We got a really late start, so got in pretty late on Friday. We went straight to the Sandbar to help Sandy properly celebrate her birthday. The next day, we went on a pub crawl in PB to continue the celebration. Just as we were walking to the first stop, Brett got a call from another friend of ours. She was frantic, but since I wasn’t on the phone I had no idea why.

Turns out her mom went down into the deep cuts of Mexico to visit some family, and forgot her Green Card. Not thinking this was a big deal, she had her daughter – my friend – fax a copy down to her. The Mexican travel authorities said this was not sufficient. So Meli went to the airport where her mom would be arriving, and gave them the Green Card to scan into the system. But again, the airline in Mexico said this was not sufficient either. Next idea: just sneak over the border. Apparently that family has been doing it for years lol. But that wasn’t an option either. After all, she can’t be her risking her legal status by doing something stupid like that.

So at this point Meli freaked out and wanted to drive 500 miles down to Mexico, find her mother, and hand deliver the Green Card. Realizing this was not a good idea, she decided to fly and have us pick her up from the San Diego airport, then go with her to the border. So we did this, bright and early the morning after the 311 concert, which by the way was magical.

So here’s how this went down. We picked up Meli and took I-5 down to the border. I was in the back with Meli and hadn’t seen her in a while, so we were catching up. There are an insane amount of signs that indicate which exit is the last US exit, so you would think Brett would get off the freeway at that exit. Fail. I had absolutely no idea what was going on because I simply was not paying attention. But then I hear a very, very indecisive Sim mentioning something about “you maybe want to go that way” followed by “oh ok then” followed by Brett, “Caro what do we do here?” Apparently I’m the resident expert since I’m familiar with San Diego. But really, there are signs so no one needs to be an expert. One simply needs to be literate.

I looked up from the back seat and see that we have indeed passed the last US exit. Yes ladies and gentlemen, we are headed into Mexico. So Brett, deciding this was a bad idea, pulled over to the shoulder of the freeway and put the car into reverse. Because apparently reversing up the freeway is safer than driving into Mexico. At this point I’m thinking, ok we’re going back to the off-ramp and getting off the freeway. False. We reversed to the ON-ramp and drove the wrong way up it. In Brett’s defense, at least we weren’t driving on the one paved lane that goes onto the freeway; we were on the shoulder of the on-ramp, in the dirt. We could clearly make out a plethora of tire treads and realized that, on the bright side, we weren’t the only idiots to miss the last US exit. But still, I feared for my safety until we were back on the right side of the road, obeying all relevent traffic laws.

I realize I did not mention the full story of Meli going into Mexico. Her mom met up with some long-lost cousin or something in Tijuana. No clue how she made it up there, but whatever. The cousin rescued her from the airport and brought her to the border crossing. He found out Meli was coming and decided the family was low on US dollars, so he asked her to bring some over with her. So we arrived at the border and Meli, a girl who does not typically carry a purse, had a large bag with her passport, her mother’s Green Card, and an envelope of money. She was concerned, and I fully understand why! Fortunately Meli is a smart girl and her fluency in Spanish didn’t help either, so after we walked her to the gates into Mexico she was totally fine. She and her mom came back about 20 minutes later and we dropped them off at the San Diego airport.

Whew! Busy day