Rusty's rusty...

Last Thursday Meg and I re-sorted and reorganized all the many things that we had decided to take back to BC and carefully Tetris'd them into Rusty, our trusty 2000 Dodge Dakota. Around midnight, not being able to sleep, we unpacked and repacked Rusty so the weight was distributed more evenly and the front end did not lift off the pavement. The next morning we bid farewell to our colourful casa, the pounding waves of the ocean and the balmy tropical breezes and headed up the road to Ajijic...the beginning of another 5000 kilometer adventure.

The drive to Ajijic along the Colima-GDL highway was tense. Since the road is under expansion, there seems to be more jockeying for the front of the line by the innumerable loco drivers - a feat made even more dangerous by the lack of shoulders in some stretches and inevitable oncoming traffic. Yikes! Nevertheless, we had an uneventful drive to Ajijic to overnight with our buds, D y E and their ever-welcoming menagerie.

The next morning we left fairly early, managed to skirt around GDL and were on the road north to Tepic only to get caught in bumper-to-bumper traffic on the outskirts of Guad for 10 km or so to a military checkpoint. It's amusing, and also annoying, when encountering a traffic slowdown in Mexico, to see a 2-lane highway all of a sudden turn into a 4-lane highway. Shoulders on both sides become lanes with cars squeezing past other cars, side mirrors playing tag, drivers looking for the glimmer of a chance to get to the front of the pack. Once past the checkpoint it was smooth sailing.

For the most part the cuota (toll) road is well paved and as straight as possible for the terrain but there are some rough patches and many twists and turns through the mountains.


Rusty performed very well under her load but Meg commented that there was a bit of play in the steering and the steering column was getting noisy again (a problem that we could not get solved with the resources available by our mechanic).


In the afternoon we drove into Mazatlan, had a bite to eat and rolled into the Xtasis hotel-motel on the north side of town.
Hotel-motels are a common establishment in Mexico. They provide a room with parking in an adjoining parking spot, usually with an automatic garage door, offering discreet privacy for clients for variable hourly rates. We chose the 12 hour rate rather than the 6. We were in for the night. The Xtasis wasn't as posh as other hotel-motels that we have visited. This one didn't provide free cervezas but there were slippers, a shower cap, lotions and lube...and the standard porn channels on the TV. Our one mistake was to pick a Saturday night for our sojourn. Around 2a.m., a very loud and inebriated party of two clamored into the suite next door and proceeded to boisterously sing along to Spanish tunes on the radio as a mode of foreplay.


Our wakeup call came at 5a.m. (there was a time change somewhere along the road) so we had an even earlier start to the day.  I find the drive north from Mazatlan, although scenic at times, can get a little monotonous with the miles and miles of corn and tobacco fields and endless greenhouses. I even took a turn at the wheel - Meg tends to fade after 6 hours or so... I noticed that Rusty's steering had quite some play but I tend not to drive that much so didn't think a lot about it. It was a long day of driving from Mazatlan, the sun was setting, so we pulled into Santa Ana for a rest.

For some odd reason we had not planned our wardrobe for the cold weather which caught us by surprise on Monday morning. Here we are, dressed in shorts, tanktops and flipflops and it's just about freezing in Santa Ana. Back into Rusty, heat cranked on, driving through light rain/snow...well it is the last day of winter, isn't it? About an hour later we got to Nogales and the frontera. We mistakenly chose the 'fast lane', passing a long line of vehicles waiting on the other side of the barrier. It was too late to turn around so once to the front we got escorted to a break in the barrier, inched into line, saving ourselves at least an hour's wait...it only took 35 minutes to get through the border...no problema and we were in the US of A.

In 3 hours we were in Tempe at the home of Juan y Pat, grateful that the skies had cleared and the temperature was pleasant.  It had snowed in Tempe on Saturday.

Meg was uneasy about Rusty's steering issue so we trucked on over to Tempe Dodge for an assessment.

The inspector took her for a spin then checked her out on a hoist. He returned to us with a sullen expression on his face and would not allow us to drive the truck. His diagnosis was the mid-shaft steering column was holding together with a shard of steel...the rest of it had rusted away due to Ontario salt, Cuyutlan salt, potholes, bumpy roads and time.
At any point in our drive, one dastardly tope (speedbump) or pothole or rock could have lead to the whole shaft breaking -> no steering -> no control -> pretty scary consequences...I shudder to think!! Anyway, Tempe Dodge was very attentive...got the part shipped in overnight and fixed Rusty...yippee!!

We can now enjoy the wonders of Tempe and outlying areas and then continue on our on-going adventure. Feliz viaje!!