The Cactus Trip Diaries

Just a brief report of today;s adventures. Got up at 6 a.m. in the UK and dropped off to sleep at 8 p.m. in Carlsbad. That might not sound too long a day, but there is of course an 8 hour time differences to add on.

The original plan had been to drive to San Diego and spend another night in the Motel 6 on the Pacific Highway, ‘The Motel at the End of the Runway’ but the storms battering the UK had delayed most flights coming in and so had delayed our departure time by an hour or so. As a result we were driving in the dark, not my favourite, once we got out on to the I-5, with 5 lines of oncoming traffic with their bright headlights making the experience very unpleasant. Around Camp Pendleton I pulled off at the viewpoint and reprogrammed the Sat Nav for Motel 6 in Carlsbad, another favourite from previous trips. The Denny’s across the car park was still there, so I managed to eat at 7, my preferred time, although the brain still thought that it was 3 a.m. – confused.

I should have mentioned that we were met at LAX by Eunice Thompson, travel companion on many previous trips and citizen of Bell Flower. She had bought a SatNav for me with US & Mexican maps, as my model is now obsolete and not able to download any new maps. Thanks Eunice!

Immigration had gone very smooth, our luggage came through almost as soon as we reached the luggage collection hall and picking up the car from Dollar went very quickly too. Dollar are one of the few – perhaps only? US car rental companies that allow you to drive their cars into Mexico.

We’re almost right along the I-5 so no problems in getting on the road to the border – in the past we have managed to get lost from The Motel at the End of the Runway back to I-5, so will make up some time there.

Today will be much of a driving day, aiming to reach San Quintin for the night