Back in the USA

March 24/05

Hermosillo is only 170 K from the US border. We were on the road by 8:30 on the last Mexico leg. All along the way through Mexico and Central America there have been military check points, but we came across one 150K from the border that was different.

Suddenly the semi trailer ahead of us pulled into the passing lane and stopped behind a line of stopped semis. We stayed in the left lane but within a few hundred metres we came to a halt behind a couple of cars and some semi trailers also stopped in the left lane. The road was now blocked to traffic.

However, there was a trail in the ditch. There were trucks stopped down the highway as far as you could see. We decided to try the ditch and see if we could get past them. It worked but the line up of stopped trucks was at least 2 miles long. At the check point every truck was being carefully checked.. for who know what. We were waved through the check point without as much as a question. It must have taken days for one truck to pass this point!

The border crossing into the US was no problem. We stopped at the Mexico customs so Dave could retrieve his $300. MC deposit. Much to our surprise, it was no problem. The border are is quite secure (as you might expect) but we were asked a couple of quick questions and sent on our way.

We are now 200K from Yuma having breakfast at the “Space Age Restaurant”. We hope to start north in the car later today.