Mexico Bound

 And we're off!  After a LOT of packing and all those last minute details, we were finally ready to head south of the border!  We were quite surprised to wake up on Sunday the 6th and see it snowing outside - and we had parked the car outside so it was all ready to go with the pickup in the garage.  Luckily we ran out of it outside of Colorado Springs but hit the snow again south of Pueblo!

We drove a long time in this!  And at the top of Raton Pass it was a blizzard!!  We were sure glad to eventually drive out of it!

Since there was no big storm going through Flagstaff, we took our usual route!  Our first night was in Winslow, AZ - we stayed at the Best Western - super friendly lady at check in and our room was very nice!!  We ate at a different place this year - a brewing company and the food was excellent!  1/2 block up the street was our photo op place!

Our next days drive was good - we stopped at Camp Verde for coffee at our usual place but were sad to discover it was closed on Mondays!  We drove on into Anthem, AZ as I had found a place on my phone and it was a wonderful spot so enjoyed coffee there!!

We were going to cross at a different spot this year, Algodones which is right outside of Yuma so stayed there for the night -our room was fine and we walked to dinner at Cracker Barrell - once we get out of the car we have no desire to drive anyplace to eat!

After stopping at McDonalds for breakfast to go, we were almost to the border when the time changed - so instead of crossing at 7, we crossed at 6 which was perfect!  We were 3rd in line and it was a super easy process to cross and do the paperwork.  Glenn had printed out satellite maps of where to go and had good directions written down BUT it didn't work well as once we got out of town, other towns were NOT marked at all and road signs to turn on were non-existent!!  So we missed our turn and meandered through tiny towns and farm country - it was nice BUT instead of taking an hour to get to our main road, it took 3 hours!!!  That was not fun !

But the drive went well and we arrived close to 6 at San Ignacio to stay at the yurts, one of our favorite places!!  We know the owners now - Paul and Bonnie - and enjoy visiting with other people that are staying there.  Dinner was served and we sat with 2 couples who were a lot of fun!

In case you're thinking that the Baja is completely flat and all desert, you would be wrong!  There are mountains to go through and some of the windy, curvy roads are worse than Colorado passes!  Add that to the narrow, no shoulder roads and it makes for some scary driving at times!!  I took this picture through the filthy windshield but it kind of shows the roads we are on!

And it's always fun when we can see the Sea of Cortez!!  A beautiful sight!

More to come.....