16th April 2015 – Chihuahua to Douglas U.S.A

Blue B is having starter motor problems this morning so needs to be push started, it took 3 goes inside the hotel garage to get her going.We leave Chihuahua at our normal time this morning as we head towards the U.S. Border with a 517 kilometer drive. It’s a gorgeous day forecast 28 degrees and there isn’t a cloud in the sky perfect for traveling.The drive is through stunning mountains and the further north we go the less towns there are. Once again there is a section of road that is breaking up and is full of potholes.About 40 kilometers from the border we are stopped at a military check point and they inspect all the cars and look in some bags, not sure what they’re looking for but they didn’t find it. When we arrive at the border town of Agua Prieta all the signs direct us to the United States which we follow and we join the queue and wait our turn. It’s all electronic with cameras scanning our number plate, we present our passports & they collect them and then move through to the customs area while we wait for our passports to be stamped & returned.The customs officials are very friendly and helpful and as they’re talking to us I’m sure they’re sussing us out. At this stage we haven’t officially exited Mexico but we have entered the U.S, so we ask the customs officials how we can clear our cars out of Mexico, as we have paid a US$200 refundable deposit and we need to claim this back. We haven’t seen any signs to Mexican customs. They tell us we have to go back into Mexico and do our customs & immigration on that side of the border and then come back into USA. So they very kindly stop the traffic going into Mexico which stretches back quite away & let us all through so we go back & do our paperwork. This really confuses the Mexican officials as we are going into Mexico and we need to try & explain to them in Spanish that we really don’t want to come in we want to go out, which miraculously they understand & direct us to the exit part of the Mexican customs. We do our paperwork and then join the queue again and go back into the U.S. and drive into Douglas where we stay the night. When we arrive at our motel the MGA belonging to the MGA Guru is parked in the car park. Barney & his son Elliot are going to join us on our trip for a couple of days. Tonight we have a party complete with party hats and whistles in the local Pizza Hut to celebrate a milestone in our adventure and to say farewell to Casper, as they leave us tomorrow in Phoenix to go to Los Angeles as we head to the Grand Canyon.