Mexico here we come…..

(Written on Fri. the 1^st along the way, hoping to find a hotspot so I can post!)

We are getting picked up from Corpus Christie and the idea is to drive to McAllen to pack the van and spend the night before heading across the border at 4 am. That’s the plan anyways. It looks like it might happen. The kids are ready and anxious to get on the road. Quite frankly I am also.

It’s amazing how many things change and new things come up when you’re trying to tie up loose ends so that you can go. Well this trip was full of those. Just when I thought everything was done and were ready to go I find out about a whole other list of things we need to do or things we need to pick up to stuff in the already overloaded van. So we finally get to the apartment in McAllen where we were staying at nearly 11:00 pm. After a quick prayer we decide its better to sleep and then get up early to pack the van and head out and try to make the 14 hour trip to Veracruz in one day. So I get out the alarm clock, set it and put the kids to bed and head off to the land of dreams.

(Next morning Sat. the 2^nd)

Something is nagging inside me telling me it’s time to get up…and in my dream I am thinking…”Nah, the alarm will go off.” (I set it for 6:00 am) So I remember rolling back over and ignoring the little voice inside. I don’t know how long later I am being woken up and informed that it’s nearly 8:00. I fly out of bed and am trying to figure out how I could have slept through the alarm, no wait, how the kids and everyone else also slept through the alarm. You all probably know the kind that just beeps and beeps and gets louder until you have to hit it with a sledge. My first thought it the batteries died. Nope it was still ticking. After careful examination I realized I forgot to push the little button to on. Can’t, for the life of me, remember when I forgot to not turn the alarm on while setting it. Oh well.

So the day begins with getting the kids up and fed and then we pack the van and are all ready to roll out the door and I am thinking, “Ok, if we’re across the border and get the visas by noon we could actually be home by 1:00 am if we drive hard.” Not to bad. We all load up and are on the road when I am informed of another stop we need to make and another list of things to pick up. WOW! That’s all I can say! So this is the beginning of the 3^rd day of travel and I am still only 250 miles away from where I started at, for sure a new way to travel.

Most of you who know me and have seen me do my visa trips from Mexico know that I like the early (4:00 am) departures and 1,000 mile days. I mean why do a trip in two days if it can be done in one right? Okay Lord, so you’re teaching me to go slow. PTL! It’s now 2:00 pm and I am sitting on the grass outside Bestbuy trying to get on line to post yesterdays events. (Update: That didn’t end up happening…sorry for the delay in getting this up.)

Finally we are ready to cross the border and be on our way. Only need to get a visa for one person traveling with us. We crossed at the Pharr/Reynosa Bridge and it is now my new favorite crossing point. No lines at all. Border guards just sitting around bored out of their minds, and being it’s Sat. none of them wanted to get up and do any work so no inspections. TTL! So at 3:30 we head out to make the 14 hour trip home.

We are in Mexico.

After about 6 hours of driving and fast approaching Tampico, the first major city along way the discussion in the van begins to lean towards stopping for the night with the home there. Man, sometimes I just want to drive and drive. We had two drivers so in our reasoning we thought we could make it all the way with trading off. However, after a quick prayer the Lord told us it would be best to stop. So a few quick phone calls and we had the okay to stay at the home for the night. Armed with the directions and the allure of nice beds we were able to find our way through Tampico and the construction detours to arrive safely at the home. After some fun fellowship we bunked in for the night to resume our trip the following day.

A special thanks to the Tampico home for letting us stay. We love you guys! A special thanks to Anaik for the books for Jade. It was great meeting you and Micah. Wish I had more time to get to know you guys better.

(Sunday, the 3^rd)

We awake this morning to find the rooms we are staying in covered in about two inches of water. Welcome back to the rainy season on the Mexican coast. Everything that I left on the floor was soaked…including poor Adrian and the foam mat he was sleeping on. After he woke up he thought it was great. Good for him for staying positive, I know if I had woken up in a pool of water I might have been out of sorts most of the day.

On the road again after a quick breakfast and prayer from the home for the rest of our trip, which went smoothly and pretty much uneventful.

I forgot how beautiful the Mexican coast is, with beaches along the road on the left and rolling hills and mountains on the right. Everything is lush green in between. So many types of tropical plants and trees, the most majestic of which being the coconut…at least along this stretch of road.

So we arrived home in Veracruz at 4:00 pm unloaded the van and then I took the kids to the beach. They have been waiting nearly two months since finding out they would be coming down to actually get here and get them to the beach. They had so much fun. We are planning on making it our home away from home.

If you have actually read till the end here I am impressed and know that I have better friends then one could ask for. I hope it was fun to read. I will keep new stuff coming more regularly now that I am home again with a dedicated connection. Good night!