Mile 437

We've finally gotten off the pad, as it were. Yesterday (Monday) we packed the final things - beds, frig, suitcases - into the truck and trailer, said final goodbyes to the children's home and the landlord, had a final lunch at 'Taqueria Gamez' and hit the road with all our stuff. We are now in Chihuahua City, where we are visiting more friends for a couple days before heading south.

Chihuahua City isn't new for us. We lived here for almost a year, up until a little over a year ago; we know people here and are quite familiar with the road between Madera and Chihuahua. So, in a way the real journey starts in a couple days, when we leave here. I'll have to look at a map to even find the highway out of town toward the south; here the highways aren't always connected, with directions on big, green signs like they are in the states. The way out of town for us will probably be highway 45 / 49, to Torreon, though there is a smaller highway, 24, that passes through some historic areas that we've talked about taking. Gracias a Dios, we've been blessed with some good road atlases of Mexico by some friends of ours in Madera. The trip to Chihua's (as the locals call Chihuahua City) has been a good shakeout time for the truck and trailer, and also for our family (and cat!) in the truck. During the time here I'll need to clean the ol' K&N air filter on the truck and redo the tie-down job on the trailer tarp in a couple places. In general, though, things seem pretty tight and smooth.