Our Adventure Moving To Mexico

We left Pasco on Thursday September 17^th but only ventured to Portland, OR. This was a very short trip of a several hours but allowed us to visit family and friends before we headed south. I had found a hotel that looked like it had lots of room for us to park the KIA with the 5x8 trailer in tow based on the aerial photos on Google Maps. When I had talked to my step-sister and told her the location, she was like, “you can enjoy some movies at the same time”. Low and behold the area I thought was extra parking for the hotel was actually for the Adult Video store right next door. We all had a good laugh on that one.

First stop in Portland next to Adult Video Store

 There was a potluck style get together planned at my Step-sister's home. So Friday morning we spent time with Heather (Daughter), Ryan and Tiffy Butt (one of the kids that spent a lot of time hanging out at our home in Madras). We had a nice brunch at Genie's but before the group met up we were walking in there was a child in a van all alone and looked like he had been crying. We stood around to see if anyone was just loading stuff up, etc. The doors were locked and it was warm out so my daughter called the police, we couldn't just leave him sitting there. Right before the police showed up, the momma came strolling back and my daughter told her we had called the police. The policewoman who showed up gathered some information from us and was merciless towards the momma, hopefully giving her some tough love.

The get together was a blast with lots of laughter and bantering. There were stories told and joy to be had by all. Everyone was rolling in laughter as Jenny told the story of her leaving a slug trail one night, by the way Jenny, I have video of this so no more said, LOL!!!

Saturday morning we got the road around 7:30 and landed in Redding, CA late after noon. The traffic between Salem and Eugene was fairly heavy for such an early time on a Saturday morning but who knew there was Duck's game with caravans of decorated vehicles. As we entered California who knew if you are pulling a trailer the speed limit is only 55 mph maximum. I rolled with the semi 's since they know the area better than me. The view of Shasta was gorgeous as we drove by and then stopped just south of Redding.

Go Ducks!

Sunday was another early day and stopping in Grapevine, CA as we decided it was best to get up in the middle of the night and get through LA before the morning traffic. We got up and was on the road before 3:30 am on Monday morning and made it through LA with no issues but San Diego was definitely slower going but not horrendous.

As we drove to the border via San Ysidro we had some confusion on where to go since the declare lanes were not open. They had our vehicle scanned and I had a list of everything in the trailer and vehicle but since we had a couple of boxes (computer, monitors, and wine) in the vehicle and not in the trailer I was turned around and had to go to Otay Mesa. So this is a tip for people unless you only have some stuff in the car or trailer only don't go to that entry. At Otay Mesa I pulled into the Declare location and immediately had people asking questions and wanting me to open the trailer but a guy from the US was standing at this covered area spoke out and told me not to open anything. He said if I did it would costs me more money and pointed out the actual person to talk with, boy did I thank the guy several times!

Once I got through this and paid 700 pesos we were on the road to Ensenada but had to get through Tijuana first. Boy, that was a rude awaking with buses and taxis cutting in all over the place. I had mapped out the directions from San Ysidro not Otay Mesa so we had to wing it but made it through the bustling chaotic city. We really enjoyed the scenic drive to Ensenada but was a little overwhelmed and frustrated trying to find the Hostal. Everyplace we went didn't have a map of Ensenada so that made things worse. We finally had to find a WiFi connection to figure out the location.

We checked into Hostal Todos Santos and paid for a week for a private bedroom with a bathroom. We are finally here...