Location:
Tecate, CA, Mexican border
Our
bitter/sweet news is that Rachel has sold (sorry Jill!). The final
papers were signed yesterday. We shall miss her greatly, she has
been a huge part of our lives for the last 12 years. She saw us
safely home after over 25,000 nautical miles, from Maine to Panama,
from newbies to experienced cruisers with countless friends and
acquaintances. Over the years she has proved to be a safe haven, a
great friend, and a stalwart companion. To many of our cruising
friends, as well as to ourselves, we'll always be known as “Mark &
Julie, The Rachels”. Weepy eyes.
Now
that all the paperwork involved in Rachel's sale is taken care of,
we've decided to head down into Mexico for a while. We thought the
Southwest US would be a warm place to spend the winter...but it's
not. It's been in the 50s or 60s during the days, but down in the 30s
or low 40s at night. And that's in the low elevations. Today we
crossed over 4000' and had snow and ice on the side of the road. A
chilly breeze made it uncomfortable to be outside. Brrr. No walks
up there. We miss being able to wear shorts and tee shirts! So
we've decided to head down into Mexico and check out Baja California
Today,
we are poised on the border of Mexico at Tecate, CA. Earlier today we
drove to the border, parked, and walked across to get our tourist
cards. By doing that today, we hope to cut down on the time it will
take to cross into Mexico and will, hopefully, get an early
start on the road tomorrow.
Unfortunately,
when we were done with our paperwork, we just reversed our course and
walked back up the road the way we had come, apparently crossing from
Mexico back into the US without passing through US customs and
immigration in the process. Oops.
As we
headed to a currency exchange to buy Mexican pesos, a US customs
officer in an SUV stopped us and let us know in no uncertain terms
that we needed to retrace our steps and head up an alley we hadn't
noticed to pass through the border station. After a lot of apologies,
they realized that we were just clueless and let us back into the US.
We've put 16,000 miles on our RV in less than a year. Wow that's
weird – we've already put on over half as many miles in less than a
year that we put on Rachel in 12 years. The world flies by so much
faster at 50 mph. The clueless mind boggles...
Happy
New Year to all and stay tuned.
Julie
& Mark
PS –
no new pictures on the blog – we'll update the blog and add more
photos after we spend a bit of time South of the Border.....
