I am in Tucson and want to go to Nogales, Mexico for some dental work.

Any ideas?

Where best to homebase while making several trip across the border?

A Forest Service guy said be careful camping near the border.

Any other ideas for my winter stay here?

Thanks for any help.

Jack

Since you'll be gone for substantial periods of time for several days running, it'd probably not be a good idea to stay in a state or federal campground.  An RV park, on the other hand, may control visitors a little better, since it's bad for business for their guests to have problems with mean people looking for trouble.

There are many campgrounds in northern MX  that cater to snowbirds and Mexican families,  who like to camp too. Just don't necessarily expect it to be really quiet, Mexicans in my experience  tend to be pretty outgoing and like to have fun in the evenings. 

Full dusclaimer, I don't know anything about Nogales specifically, my experience has been in Puerto Penasco and Baja, but it's worth checking into I think. You'd be closer to your dentist, have a more interesting cultural experience, avoid the giant pain  crossing the border twice each day could be, and save money too. Which is the point of going to MX for medical/dental work in the first place, right? 

Staying in Nogales, Sonora, Mx., also presents another problem.  It's one thing to cross the border in a car or pickup and return without undue hassles and delays.  Taking a trailer across the border is no problem southbound, but when you come back, our friends with the CBP may want to do a very thorough search of your rPod to make sure no contraband is in it.  It may be an unpleasant experience as you watch the CBP tearing it apart and may lead to some very expensive repairs.

There are great dental clinics all over México, mostly in pretty well protected tourist areas or right along the border.  I wouldn't hesitate to use them, except that our dentist is located in Medellin Colombia and we get to stay as long as we need to with minimal cost because we can stay with relatives.  

If I was going to have dental work done in MX I think I'd look in the Ensenada area, there are some nice family beach campgrounds in the area just south of there.

Very considerate and I am very happy that I am a member of the R-Pod family

An interesting Mexico Border story. This fire was 8 miles west of Nogales

In April 2008 I was on the Alamo Fire on the Coronado NF. The fire started in Mexico near the border and burned into the Coronado. There were six fire fighters (Bomberos) on the Mexico side. They had walked several miles to get there. The Crew boss was 73 years old and the only one that had a hard hat. They all wore nomex shirts and blue jeans. There were armed Federales on horse back to protect the Bomberos from drug smugglers. Our deputy Incident Comander met with them and asked what fire fighting equipment equipment they would most like to have. The answer was sleeping bags, so he got some bags from our supply unit and gave to them to keep.

Bomberos on the Mexico side with our Division Supervisors

We do wear hard hats when we are stacking trusses or doing other overhead work.  As for the house we're currently working on, we are going to have the fun of using some newly purchased wall jacks.  We have 6 houses currently underway; two enclosed and getting dry walled, two being framed, and two new foundations going in. 

For photos  you click on the tree icon, the instructions to upload and post are there. Be sure to resize to something like 800x600 pixels. 

I'll try to post a foto of the geezers when I get one.  Going to CA for Christmas, so it won't be until after the New Year.

The earth work and concrete are done by subcontractors.  Supposedly they know what they're doing, especially since they're local.  It'll be done by next week.

I doubt they have concrete freezing problems in los Nogales, but summer work has got to be pretty challenging as it is for the bomberos.