Day 10: Drive 850 miles from SF to Nogales
Left 10pm from Kara’s – full to the brim after our dinner at the A & O Trading Company. Katie caught up and some sleep and I drove through the night untill the sun came up at 6am the next day. It was pretty crazy driving through LA. Even at 4am the 4-7 lanes going my direction were very full.
We stopped for a quick bite and a switchover as I was in need of sleep after the all-nighter. I slept till around 9am – not much because the sun made it pretty stiffling in the bed, even that early in the morning.
We passed Tucson and ran into a massive storm. From brilliant sun in the morning, to clouded over, to lightening and torrential rain. We had to make a few stops because the rain made driving impossible a few times, but eventually made it to the Mexican Nogales border crossing around 4pm.
Made it through the border easily. We got a green light – meaning no check at all. Didn’t even show passports or anything. The rain continued, though not so torrential, and we headed to “Kilometer 21” – about 30 minutes out of Nogales where vehicle permits are issued. We had a huge fiasco with customs, spending ages trying to get our way, but were eventually turned around because the car is licensed to my mum and I didn’t have a birth certificate to prove that she was my mother. Even though our last names are the same…. – a nightmare!
We headed back to the US – waiting in a 1h15m lineup to get back. Got a full car search in a separate lot. My parents bailed me out and fortunately I got a scan of my birth certificate emailed from my dad. Printed it out at a Best Western and now we’re staying in the parking lot tonight – stealth style. Curtains and all.
| Published on July 27th, 2010 | | Posted by admin |