Feb 24, 2008
Villahermosa, the second time, ?the field? El Gordo Y Poncho RV Park
We left the Hotel Parking lot this morning after a pretty orderly line up of RV?s headed for the one and only dump station at the exit of the Hotel Parking lot. It was a surprise, as we had not counted on any dump facilities at all. Terry and I slept in as were advised that our travel from here on out will involve some long days and we?ll get going early. It was supposed to be an easy travel day as it was Sunday but we have concluded that that Sundays include as many or more truck (18 wheelers) as any other day. Maybe even more as our expectations were for fewer! Once again I mention that there are not many RV Parks in the area. The only RV?s we see driving along the road are in our caravan. So it?s easy to see how a park could not survive with so little business. Along the drive we noticed the modes of transportation and that the local butcher shop was open. I did not buy any beef.
The narrow road into Villahermosa was familiar as we were in this park on January 30. It seems like so long ago. When we here last time, we enjoyed their beautiful public pool. Today every Mexican in this city of 100,000 is here. There is literally NO room to get into the pool as it is filled with so many children. Most of us opted to skip this pool today (can you imagine the PH count with so many kids) and relax in our rigs with the generators running the Air Conditioning full blast. I am becoming weary of the humidity. Jack and Shirley transported me to Wal-Mart and I bought a broasted chicken and lots more bottled water. Oh the small familiar things of which I have become so grateful! It will be a normal meal tonight. We have a trip briefing at 4 and a long travel day through mountains tomorrow.
Since it is a slow news day I will share with you a bit of trivia from our last 305-mile drive. The question was posed, how many Topes do you think we crossed today? We took guesses and wished we had kept better track when the prize was to be a bottle of Tequila. I guessed 72. It turns out the answer was 98 and won by Terri G who does not even drink! However, the prize was only an airlines size bottle. We had a chuckle. Those topes are VERY effective in keeping down speed in the zones they put them. It is considerably better than radar or SLOW signs. Of course the alignment, tire and muffler shops all benefit from the use of the topes too. Due to topes, our caravan has lost a tow car, a microwave, a light fixture, two tires and those are only the confessed items. There may have been more. These roads are very hard. Our new Davis TV is fine.
Ok the news of the day picked up. When I returned from my Wal-Mart run and hollered in for Terry to help with groceries, he did not answer. I did not realize it but he was sound asleep in our rig. When he awakened he told me his arms were on fire and itching. He was sure that he had brushed against some of the bushes when hooking up the electric (which is too high a voltage to work anyway) I asked if he wanted a cool paper towel, ice, or water or anything and he just wanted to be left alone. He was in pain and miserable. I did a google search on nettles and the symptoms did not seem to fit exactly. I went to the trip briefing but took with me the new big can of spray mosquito killer we bought 2 days ago. Thankfully Walter can translate Spanish for us and the new can (with 20% free) was actually a spray insecticide for aerial spraying. It clearly stated (in Spanish) do not get on skin and see a Doctor if exposed. Back up a few bytes of information. Terry has had malaria two times (a casualty of Viet Nam) and Dengue Fever (also a mosquito born disease,) so he is somewhat, no VERY obsessive about not getting any mosquito bites. We had been here in Villahermosa on January 30 when we got lots of bug bites so we were prepared this time to not be bitten. His legs got a dose of the OFF I had on hand, and then I sprayed his arms and hands with his new stuff. So much for our attempt. At the briefing Shirley knew that I had sprayed my husband with ? Raid? and as it was her turn to award Goofy, I got it. Terry was not in attendance. He is doing fine after using lots of our water. Moral of story buy lots of your own stuff before coming to Mexico.
Mr. Green, (Who broke Shirley?s wine glass yesterday) had a lovely replacement in a pink bag for ceremonies tonight. This group knows how to take care of one another!
Statistics:
Motorhome Miles Driven: 98.8
Temperatures: High 93 Low 72 Humidity 95%
GPS Coordinates: N 17 58.798 W 93 02.764