March 19, 2005 - Van, TX - 2

Well, we survived our week in Mexico.  At least this part of it.  Now, if only we can get home again.  The sun was playing peek-a-boo with us, making for wonderful colors on the mountains around us as we left.  Started out with us as tailgunner, following Henk & Thea in the lead, Bill and Carol next, followed by Jerry & Susan and Bill and Arlene.  We've all got the little map that the El Dorado people gave us, and Henk and Thea have a GPS that works in Mexico, so they got elected (or railroaded) into leading us out of here.

When we were coming in, one of the people in the caravan got on the CB and told us that years ago, these salt flats were full of sea water, and shrimp fishing was a big deal.  We had no reason not to believe him.  And in this picture it looks like Jerry & Susan are ahead of Bill and Carol.  Oh well.......

These hills looked like they'd be fun to explore.  We could see some ATV tracks going up some of the canyons, and we knew from talking to some of the regulars in San Felipe that running ATV's down here is a popular sport.

At a wide spot in the road, Bill and Arlene peeled off and stopped, indicating to us to go ahead and they'd catch up with us.  They didn't say why the stop, we guessed it was just a potty stop.  But a bit further when we'd not seen them, we all pulled off to wait for them.  And Barb got to shoot some flowers.

Two rigs on one side of the highway and two on the other.  Barb had her handy dictionary and was telling us what the road signs said.  Can't remember what this was, but those of you who read Spanish know.  Carol was taking a picture of us, so........... what can I say.  Some habits just don't go away.

Bill and Arlene caught up with us and since we were all out walking around, we got a chance to hear what happened.  Seems that at the military checkpoint, they'd been boarded.  Well, we all had, but it was a brief visit by very polite young men.  But Bill and Arlene you see have a trailer.  And when the unlocked refrigerator door came open, they had no way of knowing it until they'd made that little stop.  So now there's a major mess to clean up.  The military guy had opened it and they failed to notice it was unlocked.  Us guys stayed out of the way, and Barb took more flower pictures.

Patches and Thea having a conversation, and the four of us feeling sorry for the O'Neals.

The trashy roadsides are ubiquitous.  And since Barb was so busily taking pictures of us, I grabbed the camera and took a picture of the mountains in the background.

Carol had decided to act like a local, and just throw the trash out the door and down the road.  But then her conscience took over with a little help from the rogues gallery, and she picked it back up.

The only police we saw going back through Mexicali had these young guys stopped.  And then we got wonderfully lost.  The difference between horribly lost and wonderfully lost is whether you're in the lead or not.  And we weren't, so it was all fun for us.  But the roads were a bit narrower here in the residential part of town.  Besides, we knew that if we kept going north, we'd eventually come to the border.

AHA!  The border at last.  Now, we only have two liters of alcohol (a gift bought for Claudia to give to her dad)--no pork, no uncooked chicken, no uncooked eggs, and I hope that's it, because it's too late to turn around now.

AHA!  We made it.  Thanks in large part to Bill and Arlene who got fouled up with the narrow twisting route they wanted us to take, and while they were getting straightened out the line backed up pretty good, and all the nice young lady wanted from us was our home country.  Whew!  And then we said our goodbyes over the CB as we each pretty much went our own way.

Remember back in October when I got to spend a little extra time being pampered?  Well, friend John stopped by and took a few shots of how I was suffering so you could feel sorry for me.  NOT!!  See that guy in the red shirt?  Well, he's a buddy by the name of Steve Wilkins, and he's a corporate chaplain.  Don't you just love his halo?  And those cute little hearts on my feet?  They're for the technician to find a pulse (and fortunately there always was one!) down there.  And I didn't gain any weight while in there, but it wasn't because they didn't feed me well.  And I'm happy to report that now, five months after that little episode, all's well.  Very well, matter of fact.