A Long Ride

I managed to completely screw up the border crossing. I parked the FJR in a lot near the "items to declare" area, and went looking for the place to buy tourist cards and a temporary vehicle import permit. I was given directions "two blocks down," out of the border area and into Tijuana. Elena and I decided to leave the FJR in the lot and go get the paperwork on foot - big mistake!

The paperwork was easy, and we walked back to where the bike was parked, but there was no way to get back. The parking lot was on the U.S. side of the border! We ended up walking over the bridge, walking with thousands of other people in the line for immigration back to the United States, then crossing back over the bridge on the U.S. side to the bike and finally into Mexico. Leave it to me to do three border crossings instead of one.

And that wasn't the end of the excitement. South of Tijuana on the toll road to Ensenada we saw a huge group of police in the opposite lane chasing a red pickup truck. It was a high-speed freeway chase! The truck tried getting away in the dirt along the road, then veered back on the road, bouncing everywhere, almost right at us. I hit the gas to get ahead of the impact just as he ran into the center divider, smashing the truck to a stop. There were about 15-20 police trucks and cars all around him instantly, and we just kept going... welcome to Mexico!