Final Word

Well the trip of a thousand miles has finally come to an end, the last three days since Sunday have had to be the hardest ones of all it seemed. After leaving Yuma on Monday morning, I drove to the San Luis firehall hoping to find Jorge, and Peter. I talked to the fire chief and he said he would have his secretary try and locate them on the Mexican side, she later said that they were on the way over the border. Later a police Tahoe showed up with both Jorge and a guy named Henry who delivers fire trucks and ambulances to small towns in Mexico.

Henry does it the legit way by paying the import tax and then drives accross, and the town that receives these trucks pay just the import tax, he was going to let us try and piggy back in the line with his trucks but we needed permission from the people he knew. The Assistant Administrator finally gave the OK but the U.S side for exporting was closed so we couldn't go until the morning. He said that they had a check point along the highway where they would check our papers, if we didn't have the papers they would then seize the truck. I went back accross the U.S border to where the truck was and the other guys stayed in Mexico. So that night I stayed in San Luis fire hall, and they were really good there.

Tuesday I parked the truck and met up with Henry who was already on the U.S side and eventually Jorge showed up with his son, who then went to get the import paper work done for our truck and just pay the thousand dollars. I stayed on the U.S side and waited, and finally at noon they showed up and we were good to go. U.S customs checked over my truck and said no problem,  there they cleared off my bond and we went to the Mexican side and after them searching the truck they let us go, we drove to the firehall in Mexico took some pictures and we parted ways, with Henry.

Jorge and his son stayed with me and we  went and I followed in the truck with Jorge. His son drove the car and we drove the long trip to the mission,  and finally got in at Midnight. I slept at the Kos's place, got up at 6 am and showered had a quick coffee went to Sala at 8 then took both the fire trucks out and parked them side by side and the girl from the office took pictures of me and Jorge standing by the truck. They clapped and asked me to stand up in Sala and said thank you. I then gave the Administrator the bill of Sale the legal documents and they took some pictures of that, and loaded my stuff up in Peter Kozaks car and left the mission at about 10 30. then drove to San Diego. Another secondary search later I found myself in the LaQuinta in hotel. Its cloudy and a bit cool but its such a relief to be here. the border crossing and check points on the roads with guys with machine guns is a bit unnerving.

That is the last email from dad. He made it home safely thankfully. What a journey it was. Thank you to everyone who was supporting this trip in prayer or otherwise. I don't think it would have gone as smoothly, if at all, if it weren't for people like you and of course for God watching over us. I was glad to be a part of this journey and I don't think I will ever forget it. I am thankful that the truck made it mostly in one piece (minus one good tarp) and I hope it is a blessing to those at and around the Mission. I will have some final pictures posted later tonight after work.

From Missouri and Edmonton