Santa Barbara

As we make our way down the most picturesque of coasts, drive the famous coastal highway 1 South from San Francisco to Los Angeles going through famed villages such as Monterey and Big Sur, we’ve seen nothing but… clouds and mist…! Despite the 5-year Californian drought – whose effects are obvious all around us – the rain has only stopped to take a breath once or twice and the “Mediterrannean-like” coastline promised in the guidebooks is much more like the West Coast of New Zealand! But all has not been so grey – the wild windswept beaches had a definite charm to them, rainbows appeared around corners during the brief windows of semi-sunshine and the cold probably reduced the smell of the elephant seal colonies at Piedras Blancas – I would not like to be there on a hot summer’s day!

We going to visit Santa Barbara then make our way over to a Halloween night in Phoenix or Tucson before crossing the border into Mexico at Nogales. After 4 months on the trip, 1 month in Canada and 3 months in the US, we feel ready to cross into the more unknown, more remote travel of Mexico. We’ve been happy to discover all the national parks in the US, meet with and visit friends, but we are now looking forward to – a new language, different food (better cheeses and more flavor!), different culture and hopefully meeting up with other overlander families on the road. We feel that after 4 months of living together and homeschooling we now know what works and what doesn’t…. Homeschooling two children in the back of the camper while also entertaining Olivia and given directions to Florent, does not work, just as homeschooling late afternoon while also cooking or starting pre-dinner drink also doesn’t work! It takes energy, motivation and concentration on both students’ and teachers’ sides and our days are now often planned around a 2-hour stop in the morning to complete their work before moving on to visiting and exploring. We’ve recharged batteries figuratively and literally in San Francisco, made birthday and pre-christmas purchases while we had a postal address, laminated some ID copies for any dodgy cops and Picar is choca-block full! Mechanically we also feel ready to take on the Mexican roads – we’ve (well mostly Florent J ) fixed the thermocoupler in the fridge, replaced the accessory battery, fixed a giant leak cascading water through our bathroom like Niagara falls (– that turned out just to be a screw loose), and we enlisted the help of a mechanic to fix the electrical mass on the starter motor. So we’re ready! Estamos listos! Bring it on Mexico! – Traje-lo sobre! J (perhaps we should see if we can get some Spanish lessons along the way…).

Hasta pronto, besos.