Final Preparations

After boondocking all week in Yuma, it was time to give some attention to our RV tanks.  Fortunately, Evelyn knew of some great deals in the area to address all our needs.  First stop was to Cactus Propane, that offered a bargain basement cash price of only $2.14/gallon to refill our RV propane tanks! 
Next, we drove down to one of Yuma’s various water filling stations (MUCH better water than the smelly stuff I got at the Sidewinder Road Shell station a few days ago.  Only problem is that the water fill stations only have slender unthreaded nozzles and nothing to attach a hose to.  But, I had a nice new 5 gallon collapsible jug that perfectly collected the 5 gallons of water for only 50 cents.  I then used the old “winterizing siphon hose water filling” method to get each 5 gallons of goodness into my RV fresh water tank.
Then it was on to the free RV dump station at the Dateland exit about an hour east of Yuma.  What’s better than a free dump station?  After getting cleaned up, getting a yummy date shake for dessert!  There’s a large date tree plantation at the exit that sells all sorts of date foods.
By the time we got done will all those chores, it was getting dark and our intended target of Tucson was looking like a bit too much of a stretch.  So, we pulled into the quiet Pilot truck stop just south of Casa Grande for a night’s rest.

Millie loves this truck stop because they have a nice big patch of lush green grass to run around in (quite a rare commodity here in the desert Southwest!).


The next morning, we headed down to Tucson and set up camp at the Desert Diamond Casino next to the airport.  A great basecamp boondock from which to get all of our final shopping trips done.


It’s nearly impossible to think of everything one might need for spending 3 months out of the U.S., but I certainly tried to gather as many items as I could think of—extra oil for our Sprinters at the Mercedes dealer, vegan favorites from Whole Foods, a wide assortment of things from Wal-Mart, food and dog toys from Petsmart, and even extra printer ink cartridges from Office Max.  Whew!  On a Christmas-shopping Saturday no less!

On Sunday, with my shopping accomplished, I headed down to Mountain View RV Ranch just north of Nogales for my final night north of the border.  The park was nothing special, but the manager was friendly and price was reasonable.  I spent the rest of the day strategically packing the rig for the next day’s border crossing.  I had read that Mexico only allows a 2 day supply of dog food to be imported, yet Millie has a special diet of foods not available in Mexico.  So, to be on the safe side, I moved her 3 month supply of dog food from the back of the Tracker into a hiding spot in the RV, and then found of few heavy, bulky items in the RV to move out to the Tracker to balance the loads out.

Am I forgetting anything?  I’m certain there will be something!  But I'm hopefully now as ready as I’ll ever be for Mexico!