I am not proud but truth must out and I confess we got a slow start yesterday. Indeed we almost didn’t start but by 3:00 pm we were on the road. It was a nice spot, a park outside Nueva Helvecia, where we spent the night in perfect silence.
As parks go it was rather under utilized and I attribute that to it being winter but Saturday morning dawned sunny and lovely. That didn’t last long and fog rolled in and it got damp and drippy and we had to fire up our gasoline cabin heater. I love that thing.
We drank hot drinks and read improving books and did some exercises, we like The Body Project videos from Australia done with a good dose of humour, not taking themselves too seriously. Rusty made a friend and they peed copiously to seal their connection.
After lunch the cook had to take a nap, obviously, but we did get going eventually and the fog hung around a bit to make the day look gray and unappealing. I am a simple soul, I like bright sunshine and strong shadows and glittering colors.
It got brighter the further inland we drove but Uruguay remains an Iowan landscape of farms, rolling hills, and copses and contented grazing farm animals.
Not forgetting tidy unremarkable little villages.
Our first goal of the afternoon was a hot shower, long overdue at a gas station. That was incentive enough to drive.
We saw several little official rest areas like this one and as tempting as they were we needed to drive further.
Rain is forecast for next week so the likelihood is we shall have gray skies and we need full house batteries as we shan’t be driving much as we wait for Rusty’s exit papers.
We had a cunning plan to plug in GANNET2 to shore power for the night.
The gas station charged us 300 pesos (US$7:50) for both of us to shower and it was divine…
…with abundant high pressure hot water in a clean modern tiled bathroom. The sink had a mirror ideal for shaving.
And check this out, a typical understated Uruguayan business. It’s located in a residential building with no advertising except a small unobtrusive sign. Very modest and lacking in self promotion, this dentist.
Up next a free campsite. We’ve never paid for camping usually by street parking or using parks in towns but on this occasion Layne found an official municipal campground that charges no money and offers electrical plug ins. It sounded too good to be true but it was real. We just had to get there before dark if possible.
With the late start we got obviously we were going to arrive after dark which we normally dislike but in Uruguay driving at night isn’t any worse than in the US. We got there at 7:15 after 45 minutes of easy night driving.
We had devised alternative plans if this too good to be true campground had been a chimera. It was real, we found a power outlet and plugged in all before the rain started.
You will notice we are plugged into 220 volts with a local cable. Pretty slick eh?
We are 90 minutes from the vet in Paysandú and we have to be there by 9 am Monday so we aren’t planning any early starts. I love retirement.
The black line is the border with Argentina. Two days drive across Argentina should get us to Paraguay. Onward.
