3 - Texas is huge

About 10 miles into the trip we found ourselves stuck on Highway 17 in what was quickly becoming a 10 mile, 2 lane parking lot. Things were not looking good.

I phoned the fire department and asked my B.C. what the heck was going on. He told me one of our Captains just called in for an ETA on medics, as he was on scene of a big rig that dumped its scrap metal load onto a pickup truck, trapping the driver inside. (update: driver is OK), This left us with no way to cross the mountains separating Santa Cruz from the rest of the world, and no chance of making the Mexican consulate in Sactown by noon.

Makes it easy, we head south for Phoenix consulate via Highway 1 instead. Luckliy we came to standstill in one of the only areas without a center divide on the entire pass.

We flicked the ASC off and spun a Uturn right there on the Highway, leaving the growing mass of idling commuters behind.

4 hours later we're deep in the central valley and we here 17 is still closed!

Fast forward a bit and we pulled into Phoenix at 10:30pm, but went straight to the consulate for recon. After confirming their morning hours, we found the closest hotel and came back at 7:40am, 20 minutes before opening time. Even that early, there was 50 people ahead of us, although we were the only ones to pull up in a Carrera car! It caused a bit of a fuss, and our new friend Rudy the consulate guard made sure we were first in line! 42 minutes later we walked out with all our paperwork sorted and a bunch of new friends. If everyone in Mexico is as cool as Rudy and the folks we met today, we are going to have a great time no matter what happens on the rally.

So feeling good about things, we set a lofty goal of making it all the way to Laredo today. I-10 has an 80mph speed limit for non-Carrera cars, we figured it must be at least 90 for us, so we set the cruise control for something north of that and I blasted my poor dad with my Ipod tunes for hours on end. 10 hours later and we're hurting: deaf from my music and sore from our seats. Didn't make Laredo, didn't make San Antonio, we did however make it about 6 miles east of Ozona, BFE. Who knew Texas was so damn big? It's like it should be its own country or something. Really.

We're at a super 8 Truck Stop tonight. You should see the size of the parking places! As if our Mini didn't seem small already, quite comical really.

Oh btw, we drove through a dust storm today. Was rather worrisome as I-10 has many road signs warning that visibility might drop to Zero in dust storms. Greeeeat, we're in a Mini Cooper, surrounded by big rigs, and the visibility is going to hell... And then it cleared up! Wheew.

Tomorrow, Laredo. Well, maybe, we might make a detour and squander a day as tourists. We hear San Antonio is beautiful, and I've always wanted to see the basement of the Alamo.