Jim

New tires, new brake discs, new brake pads, change of brake oil. We needed a bit if downtime to get Jim vested for the journey ahead.

Oh but wait , new papers! While Lu was sleeping i tried to cross the border to the US. At 2am i figured waiting times cant be that long.

And i was right. Took only 20 mins to get to the border. Problem was my Esta didnt get through because the was a 0 in my Passportnumber that i claimed was an O.

0 O …. how could i?

So rejected at the border.

New day new luck. Both Estas passed we went together

Took a bit longer this time but it was not too bad. Only 2.5 hours or so. We chose not to go to San Diego but Chula Vista to change the Title of the Car in our Name. DMV waiting times can be a bitch so we payed 40 bucks at this shady places to do it for us. Apparently we are not the only ones doing that since the US side is plastered with these places.

Quick Smog check, which Jim passed without blinking. Californian government happy, Registration guys happy, Jim happy, Lu and Jo happy…. Everybody got their cut…..

It is good to have this stuff in order. We will cross many borders and will have american plates and papers to do so. FINALLY we can leave! Hasta luego Tijuana!

So first west to Mexicali through a crazy Mountainpass into the Salt desert. Beautiful drive!

The evil black snake…

Without being too superstitious, after just having started your journey, this is the bus that overtakes us.. We immediately had to overtake him back to get a close up.

Like true greenhorns, we didnt check gas before driving into a massive stretch of 100 or so km without a gas station. And thinking we going to get stuck on the first day of driving suddenly a small shop appears on the side of the road. The owner who sold us 10 liters of gas also told us that he has apache ancestry and that his dog has killed 3 coyotes already. So we had a beer with him !