I know Trevor posted a bit about our road trip to the US already but I thought I would chime in as well….
Honestly we were super excited to do a road trip through the Baja of Mexico rather than take a flight. Renting a car gave us the flexibility we needed during hurricane season in case we needed to head back down to Mexico. We rented a car in Loreto and thank goodness Trevor paid extra to upgrade the car. We were told the drive up the Baja would be beautiful and were given great directions as to where to stay and where to get gas (Thanks Jake for the hand written maps and directions!!!! I can totally read your handwriting by the way : ) )
We were also told there would be security checks along the road and we were unsure what these would be like. Fortunately, they were short stops and just a few questions. Later we learned that the US actually pays for these security check and provided the Mexican military with vehicles and guns….the bullets were not part of the deal so the guns were empty….so we are told. Funny story….at one of the check points, I got out of the car while Trevor was opening up the trunk of our vehicle. I was standing by a guard and he asked me if I was Filipino by circling his face and saying “Filipino?”. I responded no and told him “Korean”….He responded… “North?”….I said “no, no South”…..He then said to me “Terrorist?”….I busted up laughing and by accident touched his shoulder and said I wasn’t. When I got back into the car, Trevor was irritated and suggested I shouldn’t touch the guards..then I told him the story…we laughed..I agreed that I shouldn’t touch the guards!
It took us a day and a half to drive to the border in Tecate Mexico and then we were headed for LA to stay with our friend Diana and her brother Rob. We left early in the morning to head north on HWY 395 which borders CA and NV. The desert was beautiful and a stark contrast to the Sea of Cortez. Drove through Reno and stopped to walk through a few casinos since I have never been there. Then we cut across to I-5 around Bend OR. We stopped for gas and when I got out f the car to stretch the legs, I could smell the pine trees of rich sap and cool crisp air….it was truly a marvelous welcome home gift! We arrived in Washington 4 days after we left Loreto Mexico.
On the agenda was a ladies wine weekend in Yakima, see as many people as we could and for me to complete some online courses of CPE for my CPA license. I couldn’t possibly thank everyone who made time for us in their busy work schedules at a drop of a phone call: The dinners, lunches, breakfasts, and housing us and all of our gear ….thank you all for making this trip home to Washington so special.
We headed home and made it back safely to our boat. As some of you may be aware, Hurricane Newton crossed right over Puerto Escondito where our boat was moored during our trip. As the hurricane passed over our boat, feeling helpless in Seattle, we were frantically trying to get updates and in the end, everything was fine as our mooring held. We did return to dead batteries but everything else was good, I guess for our first hurricane…we couldn’t walk away totally untouched…that would be too lucky!
We are headed out of Puerto Escondito tomorrow morning to head north up the Sea of Cortez. However we had a wonderful dinner with some of the “Circle of Knowledge” folks a few nights ago. These folks has made Puerto Escondito an oasis for us and we really owe it to them for making our time here amazing!!!!
When I read the part about you coming back to LA, I got very excited to see you again, since we are only 1/2 an hour from Diana and Rob, but alas, I realized you were speaking in past tense. Hopefully, next time! Glad you had a blast on your road trip!