Hotel Azteca de Oro Mexicali

... Nah, I said. Why? Because I'm dumb, I suppose. We come up to another toll. Six U.S. dollars to cross. They had to take my brother's phone as collateral while we drove into Tijuana to a bank. I took out $200, we drove back and paid it. No more bad decision-making from here on out.

We didn't plan on hanging around Tijuana, it was just the first big city on the way to Rosarito. After driving all day in Mexico, we were relieved to ...

After my class I left at 9:00 a.m. for Price, my hometown, which is where my brother Logan lives with my mom.  It's about two hours away, so I stopped in Price to get him, pack some camping gear, eat lunch, and we went on our way.  We drove about 10 hours to Imperial Sand Dunes and camped there that night.  Just a lot of driving.  Nothing too exciting about that!  

 I will always remember my very first trip I ever took. I was 14 and I went to Mexico with a group of people from Mill Creek Foursquare church on a mission trip to help out in some orphanages. I just loved seeing a different culture and way of life! It's when I knew I had to see the world. I wanted to experience it all. 

 The people in Mexico that I met were all so kind and seemed to love ...

... supplemental oxygen. Even without the auto problems, we were going to stop in Yuma to drop off street clothes and other non-essentials at the hotel where we will be staying tonight. It has proved to be a bit challenging to find the Lee Hotel which turns out to be a stop along the "Haunted Hotel" tour. No kidding! This hotel has been featured on the cable program "Haunted" and the subject of ...

... are retiring early so that we can watch President (oops, I mean Senator, at least for a little while longer) Obama's acceptance speech and make it an early night. We plan to get started just after 3 tomorrow morning to get a jump on the heat and the 650 miles we will cover tomorrow. I'm not sure Blake will sleep, it's like Christmas for him and he's got visions of V-twins dancing in his head. Keep a good thought for us and watch ...

... degrees almost the entire way and the trip took us about 4 hours. When we finally arrived in El Centro the sun was setting but the temperatures remained the same. We checked in to our nice air conditioned hotel feeling so excited and happy that our trip had finally begun. It's Jess again...yeah, the ride was kind of brutal...but every journey needs to start with a single step, so for us, that step was El Centro, CA...the 113 ...

... guess they aren't getting much wear and tear. Ever wonder what a highly tuned athlete eats to fuel himself? Don't ask me, I have no idea. But I had a cherry turnover, english muffin with jelly, a pecan roll, 2 glasses of OJ, 3 trail mix bars, 1 Milky Way, a turkey sandwich, 1 banana, a pack of twinkies, a bag of pretzels, 2 cokes, a half a Mountain Dew, and just under 2 gallons of gatorade. And ...

Had an interesting adventure with faulty MapQuest directions. We got close to the border, pulled a U-Turn so we wouldn't cross the border. We then got pulled over by the border patrol for an "illegal entry". After looking at our directions and finding out we were on our way to a school, we were let off without a ticket. Just a warning suggestion we stay away from the border-crossing. Praise God we made it in time to do the special chapel service.

... laugh anyway. Had some delicous meat taco's from a stall for dinner for $1.50 and had a smoke outside the hotel. Again had a chat with hotel guy (never did get his name) and he was harping on about Cocaine (either that or he liked snuff alot). He was convinced my rollups were spliffs and had a sniff of the rollup to check, then laughed and called his mate over to verify it (rollups aren't common at all here). He also said that the hotel also rents out rooms by the hour (I never ...

... and feeling like an overweight turtle. Tomorrow starts with the quick ride up the coast to Los Angeles on the Surfliner train. The flight has a stopover in Toyko(1hour) and then on to Sinapore. I leave at 3pm on Tues and get to Singapore on Thursday in the very early morning. About 18 hours of total travel time. I will update once I have caught up on my sleep.