Getting to Our Final Destination

For some reason neither B nor I slept well through the early morning.  Perhaps it was because we both new we had  a somewhat long journey ahead of us.

I had spent $200, half of what I thought it would cost me to reach the border from my house.  Lil 'Emma did very well with her highway mileage considering she is a big 5.0 8 cylinder engine from 1995.  I had no complaints from her and out of sheer nervousness never turned on the A/C.  To be honest there was really no need considering I did most of the travelling at night and so a quick roll down of the window was all that was needed.

B and I woke up bright and early and headed toward an address provided to us by the man that was to help get our truck legalized.  We arrived at a business address and inquired inside for the man, a woman sitting inside a nice air-conditioned office said he would arrive shortly.  Sure enough within 15 minutes he pulled up in a white Ford pick-up.  He quickly got out of the truck all smiles and greeted us with "buenos dias."  After some small talk this man, Carlos, said that we would need to unload all of our belongings for the legalization appointment.  We knew this beforehand which was part of our reason for doing business with him as we knew we could unload our stuff at the business office while we waited for the truck to be legalized.  We had no reason to distrust Carlos because a family member had already legalized a truck with him and recommended him to us.

After unloading Emma we decided to take care of some business in downtown San Luis and Carlos offered to drive us to el centro as he too was headed in that direction.  After we took care of business we sat in the town's plaza under the shade of a tree and talked a bit.  We decided that we wanted to have a nice cold beer, or in my case cocktail.  We asked one of the locals where we could go but didn't have any luck and in fact were looked at like we were crazy.  I guess it may have been too early, that or nobody goes for a cocktail around there.  We ended up walking around looking for a place which turned out to be not so good of an idea as the day was starting to really heat up.  All of the places we found were ugly little bars that didn't look very inviting for a lady.

Finally we decided to just go in a Chinese restaurant to get anything cold to drink because we were exausted.  The restaurant sold beer! So we ordered two and we ended up having a good time as we talked with an old woman who was our waitress.  We had a very interesting talk with her and then went on our way back to Carlos' office.  We must have waited another 3 hours sitting on the floor because the office wasn't for clients but truck drivers that picked up and dropped off cargo.  Finally we saw Carlos pulling up in the truck and when he got out he had all the paperwork in hand.  We were so happy, after 7 long hours we were able to get on our way. 

We left San Luis at about 4pm and travelled through out the Sonoron desert all the while with the A/C on.  Even though she is 16 years old, 'lil Emma blew out ice cold air.  Were able to make it to Hermosillo by 10pm.  Here we stayed at a hotel where we showered and went to bed.  We were both out as soon as we hit the pillow.  The night before we didn't get any sleep because were were worried about getting the truck legalized. 

We woke up again bright and early to get on the road again.  As we passed Guaymas, I thought of a fellow blogger Brenda, and silently said a hello to her.  By the time we reached Los Mochis Sinaloa, we were hungry and so we stopped to eat at a little restaurant which served seafood.  I ordered a shrimp cocktail and B ordered a shirmp salad.  We ended up switching because I absolutely loved the shrimp salad!  I regret not pulling out my camera more often on this trip.  They had made it look so elegant on the plate.

Once in Sinaloa we knew that we were not far from home and we began relaxing.  We had already been through 2 checkpoints of which we simply told the officers we had not paid any fees previously because we were told that we did not have to declare anything.  They waved us on each time.  Again we reached another city, Mazatlan, where I knew another fellow blogger, Nancy, I said another silent hello. 

I was rather excited passing Mazatlan because I knew we only had two more hours to go!  By the time we came to Nayarit we went through all of the pesos we pulled out in San Luis.  The casetas or toll's that we paid for using the autopistas (nice freeways) really added up.  We thought it was funny that the most expensive autopistas were in Nayarit! 

My husband likes to joke around and when we made it to the second toll booth in Nayarit he asked the woman a question.  "We are coming all the way from Sonora, why is it that Nayarit's toll's are the most expensive?"  She gave him a coy look and you could tell she didn't know what to say. She just smiled and said "It's because Nayarit is one of the more beautiful states!" We all laughed and he said "I'm just kidding Miss, I am from here, near San Blas."

We knew we were home.

Once we reached El Crucero de San Blas, we both sighed, relieved that we had made it.  We looked at each other and I told him "no more...we are too old for this."



Getting to San Luis, AZ

So much energy, time, and thought went into this last trip down to Nayarit that I think I may be mentally exhausted from it all.   The day before I embarked on my journey down South, I planned to load the truck and cover it with a tarp so that the next day after arriving home from work I simply had to take a shower and get behind the wheel. 

Packing the truck was a 3 hour event.  Getting everything up on the truck wasn't difficult but arranging it all so as to minimize breaking things was cumbersome.  Also, I had things brought to me at the last minute that I literarally threw on top of the pile which kind of annoyed me as I was already stressed out with the loading and packing. 

After everything was loaded I began to cover the truck and start tying it down.  I had some help, but I could tell the help didn't really know what he was doing.  It took him about an hour to get the tarp tied down.  The truck was visually weighed down and looked like I was going to be hauling a heavy load.  I didn't take many pictures and now regret not having any visuals.

The next day I got home and ate a quick meal, jumped in the shower, and gathered last of my stuff.  I kissed my tearful mom goodbye and assured her that I would be ok and jumped in the truck.  My first stop was to get a full tank of gas as I forgot to do that the day before.  After filling the tank I merged onto the freeway where I was met with minimal traffic as it was about 4:30pm. 

All was going smoothly until I got a 1/4 tank into my drive,  in the shadow of the truck I could see that the tarp was flapping in the wind a bit.  About 5 minutes later I saw that a large portion of the tarp was flapping in the wind and I thought darn it! I knew that it was going to come undone because the person that tied it for me didn't seem like he knew what he was doing. 

I stopped at the next rest stop and hopped down from the truck, circled around to the back where the tarp was flapping and sure enough the rope had come undone and was lying in a heap next to the back tire.  Ooohh what to do, what to do?  Well I was going to give it my best shot at tying that sucker down, that was all I could do.  As I was tying it down all I kept thinking of was the long drive ahead and how I needed to be sure the tarp wasn't going to come untied again.  Also, I was trying hard to scan my surroundings as there were many semi-trucks parked and people parked to use the bathrooms.  Out of the corner of my eye I spotted a trucker watching me as I was tying down the tarp, and I tried to determine if he was threat.  I looked rather like a crazy lady, wind blowing through my hair, on my knees and floundering to make ties in the rope so I wondered if he was contemplating coming over to help me or something else.  I think I was just paranoid.

After about 20 minutes of tying ropes and checking other knots, I was ready to be on my way.  I had to use the bathroom but decided I should just get going and that I would go when I stopped to get gas.  I merged back on the freeway and looked over in the shadow of the truck to see if the tarp was going to hold.  It looked ok but from this point forward I was never confident that the tarp would hold.  I was so concious of it that I stopped again shortly after stopping at the rest area to check on it because I thought it may have loosened.  I regretted pulling off the road as I pulled off on an exit that is seldom used and I immediately felt my heart pounding as I jumped out of the truck to check the ropes.  My surroundings included an old farmhouse and what looked like miles of fields.  I remember thinking why the heck did I use this exit?  Again I was just paranoid I guess, or very cautious.  Once again I plopped back in the driver's seat and merged back onto the freeway. 

It was smooth sailing to my first stop for gas.  I had planned on stopping further on my route but made a last minute decision to stop before the sun went down to check on the tarp.  After pumping gas I made a quick restroom visit and got back behind the wheel.  I have to say travelling by yourself is no picnic, I think I watch too much Forensic Files because everytime I stopped I felt like someone was out to get me. 

After my stop I got back on the road and sailed through Los Angeles and made it close to Indio before having to stop for gas again.  It was close to midnight when I reached the gas station,  I don't recall the name of the town but I just remember there being several Indian Casinos.  Again I hadn't picked an ideal place to fill up.  When I pulled into the gas station it was off the freeway a ways and a train was passing by ever so slowly off to the side.  All I kept thinking of was that somebody would jump off one of the freight trains and walk on over to the gas station.  Everytime I stopped I phoned my mom to tell her where I was stopping for gas.  This particular time I stood on the phone with her until I got back on the freeway because nobody was at this gas station but me. 

I was nearing the end of my journey and knew I had about 3 hours left to go.  I wasn't too tired at this point just more nervous as I was getting closer to the border.  About an hour after I left the gas station I started going through the Arizona desert and it was very dark.  It seemed like I was the only one on the road that night and I started to feel my eyes getting droopy. 

Fatigue started to set in and I wasn't sure if I had missed an exit onto another freeway so I stopped at a gas station to ask for directions.  It was 1 o'clock in the morning.  As I got out of the truck I saw a man approching the vehicle next to mine which had a 4 wheel motorcycle in the back, you know like the one's that are used to patrol the borders, and I immediatly thought this guy to be one of those minute-man.  Shrugging it off I began asking him for directions only to be met with a hand to my face and a response of "No."  I felt crushed.  Some stranger waved me off and I felt like I wanted to cry.  I felt helpless.

I gathered myself and walked into the store and approached a woman, not wanting to approach another man, and asked her for directions.  She shook her head and said she was sorry but did not know.  Feeling helpless I looked around the store and saw some maps over in the corner.  I headed over to the maps and started looking to see where I was.  I was able to determine that I was on track and that I should be ok to reach I-95 which was the last stretch of highway before reaching my destination of San Luis, AZ. 

As I got back into the truck I remembered being dismissed by the man and thought to myself "what did I get myself into?"  I eventually made my way down to the border and spoke with B minutes before I arrived at the border.  He assured me everything was going to be ok and that he was already staying at the same hotel we had stayed at previously.

I reached the infamous red light green light button, pushed it and waited.  It turned red, which meant I had to pull over for inspection.  As I pulled over to the inspection area I saw B waiting there and immediately breathed a sigh of relief.  I knew I didn't have to handle the Aduana check and that he would do all the "negotiating."  Eventually we were able to leave but not before handing over $100.  We asked for a receipt showing that we had "declared" our items but said that one was not needed.  They pocketed the money and sent us on our way.

We didn't know what was to come in the following days but we were just so happy to be safe and reunited.  We drove into the hotel parked and got some much needed z's. 

Back In the Swing of Things

Ok so I am back in the states and back in the swing of things.  I slept a total of 13 hrs last night and feel rejuvenated. 

I was feeling like I had been dragged through a mango orchard with bug repellant on, everything seemed to stick to me and weigh me down.  My last day in 5 de Mayo started Monday morning at 5am.  I had to wash a load of wet musty clothes before leaving or else they would have started growing roots. I then swept the house and did a light clean up so that I didn't leave it looking like there had been a rooster fight held inside the house.

After a little house clean up, I had a light breakfast which consisted of coffee and Emperador cookies.  I didn't want to risk taking in anything else as I fell ill 2 days before.  I then rushed a cold shower and literally threw everything into my suitcase as I didn't have much that I was taking back with me. 

The 2hr drive to Vallarta was somewhat painful as I have grown to be very delicate on car rides when I am not the "chofer."  Things started looking up as we arrived at my sister-in-law's house in Vallarta (about 5 min. from the airport).  She had buttered chicken with potatoes and jalepeño's in the oven.  When we arrived she threw on a pot of white rice with carrots and peas and made a limonada.  I had some good home cooking that reminded me of a meal my mother would have made and I knew would sit right with my stomach. 

After a quickee lunch I headed to the airport where B and I said our goodbyes and got on the plane to Phoenix AZ which didn't leave on time rather a half hour late.  Once at the Phoenix airport I got lost looking for my connecting flight, that airport makes San Francisco's airport look tiny.   Rushing to get to my connecting flight I had 20 minutes to spare before boarding time and I decided to scarf down to slices of Pizza because I was very hungry at this point.  After eating I went to the boarding area only to find out our plane was delayed an hour due to SFO weather.  An hour later our plane was delayed once again another 2 hours due to the weather.  Our flight which was scheduled to leave at 7:41pm and arrive at SFO at 9:36pm didn't leave until 11pm and arrived at SFO at 1:00am. 

During that long wait at the AZ airport I came across some interesting people...A man that passed gas while standing in front of me as we looked for our connecting flights on a tv screen, a woman that made a bar tender very angry as she complained about our delayed flight, and two older women at a pizza hut that talked about all the good looking "papasitos" that walked by the restaurant. 

Once at the airport my mom was waiting for me and I made it home, trekked up the stairs and went to bed for about 3hrs.  Needless to say I was very tired the next day at work and desperately needed those 13 hrs of sleep.

I always find it hard to post while down in Nayarit as I don't have convenient access to the internet but will bring everybody up to date shortly.  I will also get up to date myself with all of you on what's been going on while I've been gone.

When I get home today I hope to get unpacked and settled in for this last home stretch to the big move down south.

Check-In 1

Ok so I made it phew. I drove 10 hrs to get to San Luis, AZ. It took about 7hrs to get the truck legalized and another 20 to reach my home. Emma didn't complain at all on the way down and hAs proven herself to be a real trooper! I won't lie they got me with 100 usd at the border but I didn't have to pay any other fines on the way down. The ac on Emma a 95 GMC sierra worked like a charm and so I can't complain about the hot weather. I will share more later as it is difficult to post from my Blackberry. Tootlz for now. And thank you all for your well wishes.