Mexico trip report: From Idaho to the Mexican border

We left a day later than planned, but we expected that I guess. Last night was spent packing most of our gear into the van, and it went surprisingly well. We didn't have to leave anything behind. After a relatively relaxed morning of final packing, we finally took off around noon. The only thing we forgot was Fred's Bursting Out CD left in Theresa's CD player - Fred's favourite Tull CD, we will either have to buy a new one in Reno or Mathias can bring his copy when he arrives in December.

We already feel at home in the small space in the van, everything seemed to fit nicely into the cupboards and drawers. The Rubbermaid Action Packer boxes are great - four in the back, and one in the front for all the kitchen gear. On the roof we've got the kayak, spare fuel, and a big a drybag full of climbing and diving gear.

This day gets three stars because we are finally on our way, and we don't think we forgot anything important! I hope to pick up a digital camera in San Fransisco, so I can spice up these pages with some photos. Meanwhile, I'll will try to describe the scenery: Er, Nevada is just miles of straight roads and sagebrush.We are now 10 miles from Reno, our stop for the night.

We bought a digital camera in Reno, so we can get some pictures on these pages. It's a tiny Toshiba camera that folds out and plugs into the PC card slot of the Omnibook. It was only $99 - irresitable, although the resolution is pretty crummy (640x480). Click on the thumbnails to see bigger pictures.

Today we went sailing with Uncle Peter, Cousin Lars, Jill and some of their friends. The weather was perfect despite a bad forecast: we had sunshine and a solid wind from the South. It was Theresa's first time in a sailboat, a great experience and she skillfully sailed the ship a good part of the way after some instruction from Lars.

We spend a good chunck of time in Oakland with Peter searching out forgotten items and running errands. I discovered a leak in the water tank when I filled it this morning - water everywhere inside the van, bloody annoying but it looks fixable.

After sailing we had an absolutely brilliant dinner that Aunt Christina cooked. A wonderful seafood soup dish with a rich chocolade cake for desert. Dinner was a bit rushed unfortunately, because we were going to a wine tasting party in San Fransisco hosted by Cousin Paul. That was excellent fun - lots of wine, dance and crazy people. Paul certainly knows how to throw a good party...

We were greeted in Yosemite by a $20 entrance fee and then a $15 camping fee. That is just way too steep for our taste. User fees in National Parks are not a bad thing, but keep them reasonable... It is like that $30 permit to float the Payette. Keep the fees single-digit and I will happily pay up.

We spent Monday hiking up to Nevada Falls - a beautiful (but very crowded) hike of a handful of hours. We could both feel in our skinny legs that we have been sitting in a van for a bunch of days, not getting much exercise. We also spent a fair bit of time looking through binoculars at climbers on El Capitan. One of these days!

We got up early on Tuesday, but still not early enough to sneak by the camp ranger to avoid paying the huge fee. :-) We left "the valley" and headed up towards Tioga pass at almost 10,000ft. Then the obvious came to us: We've got the gear, we are at the world capital of rock, so why not climb some of it? So I introduced Theresa to the wonderful world of rock climbing. We found a bit of slabby rock that looked easy but interesting, and roped up after a short scramble through some bushes. The first pitch was almost too easy, but well suited to get Theresa used to the belaying technique. Next pitch was fun - fairly easy slab climbing but not just a walk. Theresa felt a bit of noia (the Willerup expression for fear), but after some friendly encouragement like "get your ass up here" we were at the top of Noia Slab, 150ft, Grade 5.2.

We are finally spending some nights in Daisy, the van. It is really cold at night in Yosemite, so we are not exactly toasty during the night. We have a bunch of blankets and sleeping bags, so we survive. Hopefully, the nights are warmer further south. The stove works well and I fixed the leaking water tank Yesterday, so the life support systems are up and running. The fridge has been running happily since we left Boise. Otherwise we are just getting used the small living space...

Beautiful sunset last night. Camped at the ranger station in Death Valley. Had a fun evening with a French chap that was biking from San Fransisco to New Orleans over two months. He pretended he didn't want any wine, but we managed to sneak half a bottle into him anyway. The night was a lot warmer than in Yosemite!

Spend most of the morning "sight-seeing by car" through Death Valley. A lonely biker just outside the valley told us about a hotspring nearby. It was the classic spa - the genders were separated, and in the mens section (which is where I reluctantly went) we were all sitting around naked, exposing our fat stomachs in the baking sun, bullshitting about current events.

Drove to Boulder City, though the outskirts of Las Vegas which was not a pretty sight. Found a cheap motel to get a phone line for Internet hook-up, but the phone wouldn't work. We will have to find another way to get wired.

Fun days in Grand Canyon. Some hiking, but no overnight camping in the canyon because we didn't have a permit.

Spent Saturday night East of Phoenix in a little camp ground (N 33 18.501' W 111 02.969'). Further down the road, we stopped at a gas station for a while to log on, and to fix a leak that had appeared in the cooling system. Tonight we finally reached the border. We are in the small border town of Douglas, where we found a little RV park with showers and laundry.

Tomorrow we will gather some last bits of US supplies before we venture into unknown territory, into Mexico. We have heard many stories about what to expect (mostly very negative ones!), but tomorrow these stories all mean nothing because we will be writing our own. We hope it will be an exicting one with a happy ending.

Trips

Sport

Tull

� The Willerups 1996-1998

Frederik

Mathias

Index

From Idaho to the Mexican Border