Border Day

 

We arrived at the border before 6 am. Fridays usually means long lines. Orlando could tell right away that we would be there all day

 

Mandy, expressing our feelings of driving through Mexico! :-)

 

 

The nice part was that there was lots of time for visiting!  :-)

 

The little girls and I stayed in the trailer most of the day since it was near or at 100 degrees. The dogs were panting so we wetted them down a few times. :) The trailer actually stayed pretty cool thankfully.

 

The parking was tight! 

 

Waiting, waiting..

 

Finally the lane next to us was cleared and we quickly had to scramble into the truck and take off. The US customs decided that both Grady & Jeremy had to have the trucks and trailers xrayed. They had to drop we ladies, the children and dogs off at a grassy field. Thankfully there was some palm tree shade.We were sitting there waiting for what seemed like 1.5 hours.. in the hot sun with no water. Thankfully the children were pretty peaceful and sweet despite the wait. The wind really picked up which was a welcomed relief.

The guys finally got the clearance to pass over to Mexico! We were all praising the LORD! Thankfully Mexico didn't require an Xray too! Whew! We just had to have a quick inspection, go in for visas (in a/c!!) and pay duties on  the bikes. The Mexico side took much less time thankfully! All of us were excited to make some progress.

 

 

Now that we were over the border.. at 5 pm, where to stay? The border had been so busy that the hotels nearby were all full. It seemed a little crazy to head into the most dangerous part of Mexico at dusk, hoping to find a place to stay..

 

 Orlando told us that the military had bases set up at some gas station so we would wait until we came to one of those 'bases'. Sure enough right around dark we were able to stop at a heavily guarded gas station/motel. The Kings were able to pull into a hacienda type motel which consisted of an enclosed parking lot with a pool in the middle. Really pretty! Since our trailer is quite a bit taller we had to park outside of the protected wall in the parking lot adjacent to the main highway. We hesitated leaving it so far away from where we were sleeping.. worried about break ins and leaving the pets in there.. but we were assured that the military would be guarding it. What a blessing! We rented 2 rooms for our family and enjoyed a nice restful night of sleep. Neither the bullet holes in the bathroom window or the remembrance of the sewer rats we had seen when we first pulled up kept us from falling fast asleep. Praise the Lord he had provided for us once again.