Crossing the Border

Here we are, yesterday morning, on Zaragoza in front of Ron and Jean's house, ready to head north with our car packed and Chuy ready to go in his crate.  I am happy to report that, after a couple of long days, we have crossed the border into Laredo, Texas.  We collapsed into a La Quinta Inn and ate dinner at Denny's next door.  Tomorrow we're off to San Antonio, where we need to have some work done on our car, so we'll likely be 2 or 3 days there.  


Mike and Christi were there to send us off, along with Ron and Jean, of course. (Although Jean did not want her photo taken, as she was still in her PJ's).  

  Last Saturday, right before we left, we had a wonderful evening with our close friends Fred and Mardele and Jeanne and Paul.  We enjoyed cocktails at Fred and Mardele's, then they all treated us to dinner at Simply Thai, and we returned to Fred and Mardele's for a late night swim and dessert, coffee and liqueurs.  A wonderful evening!

The drive through northern Mexico was interesting.  It is very dry, with few people living there.  We saw some interesting sights, including several fires burning with no one attending them, many beautiful joshua trees, and long stretches of flat land with few inhabitants:

Chuy has been riding in a crate, right behind the front seats, surrounded by boxes.  He's been doing great.  We get out about every hour so I can exercise my leg and he can get out of the crate.  Here he is in his crate: 

We spent about an hour and a half in line at Neueva Laredo crossing the border.  It was very tedious, but we made it, although we had to pay $16 for tax for the five bottles of wine we brought with us!  Here is our view of the line we waited in:

And, finally, here is Chuy, in the motel in Laredo, his first day as a US resident!

We'll keep posting throughout the rest of the trip...