Salinas |
The drive from Calgary was smooth as we headed for the US border crossing at Coutts Crossing, just south of Lethbridge. We had picked up a Uhaul trailer for our trip south, packed it with stuff we could not give up or thought we might need, hooked it up and left Okotoks, Alberta around 9:00am July 13th.
We expected questions when we arrived at the border but they never materialised which was a relief as I did not want to unload the whole trailer again. We handed over our Nexus Cards and Passports to the US Customs official, he asked a couple of questions, asked us to lower the rear windows, peaked inside the truck then bid us goodbye and sent us on our merry way.
We reached Dillon MO. ten hours later, and were glad Donna had the forethought to use her Ipad to book a king bed in the Best Western while we were on the road, as we snapped up the last one available that night.
The next morning, we hit the road early. The drive through Salt Lake City was also clear.
The Mormon Tabernacle Left of Centre with the Dome.
I wondered why Calgary would not do an HOV lane system on the Deerfoot like the one we were now on. It would certainly ease traffic issues and one nice thing about the way they have traffic organised is - large trucks or vehicles pulling any trailers are not permitted in either of the two left hand lanes at any time making the flow of traffic much more fluid. 
HOV Lanes on Interstate 15 through Salt Lake City - Minimum two people per Vehicle to travel in this Lane
We eventually pulled into Mesquite at 5pm local time on Sunday July 14. It was 111F. We stopped quickly at Smith's Groceries, grabbed some items to tide us over until the next morning and headed for home. 
It was delightful walking into our home once again. We had not been there for the past seven months. It was nice and cool, clean and hardly a spec of dust as the homes are built airtight, to conserve energy. Our neighbours had been kind enough to go over and switch on the central air conditioning for us before we arrived.
The front of our home in Mesquite.
After unpacking the trailer the following morning, we dropped it off at the local Uhaul dealer as soon as we could. The manager's eyes nearly popped out of his head as he looked at the tires on the wheels of the trailer we had rented from Uhaul. There was absolutely no tread on the tires. I had not noticed this when we picked it up. The manager asked how far we had driven the trailer. We told him we had just driven 1495 miles from Canada. He shot a glance at me as if to say you did what? He shook his head and told me he would have never let this trailer out in that condition, he went on to say the trailer was in an outright dangerous condition, that the brake lights and indicator lights did not work and that the Calgary dealer should never have let this trailer out in this state. He could not believe that anyone would be so reckless. I would not have minded but for the fact that when we picked up the trailer in Calgary, I specifically asked the girl handling the handover "have you checked both tires, wheels and tire pressures?" ......Oh yes! she said, then she quickly asked me to jump into the cab of the truck so she could check out the lights, flashers etc. which she said were all working fine. Another lesson learned - check it all yourself. This is the second time we have been let down by this company, so Uhaul is now toast in our books.
The temperatures in Mesquite are holding steady around 108F to 113F. It is expected to stay that way for the next month or so or get hotter which makes sense, after all we are in the Mojave Desert.
We did lose some plants in the heat one month ago when temperatures reached around 119F, so our next job is to buy more plants and get them planted in Sept. once the weather cools to the mid 80's. 
Donna relaxing in the front courtyard or our home
If you would like to take a tour of our Sun City subdivision, click on this link. http://goo.gl/b6ykDC It's a great place to relax, and if you are a golfer, it's heaven on earth - a small town with seven or eight golf courses. Unfortunately on the way down, maybe because of the heat, our windshield cracked, but after enquiring with Ford of Canada, It was evident we were still under the first years warranty on our truck and we were below the 20,000 km limit so the local dealership replaced the windshield free of charge. They actually sent their glass guy to our garage and he replaced the windshield right there. On our drive to San Diego, CA, to celebrate our 20th wedding anniversary August 7th, we will leave Aug 4 and we will spend two nights in Palm Desert. We have to bypass two massive fires burning near Palm Springs and Palm Desert, so we hope we don't run into traffic issues or smoke problems en-route so we must ensure we have a full tank of gas so we can keep the air conditioners running in case we are caught on the road in a line-up, because in this heat, you would not last long in a vehicle without air. 
This picture was taken a few days ago and the fire has not yet abated but I don't think that the township or City is in imminent danger.
We will be in San Diego Aug 6 and 7 somewhere nice then on Aug 8, we will drive the seven or eight hour journey back to Mesquite to prepare for the trip to Ecuador. We will book into a hotel Aug 12 in lost wages (Las Vegas) as we fly from Las Vegas to Panama City, Panama then, after an hour or so stopover it's on to Quito, Ecuador's Capital City 9500 ft up in the Andes. The person dealing with our Visa applications is sending his nephew to meet us at the new airport just outside Quito. Quito is a city of around 1.2 Million people. The climate ranges from the high 50's to the mid 70's. It is spring like weather year round. We will stay there for just two days, then we will fly to Guayaquil, a port city and the largest city in Ecuador. On arrival, we will seek out the bus for the trip with all the locals and head for Salinas on the coast or "Costa". 
A picture of Quito with the Volcano in the background.
We understand that Salinas is semi arid, is more humid than the Andes and the temperatures range from the Mid 80's to the mid to high 90's 24/7. It is nowhere near as hot in Ecuador as it is in Mesquite though. Even if it is just one degree south of the Equator. That's because you have the coastal winds blowing onshore most of the time which help a lot to moderate the temperature. The map below, albeit of not too good a quality shows the location of Salinas which is the most westerly part of the land in the SW corner of the map  
This is a shot of the Malecon and the Condos in Salinas where we may well end up buying, if we like what we see but, we will rent for a while to make sure
before we take the plunge We have booked a brand new 2100 sq.ft. apartment on the Malecon in Salinas for two weeks so we can explore some of the City and, look at a few properties and from Salinas, our discovery trip will take us north up the coast to Manta, known as the Tuna fishing capital of the world. There, you can get a boat and fish for these magnificent Tuna fish as well as blue and black Marlin pictured below. The currents are just right for these types of fish, but one wonders how long it can last before (like other places in the world), it becomes over-fished.  Well, it's time to end this blog. We look forward to bringing you our next blog from the inside of Ecuador sometime between Aug 16 and Aug 28. We should have lots of pictures and descriptions for you at that time. We'll be in touch. Have a great summer everyone! Donna and Ken |
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