Hey, friends! Chris here, we’re just back from San Vicente, lot’s of good things, lot’s of challenges…
Our ‘2 weeks per month down in San Vicente’ is in full swing… and our resolve to do that really got tested this last trip.
On a good day, the 130-mile trip from our house to the Village takes 3 ½ hours. The big-normal reasons are [1] getting thru Tijuana, then Ensenada/Mandedero and the snarled Mexican traffic, then [2] passing thru 3 mountain ranges, two low-level and one going from sea level to 4000 feet, then down.
Well, Wed the 14th was the ride to test our resolve… almost 6 hours, almost a dozen accidents… I now have a little idea what it felt like for Jacob to wrestle with the Angel in Genesis 32…
Started out with attempting to cross into Mexico at the San Ysidro border. Well, there was a major construction accident RIGHT THAT MOMENT. They closed the border for an hour. Then the snarled attempt to get thru. THEN the high-speed chase of some criminal into Mexico, with 10 San Diego police cruisers blasting by [we were the 10th car in line, the chase went right by us!]. THAT closed the border for another half hour.
Finally, into Mexico, to find the foolish criminal crashed into a road divider, and 50 Mexican cops with a closed ramp. SO into Tijuana proper… to find the major street to go south closed off… re-routed into the south part of the city… FINALLY on our way south, to Rosarito…
Then the stop at the ‘rest rooms’ station… what! Under construction? The next one… same thing… the last one before the long road to Ensenada… closed.
We’re starting to smell a plot here.
Got to Ensenada, found an open bathroom (yes!), got thru Ensenada OK, then up into the mountains towards San Vicente…
Well, the Mex government is doing construction on the ONLY road between Ensenada and Los Cabos (Mex 1). San Vicente sits right on the Mex 1. The construction is a good thing, this has been a narrow, barely-kept road for a long time, and a lot of truck traffic.
[Ref: the San Quintin valley, of which San Vicente sits on the northern rim, is ‘the vegetable basket’ of Mexico. If you are reading this and ever eaten a store-bought strawberry or store-bought strawberry jam in the US, 95% probability it came from the Valley].
Guess where the construction has finally reached? The narrow passes through the mountains. It’s now filled with gravel by-passes winding back-and-forth around the construction bits, up steep inclines, then down-hill. Huge semi-trucks (the ones that bring the vegetables and fruits out for market) riding right up our tail, impatient, 20 of us crunching thru the trails…
It took us SIX hours to get to San Vicente. Lori admitted that if she was driving, she would still be back in Tijuana crying.
Well, we struggled through. “I’m not letting go until YOU bless me, God!!”
We made it by Grace and Mercy and God’s exceptional Presence… and yes, He blessed us. Driving over the hill and seeing the Village… ahhh! Welcome sight!
Thanks for praying with us, you supporters and prayer warriors!!
[ps, the trip back was significantly better… ]
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