Cardiff, CA to Tijuana, Mexico - 43 miles
We made it! It's over! We biked all the way from Canada to Mexico! The actual crossing of the border was anti-climactic because it was so crowded with people. Where we crossed, there was no "Welcome to Mexico" sign where we could get a good picture, so we had to settle for pictures of us walking our bikes down a ramp and waiting in line. When we entered the border patrol building, we got our passports stamped for the sake of memorabilia. When asked how long we planed to stay in Mexico, we said, "Maybe 5 minutes."
50 days ago when we crossed into Canada it took all of 5 minutes in and another 5 minutes to get back to the United States. We knew that Mexico would take longer. We hoped for 1 hour, maybe 2. We were not expecting FOUR HOURS! I don't know which was more amazing: that our boys rode the length of our country on their bikes for 7 weeks or that they were absolute angels in line at the border for 4 hours. We were blessed to wait in line next to a gentleman who held our bikes and our place in line when we had to find a restroom for the boys. Thank you, Jimmy!
As we waited in line, I kept remembering a line from one of my favorite movies. "She would go all the way to Italy just to get a stamp in her passport. I don't know if that amounts to insanity or just being really, really...likeable." Hmm...maybe we'll bike Italy next. :) I know we could have avoided the whole border business and taken pictures on the US side, but we really wanted those stamps.
By time we made it back to the United States, it was dark and we still had 11 miles to ride. We plan to stay the weekend with friends we met on this trip who live in Coronado. Monday morning, Amtrak will take us back up to Washington State where we left our car. Thanks for following us on this incredible adventure!
