What a great sunrise to wake up too.

The weather was nice this morning, but we decided to get on the road rather than get some final kayaking in.  We took our only group photo of the trip before we took off. 

I had plugged one of Brian’s tires with my Safety Seal kit the evening before and it was holding air still, so we hit the road.  The road to Puertecitos was the worst I had seen it, even at 18 psi, the washboards were rough. 

About ten miles south of Puertecitos I heard a friend of mine, BajaXplorer, on the radio briefly.  He lives part time in Puertecitos and I thought we might run into him.  Not too long after that I heard another friend, Al, on the radio and then I remembered that they were in El Golfo on a trip with www.4wdtrips.net.  This must have been near 90 miles away and was an amazing distance for a simplex transmission on the 2 meter radio.  Over open water you get really good propagation.  I started picking them up pretty well at one point so I bumped my radio up to high and called CQ trying to reach Al. Surprisingly he heard me and answered!  We chatted for a few minutes before we started losing each other.  This was definitely a distance record for me for a simplex QSO, around 85 miles!!!   Brian was not able to hear the conversation because his squelch was set too high and he couldn’t remember how to change it on his Yaesu radio.  Bummer dood...  

Later as we were coming into San Felipe I had another QSO with Jack at El Golfo and it was really clear.  We chatted for a while before I lost him as we came into town. 

San Felipe was still bustling even though the spring break season was almost over.  We parked and went and had some lunch on the boardwalk.  We did some shopping after lunch and bought a bunch of goodies. 

The wind was blowing again, you can see the blowing sand in this picture north of San Felipe.

The drive to the border was uneventful and we got into line easily at the border and the wait was about 45 minutes, not bad at all.  When we were about 200 yards from the actual crossing we had a comical event unfold right in front of us.  A man and a woman walked in front of my truck and grabbed some rebar that was sitting on the side of the road next to the large border fence.  It turned out that this rebar was long and was actually a rebar ladder!  They draped the makeshift ladder over the fence and the woman quickly climbed.  She had a large rope around her waist that the man was holding onto.  She reached the top and leapt over and the man then lowered her down.  She pulled the rope off herself and then ran into the nearby strip mall!!  The man coiled his rope, lowered the ladder, and walked away. 

This really blew me away and I was quite disturbed by this.  We were within a couple hundred yards of dozens of armed U.S. Border Patrol agents and this happened so easily right in front of everyone.  A few minutes later it happened again.  I know the Border Patrol cannot be everywhere all the time, but come on...  If we cannot secure the border fence inside a major metropolis like Calexico, then what is the point in building this huge fence through hundreds of miles of beautiful desert along the remote parts of our border with Mexico??  Build a 20 foot tall fence I will show you a 21 foot ladder... 

Once I reached the border agent they asked me if I had any fruits and vegetables and I answered with: “I think I’ve eaten them all”.  There was a long pause and the agent then asked me again with a nasty tone if I had any fruits and vegetables and I said with the same tone “I said I ate them all!!!”  This pissed him off and he sent me to secondary.  First time I’ve been sent to secondary in 8 trips to Mexico.  Now I sat and waited for about ten minutes and finally the agriculture guy came up and said he had to look in my coolers.  In Brian’s cooler he found some hard boiled eggs.  He said we could not have these and I said they only asked about fruits and vegetables.  I told him that they were hard boiled, purchased in the USA, and he could have them.  He declined, put them back and sent us on our way.

So, we had just spent 2 weeks in some really remote areas and nothing was searched except for one cooler because I had a tone.  This really makes me feel safe about our borders, but hey, I’m just an average citizen, what do I know…   

On that somewhat sour note, we were back in the good old USA!!!  I always love coming home and wouldn’t live anywhere else in the world!! :)

Our little happy group split up in Gila Bend as I was heading to Phoenix to see my mom and get my dog and continue on to New Mexico. 

After months of preparation and planning, we had a hugely successful trip and many thanks go to my travel companions for the great trip!