Still in San Diego, awaiting a mechanic to give Dora a check-up before heading across the border into Mexico. We woke up Sunday morning at our campsite at the KOA to all you can eat pancake breakfast for $4. So we started the day by stuffing ourselves with pancakes, Freja was in heaven. We played in the playground for a while and then decided to head into San Diego on the bus, then trolley. The downtown mission was kind of a bust, most of the stuff was closed and we basically walked around for a bit, got a sub and headed back to the campsite just out of town. We did some laundry, bought a few beers and spent the night chatting to people on facebook, taking advantage of the Wi-FI access while we have it. I'm not sure how many campsites in Mexico and the rest of Central America will have internet, my guess is none. Our campsite was attacked by ants over the two days we were there, and the persistent buggers found their way into basically everything in the van. Kind of a nuisance, but I do stand back in amazement at the organizational skills of the ant colony. It's crazy. So I have to give them credit where credit is due. They found their way into a van inhabited by small children who have a tendency to leave crumbs everywhere, smart. There will be one happy queen of that colony, and organic treats at that.

Anyways, we got in touch with a mechanic this morning and he was too busy to see us today so we've scheduled an appointment early tomorrow morning. Don't worry, there is nothing wrong with Dora we just want to get an oil change and quick tune up before the next leg. The mechanic's name is Randy and supposedly one of the best Volkswagen guys in the San Diego area, so we're in good hands. Depending on how the check-up goes we might try and make it across the border tomorrow, but we'll see.

So now it's ten thirty at night and I just finished a little guitar playing, Shona is chatting with our neighbours over a fire and I'm sitting in the glow of the laptop enjoying a bottle of Guinness. We went to the park today, Freja quite enjoyed the fountains and was extremely upset that she couldn't go swimming in them. It was a very cool area, all of the cultural experiences wrapped up in one park. The Zoo, the Museum, the Science Centre and a little Spanish village filled with artists in open to the public studios making pottery, paintings and jewellry. There was some amazing pieces of art there, I couldn't help but wish we had more cash to pick some up. Ahh, the joys of travelling cheaply.

The trip is beginning to feel real now. I don't know if it's the palm trees, the fact that we're twelve miles from the border of Mexico or that we're past the two week mark, but it definitely has begun to feel like we're not coming home for a while. I had a realization that we are extremely far from anything we truly know and are going further still, it's exciting and scary all wrapped up in one. I think we're all a bit anxious about crossing the border, for various reasons. The language barrier is going to start and until we've spent a few days getting accustomed to not understanding everything that is being said around us it's going to be intimidating.

Anyways I'm going to join the conversation at the fire. More later...