Arrival in Chihuahua

After 3 long days of road-tripping, we finally arrived in Chihuahua yesterday afternoon! The race starts tomorrow (Friday) morning. Today are tech and health inspections for the cars and racers.



It was a nice and safe drive down. We pulled in to El Paso on Tuesday night and met with the American group of drivers who were also driving their cars down. Gerry Bledsoe, the North American Coodinator organized a dinner for us all to schmooze with Mexican and American border officials, who made our crossing run very smoothly. Then Wednesday morning we were up early to all caravan to the border.



It has been really neat to see all of the other race cars, there sure is a variety! I have been taking pictures, but since I didn't bring my laptop down, I won´t be ablt to upload them until I get home. But all of the other racers are sooo nice and fun to be around.



We crossed at Santa Teresa, a much smaller crossing than Juarez. It is mainly an industrial crossing and when we got their around 9, we were the only ones there (all 40ish of us). It was a confusing process, because everyone was transporting at least 2 vehicles across - tow trucks and trailers and then the race cars. And where it gets tricky is that one person can only cross one vehicle in his name. So guess what! I am now the proud owner of a '54 Ford racecar!!! haha! We had to put it in my name because the truck is in Dad's name. I'm sure Dad will change that as soon as we get home (or he'll give me all the bills and then I'll gladly hand it back over!).



It took 2 hours for us to get through customs, but it was very pleasant because we had so many Mexican officials helping us.



The drive south into the city of Chihuahua was only 200 miles, but took all day because their were some major wind storms that were swirling around dust clouds that were so thick that at times we could only see 50 yards ahead of us. But we forged ahead cautiously on our great adventure.

The host hotel for the Chihuahua Express is the Westin and rest assured, it is very safe and beautiful!

We went last night to one of the best restaurants in Chihuahua (so they told us) and it definetely lived up to it's reputation. Of course we had to sample some tequila! It was a night full of lots of laughs from the stories from Dad and Shields (Dad's co-piloto) from the last race in Mexico.

Fortunately, the winds have died down today and it is beautiful and warm. We´re about to head to downtown to get some lunch and see some sights. ¡Hasta luego!