27 October, 2016 (Emily Smith)

Holy smokes, what an unreal day! It started off as our earliest day yet, with the crew taking off at 5:00 am. Well, it was supposed to be 5:00 am but Jeff decided to sleep in a little bit, delaying our departure time by a few minutes. Oh, it was only minutes until everyone in the van was fast asleep again as we rolled on through the state of California towards the much anticipated lands of Mexico. We have all been waiting for this leg of our journey. It was one of the first parts we talked about last spring - originally being worried that we wouldn't be able to make Baja, California happen. After a lot of thought and a lot of talk, we more or less decided to make Baja, California our mission. And we did it! Well, we're about to do it anyway. Getting here was an adventure in and of itself. It was all smooth sailing right up until we actually got to the border. It was already a much slower process than what we've experienced in Canada, and then we were of course asked for our registration for the trailer, which I thought, "Why in the world would we have it?" Jeff and Ryan scrambled to figure out this dilemma while we were approached by officers letting us know that we had to turn right back around to the states. A quick stop at Church's Chicken to print the registration and another go at crossing the border proved successful. Just barely though, as our printed registration was just a cell phone picture taken by Bryan from Transportation Services back in Macomb. It just barely let us slide by, probably with the help from Jeff's charismatic charm. We trucked through Tijuana, all of us noting the vast differences between where we came from and where we were. Finally getting to Ensenada, we met up with Jeff's pal Francisco who led us the long way to his ranch house where we would spend the night. We discovered that our adventures were not over... The winding and uneven roads were a little much for our trusty van and trailer to handle. With three of us riding along with Francisco and the rest of us in good ole' van 63, those of us in the ban all piled into the very back seat as we attempted to get our mobilized house up the hill. Surprise! We got stuck... Now all of us are behind the trailer, pushing it up the hill as Jeff applied the gas. Once we made it up, we celebrated with smiles and laughs and allowed Jeff to give us a lesson in backing up a trailer. As exhausting and eventful as today was, I couldn't imagine entering Mexico with this bunch any other way. Be grateful.

26 October, 2016 (Kolin O'Keefe)

Another day spent at Summit Adventure after a long night of homework. I awoke to the smell of french toast and bacon, none of which was burnt! After doing some cleaning and various chores, we went into town for a couple of hours to send out newsletters and to get supplies four out trip to Baja. We hit up Radio Shack and a couple of thrift stores. I bought a bomb pair of sandals. However, they ended up being orthopedic sandals, more than likely worn by someone who is dead now. I shall carry on their legacy. All jokes aside, it was great to be able to spend on more day at Summit before leaving for good. We ate a conglomeration of leftovers for supper and we were treated to an XXXL brownie cake monster. Solid choice on the pecans and the size of the brownie. Cody got to teach us on his "Mountain Lion stalks group" incident scenario and Liv taught the group on her "Lightning Strikes" incident scenario. Her topic sparked discussion and curiosity as we found out that Jeff had been struck on 3 separate occasions. Now we know that Jeff is a great conductor of electricity. We also got to hear about how a deer jumped over his shoulder and how the mountain lion chasing it almost ran over Jeff. Luckily the lion applied the brakes and did a 180 degree turn before reaching Jeff. I doubt that lion wanted a piece of Jeff, it probably knew better. I got to finish watching my B class movie last night, "Attack of the Herbals." It was so God awful that it came back around, full circle, and ended up being a pretty comical movie. (highly recommend that anyone watch it). I shut my laptop and got ready for bed. As I lay there, I remember the conversation I had with my father the night before. My sister got engaged, my other sister got a second job as an artist in Minneapolis, my brother was back in Wisconsin with his wife and 2 daughters (one of which I haven't got to see yet), and my youngest brothers college football team is top of the conference his first year as a starter. I am reminded that so much happens in the span of a couple of months, especially when I don't have many means of talking to people. I can't wait to tell them all what has happened on my side... but that will have to wait. Still got another month of traveling and adventures ahead of me.

"Short cuts often lead to long delays"
     ~ J.R.R. Tolken