s not quite there yet. He’d rather be reading barefoot.
On to independent school. Each day, the boys do half with Lori and half on their own with workbooks or the iPads. And so it goes.
Unlike last summer, there’s been a steady stream of overlanders coming and going here. And many more rigs parked.
Pepe’s is one of the closer RV Parks to the Mexico City International Airport, so quite a few travelers use it as a place to store their vehicles while they head back to their home countries (mostly Europe) for a visit before carrying on to wherever they’re ultimately headed.
We actually had lengthy overlaps with the owners of both of these two expedition vehicles:
The one on the left (above) is owned by a French family we met in Teotihuacan last September. The boys became buddies with their 15- year-old son who liked to play chess, card games, and hide-and-go-seek with the boys.
In fact, we found out just the other day that he was the same kid who created custom Pokemon cards that were gifted to Noe and Riley by a traveling friend, Sheilagh—a Canadian overlander who we’ve met up with at various places.
The vehicle on the right (also above) is owned by a gregarious Australian retired couple who overlapped a couple of weeks with us outside of Oaxaca.
These automatic water fill stations are pretty handy…if you have a car. Fortunately, we’re able to trade out our five-gallon garafones at Pepe’s.
Palm Sunday in Tepotzotlan. It’s definitely starting to feel festive and busy in town, especially in the central plaza.
It’s hard for the palm-makers to keep up with demand.
Tepotzotlan’s famous UNESCO site, the former college of San Francisco Javier, now home to the Museo Nacional del Virreinato—always the center of activity in town, especially during religious holidays and festivals.
No festival in Mexico—religious or otherwise—would be complete without carnival rides, and the Galeon was the one that caught the boys attention more than any other.
Noe really wanted to ride the Galeon. We returned the next day, but he had changed his mind—citing safety concerns…
We thought that would be that, but nope. Riley, out of nowhere, said he wanted to do it. A bit surprising considering that, in spite of a lot of tough talk, he’s not typically our daredevil.
We thought a minimum height restriction might nip this in the bud, but again, nope. According to the ticket girl, they’ve had kids as young as one years old on this thing.
Viva Mexico!
I stayed with Noe…because someone had to. And…because Lori volunteered to go on the Galeon with Riley.
Riley pretty much looked like this the whole time.
There may have been some screaming…a lot of screaming. But that’s not exactly out of character for Riley. In the end, he was all smiles.
I asked him jokingly if he wanted to go again and he said, “YES!” I’ll just assume the real answer was a resounding “NO!!!” and that was just Riley being Riley. But maybe I’m wrong.
“No Parking. Not even a little bit!”
During the holiday breaks in Mexico, there are often kids camps in the larger towns and cities. When we lived in La Paz, there were always lots of options.
But La Paz is a state capital of 250,000 residents. Tepotzotlan, despite being a tourism draw and an hour or two outside of Mexico City, is still a town of some 50,000. Let’s just say, there weren’t a ton of obvious options in this respect.
Lori’s search initially yielded what appeared to be a Chess camp. Noe learned chess in school in La Paz and liked playing, and Riley was eager to learn more. Perfect.
The boys were excited and we thought it might be a good opportunity for the kids to meet and play with other kids. But not so much. In the end, it was more like a private tutoring session.
Noe really enjoyed it, but it wasn’t exactly what we (or he) had in mind. Fortunately, later in the week, we found out about an actual week-long Kids Camp that was happening in town on the week after Easter. The boys can’t wait.
In other news, our provisions were getting pretty thin, and a Bodega Aurrera trip was long overdue (Bodega is sort of Walmart’s younger Mexican cousin).
We’re all stocked up now for the first time since leaving Veracruz City.
FaceTime with the grandparents!
A little something for the boys arrived from Amazon. The boys’ headphones both bit the dust at around the same time, so I put in an order to Amazon.com.mx, in part to see how long it would take to get here.
Every night, the blinding security lights of the massive Amazon distribution center up on the hill light up the night sky. The light pollution from the industrial parks to the north combined with the lights of CDMX to the south destroy any hope of seeing many stars here.
But…it has made me wonder how long it would take for an Amazon order to arrive here at Pepe’s, less than a mile away.
Today I got my answer: Two days without Prime. Could I have received it within the hour with Prime? I’ll never know.
On Good Friday, the streets of Tepo were packed with competing processions making their way around town. Fortunately, we had nowhere we needed to be in a hurry. Instead, we stopped and watched at various corners around town. Quite a sight.
Today’s big project is removing the surface rust from the wheel simulators that snuck in while we were in Veracruz.
Not nearly as hard as I thought it would be. After trying several methods, I can tell you what works: Aluminum foil (the non-shiny side). It doesn’t scratch the metal hub caps (aluminum is softer) and the chemical reaction between the two surfaces lifts the rust right off. Then, a little bit of chrome polish and boom.
I’ll leave it to you to decide which is before and after in the photo above.
For us, Easter is usually a low-key affair. Per the usual, no elaborate easter baskets packed with goodies. But the boys did get to do something they don’t often get to do for Easter: Dye Easter eggs!
Unfortunately, after that last big shopping run, we didn’t exactly think through where to store a dozen hardboiled Easter eggs for two days. Guess Lori and I will have to remove a couple of beers tonight to make some room.
The sacrifices we make for our boys.
