The Good, The Bad, and The Border

This is the one where it all starts to feel a little too real.

Our last night in the United States is an RV park in McAllen.
Not a big goodbye. Not a moment. Just…sitting there with our last Pizza Hut stuffed crust pizza and a quiet sense that we might not fully be ready for what we’re about to do.

We’re trying to get rid of a g*n we absolutely CANNOT take across the border.
We’re making a last-minute decision to bring someone we barely know into the plan. And we’re both pretending we feel more confident than we actually do.

Then we wake up and start driving.

The Mexico border is not what we expected.

Construction at the crossing. Four hours pulled over on the side of the road.
Some maybe not-so-legal paperwork shenanigans.
Armed guards.
The wall.

And then—we cross. No fanfare. No fireworks. Just a dusty road and a sketchy looking mechanic shop. 

And we realize we've been holding our breath for days. Weeks. 

There's an exhale. Tears. And the overwhelming realization that the hardest part is still ahead.

Follow Burn the Blueprint on Instagram for updates, behind-the-scenes, and whatever happens next.

You can also find more of our life at Leaving La Vida Loca.

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:00

I'm Layla.

SPEAKER_01 0:01

I'm Trevor.

SPEAKER_02 0:01

And we sold everything and moved into a 34-foot RV and drove to another country. This is our story.

SPEAKER_01 0:09

Welcome to Burn the Blueprint. I think the best part is that Kaya's heard that story. She starts to say here say, like, we need to try and get that just like as a recording and use it.

SPEAKER_02 0:32

Or maybe we'll just have her as a guest on.

SPEAKER_01 0:34

Yeah, why not?

SPEAKER_02 0:35

I don't know. Four-year-old Babbel, why not?

SPEAKER_01 0:37

Four-year-old Babbel, five million chords on the table.

SPEAKER_02 0:40

What's the worst I could have? You know, what's the worst? Guys, I'm already in a saucy mood because I bought a second mic stand. So if you're just listening and not watching this, Trev gets a mic stand because uh he is the noob when it comes to like fidgety. And he's oh fuck me, he's so fidgety. Um also, so I know like how far to keep the mic from from my mouth. You might not agree. You might be like, God Layla, no, you don't. Your voice is really annoying and super loud. Uh, take it up with the editor. Also, so I'm salty about that, okay? Because I expected to have a mic stand. I do have a mic stand, but it does not have the correct adapter on it. So, road, I have a bone to pick with you. Um, and I can't just like run down to the corner store and get one because I live in Belize. So that's something that has to be remedied for the next episode. But if you are watching, please enjoy the wall next to me, which no longer looks janky AF. I took down the wallpaper.

SPEAKER_00 1:38

In a fit of rage.

SPEAKER_02 1:40

In a fit of rage that uh didn't work on this wall, and I painted it for you guys.

SPEAKER_00 1:45

Just for you guys.

SPEAKER_02 1:46

Not for us, for you guys. We hit 75 downloads of our podcast.

SPEAKER_01 1:50

Which is fucking like kudos to us, man. We are crushing through here.

SPEAKER_02 1:56

We might not be, but you know what? We don't know any better, and ignorance is bliss.

SPEAKER_01 2:00

You know what? Fucking in my mind I'm a champion.

SPEAKER_02 2:02

So if you made it through the last episode, I don't know, like you need a cookie or some it was a it's tequila or something. It was uh it was long. It was a long one. This one's gonna be much shorter, so just stick with us for this one. Um this one's gonna kind of take us through just to give you an idea of where we're going here. Uh the Mexico border. So, to give a recap of the last episode, I'm not gonna do that, it's very long. But where we left you in the last episode was at a playground in Houston, Texas. We were at um an RV resort. Resort, I guess you call it resort.

SPEAKER_00 2:39

Resort's best way to put it.

SPEAKER_02 2:40

Called The Retreat. It was the second RV resort we've been to in Houston. If you remember, we had no water and had to move. Um my we had kind of been talking about. Okay, so here's where Trev and I differ. Prev has bowls of steel and was basically like, yeah, I can get through Mexico. Like, no. We had been, we had been researching stuff. We'd looked at a bunch of Facebook pages. I mean, we had done our due diligence as much as we could. We made several copies of all the important documents, like passports and uh the dogs certificate, everything. We had like thick packets that we could just like hand over if we got stopped or anything like that. And Trev was like, you know what? I can do this on my own. Doubt started to creep in for me. Not doubt in Trev, because I literally have blind faith in everything that he does, no joke. I just started to get like a little bit worried, and we had been talking to my parents because my parents were already in Belize. They had met, they had been looking at some land. This is how things work in Belize, by the way. They had been looking at some land, the owner of the land introduced them to his worker and his I guess they somehow got talking to his worker about how we were driving in from Florida, and his worker, I'm very sorry, I can't remember his name, ended up saying, Oh, my cousin does, I'm looking at you because am I saying this right? Yeah, so my cousin transports vehicles from Texas to Belize. He might be willing, and I think he's I think he said that he had done it before for he did it for the guy who owned the land, didn't he? That's what it was. He had done it for the guy who owned the land. He had transported like him and all of his belongings down. So he said, so he might be willing to do the same thing for you. We got his number. My parents basically gave me this guy's number. You and I kind of went back and forth for a little while about it. I mean, am I right in saying that you you kind of like weren't on board with it at first?

SPEAKER_01 4:39

Yeah, no, I I was 100% not not on the same page. I was I was bull-headedly enough thinking like, I just drove like 2,000 miles across the across the US around the Gulf of Mexico. Like I'm fucking bulletproof. It's fine. But then the realization, it was it was more so the realization of knowing the most effective and the safest route to go.

SPEAKER_02 5:05

And yeah, we did a lot of research. We've changed routes as far as like the actual border crossing as well. Because it would change day by day as far as like this one is the safest one to cross. Not that Mexico isn't safe. I don't want to like put that out there or anything, but be smart about these things. Obviously, anytime you travel internationally, you have to be smart about things, more so when you've got your entire life traveling with you. I mean, along with like our daughter. So not I I'm not saying any of this to say that Mexico is not safe because we had a great fucking experience in Mexico, to be fair. Yeah. Um, but it did change like day by day as to like which border to cross. What did we start? I can't how did that go? What did we stop?

SPEAKER_01 5:47

Yeah, you know? Before our transporter came into the picture, we were looking at more of central Mexico routes. So we were looking at like Nueva Laredo and I think Monterey was the other one, but I'm not sure.

SPEAKER_02 6:01

Monterey is further in Texas. We were driving through Monterey. We looked at Brownsville. Eagle Pass. Eagle Pass. We looked at Eagle Pass. That's right. And then I remember the the route that you showed me had us like going through mountains. I do remember that because I had posted it on one of the like on the road in Mexico Facebook groups, and they were like, Oh, you're gonna be crossing over mountains. And I was like, Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 6:23

Yeah, Eagle Pass seemed to have been one of the it was way more in the middle of Mexico, so we it would have been a lot more travel to get there for the city.

SPEAKER_02 6:33

The northern border. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 6:34

Right. So it would have been a little bit more to get there, but it just ended up after we kind of factored a lot of the stuff out, and I I really sat and thought about it. It was like I'd not I've never made this trip, obviously, before, so I don't know the roads, I don't know the path. I'm hoping that our RV GPS will be able to help us get through. Which is if not, then the failsafe would be Google Maps on my phone. But even then, like having signal on my phone, like some sort of like some sort of a like cell phone carrier, I wasn't gonna have that in Mexico. So we were we were kind of operating. I was in the mindset of operating of like two to three fail safes back.

SPEAKER_03 7:13

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 7:14

Of well, okay, my phone carrier is likely gonna cut off somewhere near the border of Mexico. I might get a little bit, but not much. And then we would have to depend. We had a portable Wi-Fi puck called SOLUS. Oh my god, I forgot about Solus. Yeah, that we were gonna try to use along the trip throughout Mexico.

SPEAKER_02 7:32

Which did come in handy.

SPEAKER_01 7:34

It did, but it wasn't great.

SPEAKER_02 7:36

It came in handy until we got like too far into Mexico. But like a couple hours from the border, it was still working.

SPEAKER_00 7:43

Yeah, like the first two-ish days. Yeah, it was.

SPEAKER_01 7:48

Roughly two-ish days, we were still getting speed, but when I say speed, it was like half the speed of dial-up. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 7:55

It was But the Solus, I mean the Solace was a good, I think it was a good investment because it did help us out, especially at the border.

SPEAKER_00 8:01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 8:02

Um It bears mentioning that when we were researching all of these routes, it was explicitly said to avoid Tamaulipas as much as you can at all costs, as much as you can. There are a few rules when driving through Mexico. So let's go through the rules driving through Mexico. This is this was all the research that we were doing prior to talking to Russell. So the rules driving through Mexico: don't drive at night, stick to toll roads.

SPEAKER_01 8:29

Stick to the highway toll roads. And then start early in the morning.

SPEAKER_02 8:32

Start early in the morning, don't drive through Tamaulipas.

SPEAKER_01 8:35

Dude, don't drive through Tamaulipas.

SPEAKER_02 8:37

When you hit the border, drive as far as you can away from the border. Right. Because that's where a lot of the saucy shit happens if any saucy shit is gonna happen. Right. So yeah, we I mean, all of this to say we had been doing research. We weren't going into this blindly, but let's bring it back to that playground. Trev and I had kind of been talking back and forth about this. He was still of the mindset that we could do it on our own somehow. And I just started getting nervous. Yeah. And I said, listen, let's just call this guy and see. Enter Teo Russell.

SPEAKER_01 9:13

Teo Russell.

SPEAKER_02 9:14

Russell, what's his last name?

SPEAKER_01 9:16

Castellanos. Castellanos. Oh my god, we're gonna butch his name. Sorry, Russell. If you're watching this, I'm sure you're watching andor listening to this. The irony if you're listening to this while on a trip, going back to Mexico again will be really funny.

SPEAKER_02 9:30

So uh first impressions talking to Russell. Trev was playing with Kaya on the playground. It was free flipping cold. Uh she was running around being absolutely fucking feral, and I'm on the phone with Russell, who bless him, I was not I'm was not used to Belizean accents at this point. And Russell, goddammit, you mumble. Um so I'm on the phone with him and I'm talking to him, and he's like kind of mumbly, he's got his Belizean accent, and from what I could gather, he was saying that he was going to buy a truck. No, there was a possibility that he was gonna go and buy a truck in Houston and drive that down so he would be able to drive with us if he went and got this truck in Houston. That was kind of the first interaction. He said, Yeah, he could do it, and this was basically what we're gonna do. And then we were asking him about like price, what it would be, because obviously he's not gonna do it for free. What it would be for him to transport us and help us with all this stuff. He said basically we could use his contact at the Belize border. I think Mexican border and Belize border, right? Or was it just Belize border? He had someone living right across the border in Mexico because he said it was gonna help us out with stuff. I don't know if we ended up using that person.

SPEAKER_01 10:42

I don't think so, but I think you had I think the term you're looking for is broker. Broker, sorry. Broker in both both places.

SPEAKER_02 10:49

Yes. And the broker in Belize, I think we used it more so. Um so yeah, he was basically just telling us what he could help us out with. So I'm on the phone with him, and it was still kind of like we were like, there were a lot of unanswered questions because it was like, well, what if he didn't get this truck? Would we have to cover his airfare? Uh, where would he fly into? McAllen or Houston? Would he fly into Houston and come with us? Or uh because our next stop was McAllen, which was right by the border. Or would we drive to McAllen and he would fly into McAllen? We started looking at flights and like the prices of flights, and it was just, it was just there was all a lot going on. We were like So, because it was just me on the phone with him because Trev was running around with Kaya, I was trying to relay all of this information to him as best as I could. Trev said, All right, let's just give him a call back tonight. It was the same night, wasn't it?

SPEAKER_03 11:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 11:35

Same night. Okay, so same night we ended up giving him a call back. You take it from you. Yeah, because I didn't You were very like, who the fuck is this dude? Absolutely not.

SPEAKER_01 11:47

Whenever you came to me, like it's it's obviously it's it's a mission, really. Like that's let's let's call it that. Non-religious. Non-religious.

SPEAKER_02 11:55

Like mission impossible.

SPEAKER_01 11:56

Non-impossible. I mean, we did it. But it's for for lack of a better term, it's a mission. And like there are certain components of all of these different components that you need to have in place that you need to fully understand before getting into this type of thing. And that's the way that I was looking at it. So whenever it's it's essentially no pun intended, but it's like a game of telephone where you're saying, like, okay, well, we need this, we need this, and then this. And I'm like, I don't know what the fuck any of this means. I don't know what the paperwork, I don't know what the terminology is.

SPEAKER_02 12:23

There was a lot of confusion, if you can imagine. I mean, we were about to make this huge leap, and there the amount of confusion that was it was just like, I guess we're just gonna figure it out as we go. Like it was a lot, we it was like prepare as much as you can, and then you just kind of have to like say fuck it and go.

SPEAKER_01 12:43

I mean, that's what it was. That's why I wanted to be like, let's just get on the phone let me get on the phone with him, let's all three get on the phone at the same exact time. So whatever questions we have in real time, we can get them answered.

SPEAKER_02 12:53

And it was like that evening in the rig. I remember actually you were like sitting in the driver's seat, and then I was and we were trying to like hash it all out while Kaya was watching TV.

SPEAKER_01 13:02

Yeah. So I was I was like, okay, kind of run me through like what what's expected to happen here. Because I'm still kind of lost. And so he kind of explained the situation, you know, explained uh how he would fly into McAllen likely would be the the easiest option, and then we could just scoop him up. You know, I was trying to basically get the details so I could have myself prepared or documents prepared so that way we weren't wasting any time when he got here, like we were ready to go. And I was like, you know, what uh what documents will I will I need, and this and that and the third. And he'd kind of already been in c in communication with us since Horn Lake, Mississippi at the ice tornado incident about getting like pictures and paperwork and title and everything else and registration, all that stuff ready. But in true Belize fashion, he was like, Yeah, we'll be fine. Yeah, I do remember that actually. What do we need? And he's like, we can figure it out when we get there. Yeah. He's like, you know, it's it's it's it's kind of a unfortunately for this type of thing, it's like every situation is different. So whenever you come to the border, it's it's more of like having all the stuff that you know to have prepared as a transporter essentially is what let's call it his job title is. You never really know what the border agent's going to be looking for. Because it could be something completely left field that you're you don't have on hand.

SPEAKER_02 14:23

Yeah, that is something when you go to cross the border, if you are planning to do this trip in the future, we can give you all of this information. It will be completely different on the day that you decide to cross. Depending on where you decide to cross, depending on who is conducting your border crossing, it will be completely different. So don't take what we're saying as gospel. Let's just like caveat that as well. Do not take what we are saying as gospel because it changes based on the way the wind is blowing. And I don't mean that in a bad way. I just mean like different people have different ways of doing things. The only thing that we can really vouch for at this point is I would say to get a transporter to take you across the border. That's my recommendation for anybody who says that they are making this trip is get because he was worth his weight in gold. For sure. Okay. Russell, for you, we're not gonna put the price in here. So while we were on the phone with him that night, he quoted us a price, which was I don't know, was it more than you thought it was gonna be or less?

SPEAKER_01 15:24

I thought it was more.

SPEAKER_02 15:25

You yeah, you were quite upset about the price, if I remember correctly.

SPEAKER_01 15:28

A super tight one when it comes to buy business stuff.

SPEAKER_02 15:31

For me, it was acceptable. I was just kind of like, I mean, I'll do anything to keep us safe. Like I it's that was what was most important to me. Uh the price he quoted us, we're not gonna give it just in case he's raised his prices, but keep in mind um we were like the second group of humans he had transported across the border. He previously only transported cars. So and now it's like an actual business for him is transporting families across the border. So hopefully, Russell, you've raised your prices. Um anyway, so we had like a big discussion about it that night about the price. And I my stance was literally I was like, I our safety is worth this.

SPEAKER_01 16:10

Right.

SPEAKER_02 16:10

Like point blank period. And then how how did you feel about it?

SPEAKER_01 16:14

Yeah, I think after the I'll be honest, I wasn't I wasn't fully set in my confidence until like after having picked him up and realized he was a real person.

SPEAKER_02 16:26

Well, and there were also um there were also questions as to like I didn't know whether we were gonna have to buy him a plane ticket or if he was gonna buy his own. I didn't know if he would be riding with us in the rig, if he would be sleeping in the rig at night. I I think in my brain, we were like paying for hotels for him.

SPEAKER_03 16:46

Right.

SPEAKER_02 16:47

I was like, okay, so he's gonna fly up and then we're gonna have to pay for hotels that he's gonna stay in every single night as we're driving through Mexico. It never once dawned on me that he would be just like sleeping on our couch, which is what ended up happening. Right. Anyway, so this is all kind of like our in introduction to Russell. It was just a lot of fucking confusion. And that's not to his detriment. It's literally, like I said, we were the second group of humans that he transported across the border, and none of us knew what the fuck we were doing. Right. So it was just like a little bit like voila. Um so we ended up leaving Houston. Nothing notable happened, really. We just I think we just kind of were like, we have to get closer to the border at this point.

SPEAKER_01 17:27

The main objective was just getting to be as close to the border as we could.

SPEAKER_02 17:30

We had looked at the truck fell through that he was gonna go and get. So we were basically like, okay, well, we could either fly him into Houston and he could drive with us from Houston to McAllen, or we could fly him into McAllen. The flights to Houston were cheaper. Um, and yes, we did end up paying for his flight. Um, but we were like, if we just drive to McAllen, we'll fly him into McAllen, we're right there. You're literally like, what? You're really close to the border, McAllen, aren't you?

SPEAKER_01 17:55

McAllen was 1.1 miles away from Mexico.

SPEAKER_02 17:58

Like as the crow flies, you could like walk to the border. So we flew him into McAllen. Um Let's talk about well, let's talk about before we flew him into McAllen. We rolled up to the McAllen uh Oleander, what was it?

SPEAKER_00 18:14

Oleander Farms, I think.

SPEAKER_02 18:15

Oleander Oaks. Oleander Oaks. Yeah. Sure. Something like that. So um this adorable little RV park in McAllen. They were so sweet. We pulled in and they showed us to this site that was like way away from everybody else. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 18:36

Um I think it was it's more of like a retirement community for like mobile homes and stuff. And they just so happened to have spots for RVs to come and basically like park up and whatever. But it wasn't anything it wasn't anything fancy. There were certainly no frills about it. No. But it was enough for Were there hookups?

SPEAKER_02 18:54

I mean, there must have been hookups.

SPEAKER_01 18:55

There were hookups there. But it was it was just basically like a little grass like I just looked back at the video, it was just a grass slip. And they just a little guy in his golf cart just putting along and showing us where we where we went.

SPEAKER_02 19:06

There was something to do with like payment or something. There was like a weird thing that happened with, but we had to like go into the office.

SPEAKER_01 19:14

Well, we got there pretty late. We didn't get there until like seven o'clock or something.

SPEAKER_02 19:17

Yeah, that was the theme for all of these places.

SPEAKER_01 19:19

Showing up at seven o'clock show up when you're supposed to be there at like three. But um yeah, I think we ended up doing the payment situation like the following day or the day after.

SPEAKER_02 19:29

I remember they were very sweet in the office. They were talking to us about like local things to do and whatever. McCallan, if you've never been to McCallan, it's like if Vegas and Orlando had a baby. Yeah. It's so bizarre. McCallan is like, I don't even know how to describe it. It's so, it's so you the thing is you drive through Mexico, and Mexico, you drive through Texas and there's just like nothing for like so long when you're driving through Texas.

SPEAKER_01 19:57

And then you hit McCallan and all of a sudden it's like it's almost effectively like it's it's a six-lane highway split up three and three, you know, westbound, eastbound, or whatever. But it's basically like if you're driving down a highway Vegas strip. Yeah. Is probably the best way I can describe it because there's anything and everything that you could possibly need. Yeah. Like entertainment-wise, food-wise, you know, whatever. But also it had a feel of Orlando to it, which is it's it's sort of it's a really weird conundrum. I'll have to look back and see if like have some sort of like B-roll of it or something.

SPEAKER_02 20:29

Do you remember this was also like our last ditch effort to get rid of my gun? Oh my god. I just thought about it. So I had a nine millimeter, a pink nine millimeter. I can't even remember the brand of it anymore.

SPEAKER_00 20:42

Taurus, I think.

SPEAKER_02 20:43

Was it a Taurus? And it was something that my ex-boyfriend before Trev had got for me, and I just held on to it. I hadn't used it in the longest time, and we had this gun, and I like for love nor money, could not get rid of this fucking gun. We were in uh because we were like, we can't cross the border with a gun. I don't even think we're supposed to cross state lines with the gun. Whatever.

SPEAKER_01 21:08

Trooper Steve, if you're watching this, we didn't do that. We didn't do that. We had contraband.

SPEAKER_02 21:12

The gun situation was we had cold. I think this was all while we were in Texas, I want to say. We had cold police stations, and we were like, can we turn this gun? Like, listen, I don't want money for it. I don't want anything for I just cannot cross the Mexico border with this gun. Like, we were trying to explain our situation. We called the police station.

SPEAKER_01 21:32

We went to a couple police stations.

SPEAKER_02 21:34

We went to police stations. What else did we try?

SPEAKER_01 21:38

Everything short of just throwing it in a ditch.

SPEAKER_02 21:39

Literally, it's Texas. I thought you could just like wave it out the window and some like yippiekaya motherfucker would come and just like grab it out of your hand and be like, thanks, partner, and like ride off into the sunset.

SPEAKER_03 21:50

No.

SPEAKER_02 21:50

Did not happen that way. So I ended up having to go to a pawn shop in McAllen. And I literally, I think I don't know if I Had called first.

SPEAKER_01 22:01

I think you did, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 22:02

I showed up in genuine desperation with this gun, and I was like, guys, I don't even want any money for this. I just cannot fucking take this across the border with me. Please just take this gun. Like, I didn't want to throw it in a trash can.

SPEAKER_01 22:15

I just killed 16 people with this.

SPEAKER_02 22:17

Literally, I was like, I just can't take this with me. I'm trying to explain the situation to them, and they're like, and I'm like, please just take the gun. Take the gun. I think they ended up giving me like 60 bucks for it. And then the guys were like talking to us about I I told them where we were going, and they said that they had been to Belize. One of them had been to Belize and was like talking to me about it or what. But yeah, genuinely, this gun was like such a point of stress as well. Because I was like, someone take the fucking gun. And like, honestly, we probably could have kept it.

SPEAKER_01 22:45

I wasn't rolling this.

SPEAKER_02 22:47

But I didn't want to roll that dice.

SPEAKER_01 22:48

Yeah, I didn't want to roll that dice either. They're not doing that, especially.

SPEAKER_02 22:50

But just hot tip, police stations won't take your guns.

SPEAKER_01 22:54

But pawn shops will.

SPEAKER_02 22:55

In Texas. I I don't know why they wouldn't, but they wouldn't take the gun, which I find ridiculous. Like if you're trying to turn in a gun, I feel like a police station is the best place to do it.

SPEAKER_01 23:06

You would think so, but they could again, it could also be a nefarious thing.

SPEAKER_02 23:10

Yeah, but then a police station is a good place to take it.

SPEAKER_01 23:13

Yeah, but then so you turn it in, you like get some sort of admission of guilt, and you're like, okay, I'm going to Mexico. Bye.

SPEAKER_02 23:19

I just it was oh my god, that was so stressful. Yeah. Um, so yeah, McAllen was a bit like crazy. It was there was so much stuff there. It was like our last ditch stop to get like stuff from Best Buy and whatever we needed before we crossed the border. What were your like what were your feelings that like first day? Because we only spent a couple of days there and then we were off.

SPEAKER_01 23:45

I think we were there.

SPEAKER_02 23:46

We spent one night without Russell.

SPEAKER_01 23:47

Yeah. And I think we only had Russell there for one day, and then the following day we were gone.

SPEAKER_02 23:52

Yeah. So that first day pulling in and everything, how did you was it just kind of business as usual for you, or did you feel like that kind of like this is the last stop?

SPEAKER_01 24:03

Made a video that I just went back and watched again, kind of like a every every so out every so often throughout the trip, I would just if I had a spare minute when I was walking the dogs or whatever. I did, literally. Just well, just more so of like, hey, here's a recap of the shit storm of what's happened in our lives.

SPEAKER_02 24:20

Because so much happened every single day. It was just chaos.

SPEAKER_01 24:23

To each checkpoint, like here's what happened between these checkpoints. So I did do a Rosie, do you mind?

SPEAKER_02 24:30

She's eating her breakfast. Every fucking time we're gonna do it. To be fair, I did lock her out of the LV earlier and not realize it.

SPEAKER_01 24:36

So she could have just ate leaves or wishbillies or something. I don't know. She always is. But anyways, so I did have a video that I had made about it being essentially like what I what I'd thought like our last night in the US. It was a mixed bag of emotions for me to come to the realization of this is our last night in the US for at least the four foreseeable future for at least a year. At least a year, if not more. Um I carried with me still the opinions of the people that have never done anything like this before, and there was a lot of negative energy that was weighing in with their opinions. And I carry that with me kind of throughout all the way throughout the trip. I would be dishonest if I say that crossing the Mexico border or like going the trip through Mexico every single day that we were on this trip didn't cross my mind and like like fever haunt my dreams. But it was carrying all the weight of that, but then on the other side of it, there was the fuck it side of me that was like, this is gonna happen one way or the other, literally come hell or high water. We are going to make it to Belize. I don't know. I'm hoping this is the plan. Like, we cannot deviate from the plan. It is all gas, no breaks. Like, this has to be it and it has to work. So bringing Russell into the picture did bring a little bit more of boost my self-confidence and my self-esteem a little bit with that to say, like, okay, I'm not doing it, I'm not shouldering this entire thing alone.

SPEAKER_02 26:16

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 26:16

And obviously, like you're there too, but I was doing stuff. I was making food and watching baby and I'm not I'm not shouldering like the like the logistics of all this stuff and like being behind the wheel alone. Like I'll I'll have somebody that's done that's been the route, that's done the course.

SPEAKER_02 26:35

Layla, why didn't you drive the RV the entire time and give Trevor a bay a break? Because I didn't fucking want to. That's you could have.

SPEAKER_01 26:42

I would have gladly.

SPEAKER_02 26:43

But I didn't want to.

SPEAKER_01 26:44

I would have gladly let you take.

SPEAKER_02 26:46

So if if that question is floating around in your noggin, I didn't want to.

SPEAKER_01 26:50

I would have gladly let you take from Orlando to Navarre. I would have let you take it. There's no way.

SPEAKER_02 26:56

Oh my, can you like how stressed I get? No, there's no way. I would have exploded.

SPEAKER_01 27:00

Just driving regularly.

SPEAKER_02 27:02

I would have died from a heart attack and you would have just been taking Kayet.

SPEAKER_01 27:05

Yeah. Yeah, basically. Um that but yeah, that that last night was a I was kind of You're saying last night.

SPEAKER_02 27:14

It's the first night. The first night that we were we knew we were gonna be at McAllen for two nights.

SPEAKER_01 27:18

Right. Well, no, I made a uh what I'm saying is like I made a video the night that I went to go pick up Russell. Oh, okay. That was our last night.

SPEAKER_03 27:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 27:27

So that's the night that I made the video saying, like, okay, this is officially like this is our last night in the US for a long time.

SPEAKER_03 27:33

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_01 27:34

And carrying the weight of those of the negative emotions and everything. The superseding fact was like I'm gonna wake up tomorrow morning and we're gonna make this fucking trip. So the the worry and the all of that like what if in the worst possible scenario, I'm like, I might as well not put any fucking energy into it because it's not gonna serve me. It's not gonna help us, it's not gonna make anything different. You know, if something bad does happen, I'll deal with it at that point in time. But it's you know it's I liken it to There were a lot of like negative opinions that were kind of like following us around. There were, for sure.

SPEAKER_02 28:11

It was difficult to block out the noise.

SPEAKER_01 28:13

It was. But I liken it to the same thing of like getting punched in the face. Like you can you can do everything you can you can do to get punched in the face until you get punched in the face. And then at that point you're like, all right, well, you like you could see it coming, like okay, okay, okay, okay, now do something.

SPEAKER_03 28:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 28:29

But there's no point in the wind up of getting, you know, tied up in it. But yeah, I I was looking forward to that morning. I was looking forward to just getting through it and doing it. And if if not, if nothing, just for this the sake of spite to be like, fuck you, I actually can do this. You know, that that was more of my the other side of me. So I have two sides of my my psyche personality. One that overworries about so much shit, but then the other side is like, no, fuck you, I'm gonna do this, and I'm gonna make a video of it and show you for the rest of your life why you're wrong.

SPEAKER_02 29:03

Well, I felt um Tell me how you feel. Thank you. I shall. Um I was super emotional on that last stop. It was like it really exciting. It felt like everything was becoming so real. Um yeah, I was just feeling like really emotional about the whole thing. It felt it felt very final. All of it felt very final. Um and like I said, in McAllen, that first day, there was like the panic of getting rid of the gun. It was just like the whole, it was all there was a lot going on. I would say that we were vibrating at like a crazy frequency, honestly, about the amount of unanswered questions, logistics, not really knowing what we were doing, slight panic, everything. Then Trev went to go pick up Russell at the McAllen airport, got some pizza, came back to the rig, and Russell was just this calming peasant.

SPEAKER_01 30:00

In the most true Belizean fashion. We didn't know we needed. We'll be fine.

SPEAKER_02 30:04

He literally we were like so uh was always literally shaking. What are we uh we have a little stuff, and then we're gonna do this, and you were like that too. We were both very like, okay, so here's what we thought, and we're gonna do this, and we're gonna do this. And Russell was just like it's gonna be fine. It's gonna be okay. And we were like, but how do you know? He's the most chill, even keeled guy until you piss him off. And then which you'll find out shortly.

SPEAKER_01 30:39

Yeah. Um We didn't piss him off.

SPEAKER_02 30:41

We didn't piss him off, but like the most chill level, he's just a drink of water. Literally, he just came on board, or maybe something stronger, maybe like a just a shot of bourbon or something. He came on and he was just like, It's gonna be fine, guys. Don't worry about it. It's gonna be fine. That's it. Just the chillest.

SPEAKER_01 31:00

He just showed up with a backpack, too.

SPEAKER_02 31:02

Shows up with a backpack, apparently is sleeping on our couch. Also at that first night of him, so we had pizza, we were like kind of getting to know each other. Kaya was very standoffish. If any of you, if you know Kaya, she's an observant type as it is. Like, she doesn't really want to chat to people. She's like looking, she'll look, she watches, she's very reserved, and then once she really gets to know you, she'll come out of her shell. She was very like, hmm, with him. Like, she did not want to speak in front of him. The dogs took to him immediately, which is like a good sign, I guess. That first night, I was slightly panicky because I was like, what if this man is a murderer? So we like locked ourselves in the back. Yeah. Kaya was sleeping in bed with us. I think we have both of the dogs in there with us as well. Sweet Russell. I love you so much, Russell. But he was out here sleeping on the couch by himself, and we just locked all of us back there. We were like, All right, well, we're all gonna be back here all night long. We're not moving. Yeah, we're just gonna stay. Just in case you want to murder us. He did not murder us. It's very sweet.

SPEAKER_01 32:09

So, yeah, that first night was a bit like Yeah, but it was I mean, I mean it's a little stranger danger.

SPEAKER_02 32:16

But then, like, I mean, the next morning we woke up and it was like, and oh, that was what the next morning we woke up and we were like, so do we need to go now? And it was like 6 a.m. We were like, so like do we have to like pack everything up and go? And Russell was like, We have plenty of time.

SPEAKER_03 32:30

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 32:30

It's okay. We're like, but we have to go early, don't we? Don't we have to go early? Like little chihuahuas. And he's like, nah, we got time. Have some breakfast. It's okay.

SPEAKER_01 32:39

We'll make it. We'll get there when we get there. He's like, the border's not going anywhere. Yeah. We'll get there. But we So we we wake up and you know, effectively like get all the paperwork of what I can gather. At that time, like it it came like down to business of like, okay, well, you know, make multiple copies of your passports, make multiple copies of the registrations of your vehicles, you know, anything and everything identification-wise, like make multiple copies of all that stuff and just have it in basically big thick stapled or like clasped packets to be able to hand over to the to Border Patrol, like to be able to do that.

SPEAKER_02 33:16

Or if we got stopped or if we get stopped or whatever.

SPEAKER_01 33:18

He's like, it's always better to have this stuff. He's like, while you have Wi-Fi, you know, use it while you have it and get everything.

SPEAKER_02 33:24

We had most mostly everything. There were just like a few extra things. I think it was like the title and stuff like that. Like we did a few extra copies of things.

SPEAKER_01 33:31

Yeah. We did I mean we did lots of copies of of all that stuff.

SPEAKER_02 33:35

So he was like, Oh, you guys are uh prepared. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 33:38

It was very type A of us.

SPEAKER_02 33:40

Yeah. We uh so we pulled out of Oleander Acres. Oleander Acres. Yeah, sure. Sure. I don't know. Anyway. Uh not that any of you are ever gonna go there, but Oleander Acres in in McAllen. Uh we pulled out, we had to get gas before we hit the border.

SPEAKER_01 33:55

We did.

SPEAKER_02 33:56

Twas an adventure.

SPEAKER_01 33:57

Well, it was about 45 minutes to get to the border crossing of where we were headed.

SPEAKER_02 34:02

Yeah, Russell had chosen Los Indios as the border crossing. Why did he choose Los Indios? I can't remember.

SPEAKER_01 34:07

I think that one was It was the closest one as well. It was the closest one to it. I think it was between that and Brownsville. And I'm not sure if Brownsville is a different one or if I'm making that up in my mind and the name is interchangeable.

SPEAKER_02 34:18

They are they are different. So I think I think he had done Los Indios like just a couple of weeks previous or something like that.

SPEAKER_01 34:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 34:24

Or no, maybe that's where he took that guy.

SPEAKER_01 34:27

It could have been.

SPEAKER_02 34:27

I can't remember. Anyway, for whatever reason, he recommended us taking Los Indios. Yeah. Which was very close.

SPEAKER_01 34:33

So geographically, if you're looking at a map, that's like the furthest east pass that you can make of the border of Texas and Mexico. So we decided to head out that way. And I'm like, well, I definitely want to get gas like as much as like fuel up as much as I possibly can with the car, with the rig, like with everything. So we're completely topped up and self-sufficient as much as we can be throughout this trip. Because if we're gonna need to like blast our way through the border and get as far as we need to, then we want to be prepared.

SPEAKER_02 35:03

That was the issue, is we knew that once we hit the border, we were gonna have to drive for just like as long as we could. So we wanted to fill up with gas before then.

SPEAKER_01 35:10

Right. So we get to I think it was like a Valero or something. It's the one like just right at the I I'm saying this as if you guys are making the trip. But it's the very last one before the border. Yeah. Less than a half mile out. And already like nerves are going fucking crazy. And you know, the the the excitement, the readiness, the the overpreparedness of hopefully I have everything. Like hopefully we just we just want the this to go smoothly. And um so we go into basically it's just a regular gas station, so no joys of an RV gas station at this point to take advantage of and go and pull in, and I get gas and I'm like getting the the rig ready to fuel up, or I am fueling up the rig, and the concrete poles that are on opposite sides of either one of the gas pump on either side of the gas pump to basically stop you from running into it. I had basically jackknifed the trailer on that concrete pole because it was a really tight. It was a really tight turn to get into it. So And again, there was no really backing up of this trailer, like you can only go forward. Like when we were so we thought. Well at the time. Spoiler alert, we found out that we could back up in Mexico 3,000 miles later.

SPEAKER_02 36:27

Yeah, but at this point we didn't think we could back up.

SPEAKER_01 36:29

Yeah, at this point we weren't aware that we could. So I get done getting gas in the in the rig, and I go to like continue to make the turn, and I knew it was tight. I knew it was tight. I go to make the turn, and like I just can feel the tire like and it's like a couple inches on this post.

SPEAKER_02 36:49

You felt the tire of the rig or the tire of the toe dolly?

SPEAKER_01 36:52

The tire of the toe dolly. Okay. To like that hit it, and I'm like, fuck. And at this point, it's already like 10 30.

SPEAKER_02 36:58

It was late. It's like 10 30, 11. Keep that in mind. You're supposed to hit the border at like 6 a.m. That's like the recommendation. It was like, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 37:05

Stop per Russell, apparently. Not per Russell.

SPEAKER_02 37:07

Russell was like, whatever. We'll show three. That's fine. Um, but yeah, it so it was like 10.30 at this point.

SPEAKER_01 37:13

So it's like 10.30, we're already starting to run behind, and I'm like, fuck, man. And Russell's looking at me, he's like, Can you just back up? I was like, I can't back up with this trailer. Like it's physically impossible. I cannot back up.

SPEAKER_02 37:24

This starts the count of how many times Russell had to, you and Russell had to unhook the car from the trailer.

SPEAKER_01 37:30

So we're there, and I'm like, the only I was like, the only thing that we can do. I was like, I have to unhook the trailer, unhook the car, and unhook the trailer, and then like get the RV to another spot where it's more of a straight shot and then hook everything back up and go to the border. He's like, okay, fuck it, let's do it.

SPEAKER_02 37:45

So I'm like, And then this is very much like Russell's personality too, which was like the jump in. It was just so oh god, he's so perfect. I love him. He was just like, it was just very he was like, All right, let's do this. Okay, that's what we're doing.

SPEAKER_01 37:57

Then so whatever, whatever it takes was was his mentality. So we both get out, and you know, people are like all around because as there's like one other guy in an RB. I was like, yo, you going to the border too? No, all right, cool, let's go fuck myself. So we jump out, we're unhook unhitching everything. And even to this is when I started to feel the universe kind of turn in our favor, like one random guy, and I think it was a Mexican guy, or maybe Russell knew him or something. It felt like Russell knew him.

SPEAKER_03 38:25

Feels like Russell knows everything.

SPEAKER_01 38:27

Yeah, he just jumped, like this rando dude just jumped in, and he's like, basically in Spanish, he's like, You guys need help with doing this? And Russell's like, Yeah, yeah, help us because like we need to get this done quick.

SPEAKER_02 38:35

Also, a theme of this trip is people being just so generous with that time and so helpful.

SPEAKER_01 38:40

So we jumped out, jumped out there, unhooked the car, unhooked the trailer, and what seemed like took forever of doing that, got the the RV to another spot and then pulled the physically hand pulled the trailer over there. Russell drove the car, and you know, the the other Mexican guy like helped us hook everything back up and he's like, Yo, you guys good? You guys good? Yeah, yeah, yeah, we're fine. So that was like a good hour, chewed another hour out of our time to get to the border. But once we got that done, of course, like now I'm covered in tire dirt all up to my elbows. I'm like, okay, well, we're fueled up.

SPEAKER_02 39:15

We were so nervous. And I the nerves were I felt I remember I felt sick. I was feeling really nauseous.

SPEAKER_01 39:21

I was, yeah. And this so this also bears mentioning. Hopefully I I will likely end up keeping this in. This also ends up bears mentioning that this was basically like my last if shit's gonna happen, if if anything bad happens in New Mexico, I want people to know where I am. So we carried air tags with us pretty much everywhere. And like two like my two best friends, I sent them the location of the air tag, and it's it's tough to not like get choked up about it, but I sent them the location of that and sent them like a voice note and was like I want you to know that I love you so much and that we're about to make this trip. I'm terrified out of my fucking skull, and I just want you to be able to track stuff. You know, if something goes sideways, I want you to be able to track this. And I don't foresee anything happening bad, but if it does, I want you to know where we are.

SPEAKER_02 40:19

Well, and those two, like if something bad had happened the entire fucking world would burn. They would be they would be on their way, like no time.

SPEAKER_01 40:30

And I still save the the voice note back from my best friend No Fall, and he was like, We will burn Mexico to the ground if something happens. He's like guaranteed, he's like, I will he's like, we will do anything and everything that we can. He's like, I'll keep an eye on it every single day and watch the location, make sure you guys get through safely.

SPEAKER_02 40:49

So Again, not that Mexico is unsafe, but you have to imagine we had a lot of negative opinions that were following us, and it it was fear of the unknown.

SPEAKER_01 41:00

It was yeah, it was just the weight of all of that.

SPEAKER_02 41:03

Like it was the weight of that, and it's like it's and let's call a spade a spade, it wouldn't be the same feeling if you were driving through Canada. It wasn't just because we were leaving the country.

SPEAKER_03 41:15

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 41:16

You know what I mean? Like it wouldn't be the same feeling if we were yeah. It wouldn't be the same thing feeling if you were driving through Canada. It just wouldn't be. Right. It's that there are so there's so much propaganda surrounding Mexico and how safe or not safe it is. I mean, even before we left, we were looking at there was something like the State Department had like Do you remember we were looking at the webpage and they were like the state advisory? Yeah, like US citizens should not go through Tamali. Do not go through Tamali, which is literally what we did. We drove through Tamali, but um and it was there was like advisories for each like area in Mexico. And so, like again, it it's just it's fear of the unknown. I I don't want anybody to get this twisted that we were like Mexicans, because we weren't like that at all. It's just there were so many negative opinions that were like needling their way into our brains. It was fear of the unknown, and it was just like, yeah, you just don't know what you don't know. And it was and it was scary, and it was and it wouldn't be that scary if you were crossing through Canada, you know? It just kind of it is what it is, unfortunately. Yeah. And hopefully stuff like this, us talking about our experience, other people talking about their experiences, hopefully someone else won't have to feel this.

SPEAKER_01 42:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 42:35

You know?

SPEAKER_01 42:36

And it's yeah, I mean, it was so that was basically it. That and I obviously like I called my mom just to let her know, hey, we're here and we're about to go.

SPEAKER_02 42:47

I didn't tell anybody. I honestly can't remember. I can't remember what I I think I might have like texted my parents and be like, well, we're about to cross.

SPEAKER_01 42:55

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 42:56

Uh that was about it.

SPEAKER_01 42:57

Um but yeah, that was so at that point in time it was it was go time. Yeah. And it like it, we there was there was nothing left to do. Like, we just have to get there. So we pulled off and headed our way down, which felt like the longest fucking highway to get to this border.

SPEAKER_02 43:14

Even though it was like so close.

SPEAKER_01 43:16

Well, after that, yeah, yeah, you know, it's it just felt like an eternity of driving, like in total silence.

SPEAKER_02 43:22

Yeah, we were very I I mean, when I say I felt sick, I was nauseous, and I think you were as well. Like we were just very, very nervous about it. Meanwhile, Russell was like, what kind of music do you like to listen to?

SPEAKER_01 43:34

He's like, he's like talking with his buddies through WhatsApp and everything. So we get up to the border and it was under construction.

SPEAKER_02 43:43

So we pull we pull up to Los Indios, and I was like, is this it?

SPEAKER_01 43:48

Well, we got up to the so I will say that we are incredibly fortunate timing wise, which is an I think this is another leaf of the page of the universe turning in my favor that. We were basically able to pull right up to the border.

SPEAKER_02 44:04

I think that was part of why Russell wanted us to leave later. And Russell, you can correct me if I'm wrong, but I think that was part of it because he was saying that in the morning it was gonna be much busier.

SPEAKER_03 44:13

Right.

SPEAKER_02 44:14

And so if we left it like for a couple of hours later, that morning rush would have cleared out and it would be more open for us.

SPEAKER_01 44:21

Yeah. This was also a smaller boarding pass border passing than uh Brownsville or anywhere else or Eagle Pass. So we pull up there, and again, I've never driven through a country border ever. So I'm like, I didn't know what to expect. I didn't know what to look for. And we pull up and there's just like dirt and road debris and just like general construction shit all over the road. And I'm like, are we in the right fucking place?

SPEAKER_02 44:46

And there was like an offshoot for like trucks and stuff. I remember that.

SPEAKER_01 44:50

So there's there's two different lanes. There's basically the tourist lane where you can go and get like your tourists, your tourist paperwork, and then the second one is I will I'll remember it's called Tip, but that one and maybe Tip is like the tourist one or whatever else. But basically there's like a commercial and a tourist lane. So if you're going if you're going for a tourist lane, you're just passing through Mexico, then you get a certain visa for that. But if you're going commercial, then you have to go through a little bit more paperwork. That's like for the transporters that are bringing cars down and trailers.

SPEAKER_02 45:21

And there was some discussion as to like what paperwork we needed as well.

unknown 45:24

Right.

SPEAKER_01 45:25

So we basically get there, get up and drive up to the border, and um I'm like, I don't know that normally there's supposed to be like three or four or almost five lanes.

SPEAKER_02 45:34

It was so tight. The lane, well, because there was like a I remember there was a lane for trucks, and we were questioning whether we should go through the lane for trucks because it was bigger. Right. But then it it was decided. I don't even know who decided. They were like, no, no, no, we need to go through the tourist one. We're going through the tourist one, and all I remember is it was like inches away from our tires. Like because you're going through this like lane. I just remember it was oh my god, it was so small. It was so small.

SPEAKER_01 45:58

Well, I don't again, I don't think that's that's the one that we were really supposed to go through. Or that's the one only one that was available, but I think we were supposed to have gone through the bigger, like Yeah, it just there wasn't because it was under construction, there wasn't a lot of signage.

SPEAKER_02 46:11

I'm sure it's different now, but they're just because it was on a construction, we were confused. Even Russell, I think, was confused because I think it had kind of changed even from when he went through like a couple of months previous kind of thing. Um, so we were just doing our best. Right. But we roll up and all of a sudden we get flagged down. They're like waving at us.

SPEAKER_01 46:36

Yeah. So they're flagging us down. They're like, Where are you going? What are you doing? You know, what you're not supposed to be here, so on and so forth. And this is when the payment for Russell immediately became like it, it's for that in first interaction. I was like, I'm so fucking glad you're here. Yeah. I'm so fucking glad you're here. Um so he started talking to them, and you know, because we have the the car in tow, like we're towing the car behind us. So they were really confused of like what we were trying to do and everything else. And he's like, We're just past.

SPEAKER_02 47:12

I don't think a lot of tourists go through Los Indios, honestly.

SPEAKER_01 47:14

No, they're likely like Eagle Pass or something else. So he had to we had to explain it to like two or three different guards because one would come up and they would say, Oh, you know, I have to go talk to so-and-so, then they would bring up another person. So what are you doing? You have to explain it all over.

SPEAKER_02 47:26

Yeah, like we didn't even make it to the offices or window or anything. This was like us just like sat in the middle of the road.

SPEAKER_01 47:32

In the middle of the road, like in the middle of the of the lane.

SPEAKER_02 47:35

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 47:35

And even when I we did get to the point to get out to the office, and I looked back, there was probably a mile of transporters behind me.

SPEAKER_02 47:44

This first one was we had to do the U-turn, remember?

SPEAKER_01 47:47

Well, what they had said whenever we first got there is that they said, you can't pass through here. You can't pass through this border because your RV URV is too heavy. It's too big too. That's what it was.

SPEAKER_02 48:00

So we were gonna have to go to a different border.

SPEAKER_01 48:03

So you'd have to go, so they're like, You're gonna have to go to Brownsville or you're gonna have to go somewhere else. And he's like, We he's like, we can't. He's like, this is this is it. And again, Russell's like, you have to you're gonna have to back up and like pull over to the side so we can go to the office to figure out paperwork. So again, as we're at the border with traffic packed up behind us, after having already taken the car off, we have to take the car off the trailer again, take the trailer over to the side of the road, again, park the RV on the side of the road, heading the up facing the opposite way from the border.

SPEAKER_02 48:32

Well, we had to the U-turn, we had to do a U-turn first.

SPEAKER_01 48:36

Well, they I can't remember if we backed up or if we did a U-turn.

SPEAKER_02 48:39

No, no, we I fucking remember this part. We had to do a U-turn. They were like, No, you're too heavy, you can't come through. So we had to kind of drive in, do a U-turn, come back out.

SPEAKER_01 48:52

Yeah, I guess.

SPEAKER_02 48:53

Yeah, you and then we had to go back in again. Like it was a whole thing.

SPEAKER_01 48:56

Yeah. So they we were already like flying in the face of them saying like the RB was too big or was too heavy, it was gonna break it, blah blah blah.

SPEAKER_02 49:03

Well, they were saying it was too too big, too heavy, and then someone finally was like, No, it's okay, or Russell like talked to somebody and somehow it was like okay. I don't know. It was just like it was there was a lot of confusion about like, hey, we were gonna have to go to a different border. We started panicking because we were like, well, that means we're gonna have to spend another night here in the US because like there's no way we're by the time we make it to another border, it's gonna be like the afternoon. We can't just like you know. So they had us pull in. I remember you had to do some sort of U-turn, come back out, and then you like came back in again. Don't you remember that?

SPEAKER_01 49:35

It's all a lot of it was like a blur at that point. It was just like crazy. It was like So yeah, we basically we technically crossed part of the border to do that U-turn, I do remember.

SPEAKER_02 49:44

And well, I mean the border is like you cross into like no man's land and then you like crawl, you know kind of thing.

SPEAKER_01 49:50

So we basically do the U-turn and then end up having to go back back out beyond the border, like where where the line was stacking up on the opposite way of traffic, just off to the side of the road to say, because Russell's like, we have to go into the office and start doing our paperwork and stuff. So normally there's like a bay where you can pull up to, and then you just kind of sit at the bay, go in the office, do your paperwork, whatever. He's like, but because of all of this, he's like, We're plock we're blocking traffic, so we're gonna have to pull over to the other side so other people can pass through.

SPEAKER_02 50:20

So we do that and so it's just set the scene for the side of the road, because we're not gonna talk about this really any further, but it's me, Kaya, the dogs, no air conditioning, chilling on the side of the road. That's it. Just watching, watching the cars stack up, just lock the doors, yeah, and hope for the best. Like literally, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 50:44

Meanwhile, there's like other border agents that are having like a carne asada, like right off, right off the side of the road from us.

SPEAKER_02 50:50

Oh my god, I was so strong. I was crying. I remember at one point I started crying. You guys you guys were gone for so long. I started crying. I was just like, oh my god, I don't know what's happening. I couldn't contact you at all. I had no idea what was going on.

SPEAKER_01 51:04

She didn't have any self-service.

SPEAKER_02 51:05

I was sitting on the side of the road for four hours, guys. Four hours not knowing what was going on. You guys popped in like once and that was it. Yeah. But just from my side of things, I was sitting on the side of the road for four hours with Kaya and the dogs, no air conditioning, watching Finding Nemo for the 457th time, trying to keep everything together, feeling like I was gonna throw up, probably aging myself about 10 years in the process because I was so stressed. Oh my god. Yeah. That was my side of things. Your side of things.

SPEAKER_01 51:35

My side of things. We went in there again, prepared with our like multiple stacks of paperwork and stuff. And I don't want to make like a a pig's ear out of it, but basically the biggest thing that held us up and that was like the biggest kind of hoop to or the hurdle to jump over is that I registered the RV in a business name because we were going to be using it for like business stuff, like for your voiceover.

SPEAKER_02 51:58

It was also part of like the creative financing which is before it.

SPEAKER_01 52:02

Part of the creative financing. So the the RV was registered in a business name, which was like the biggest hang up of all of this stuff because it's my business that like it's an LLC that I I created. So when we get to the border, Russell's basically doing the last look through for paperwork.

SPEAKER_02 52:17

We get up to the window and describe, yeah, I was gonna say describe the guy who you because I love your description of this guy.

SPEAKER_01 52:24

So we get the most and he may or may not have been, but like the most gay, sassy Mexican window agent that has nothing better to do than make people's lives hell. And even whenever I initially like I heard him talking to somebody else before he was finished with finished up with another customer, I was like, please don't let us get this guy. Like, please let us get somebody cool. Please let us get somebody cool. Like, let's just just make this easy for us. Lo and behold, he flags us over. I'm like, fuck.

SPEAKER_02 52:55

Well, and this is also after the whole debacle of like, oh, you're too heavy, oh you're not too heavy, oh you're too heavy. And it just it just kind of depended on who you asked.

SPEAKER_03 53:04

Right.

SPEAKER_02 53:05

Because that was the whole issue with like the RV being too heavy. It was like one person said it was too heavy, then one person would come out and look at it and be like, oh no, it's fine. And then someone else would be like, it's too heavy, and then someone else. So it really depends on who you get.

SPEAKER_01 53:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 53:19

Like really.

SPEAKER_01 53:20

So we had to fill out a few extra forms when we were in the office and um go up to there. And the biggest hang up with our paperwork whenever we were there at the window was because the RB is registered in a business name and not in my personal name, that we needed permission from my business to take the RV through Mexico. And I was like, and I was explaining to Russell that was translating it to the the window agent. He's like, but it's his business. Like he is the only owner. The guy's like, it doesn't matter. You still need we still need a letter of authorization saying that you are legally allowed to take this vessel through Mexico and cross-borders.

SPEAKER_02 53:59

You're being very nice about this guy because at the time you were very mean about this man.

SPEAKER_01 54:02

I was yeah, I'm making a very uh PC version of what I was going through. So I was like, okay. Outside of that, I was like, do we need anything else paperwork-wise, like tightened down or you know, verified or whatever? And he's like, well, let's do that first. And I'm like, okay. So I go with Russell and I I go out to there. I'm like, so what do you do? He's like, Do you have a printer? I said, Yeah. He's like, okay. So I went on I went on Canva and created a logo for us. But I mean, it's my business, right? So I'm essentially doing it at that time. So created a logo, created a letterhead, basically giving myself as the acting director of this business.

SPEAKER_02 54:49

We put Ali's name on it.

SPEAKER_01 54:51

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 54:53

Well, I'm just remembering all of this now.

SPEAKER_01 54:56

Yeah. Um so we ended up putting putting me as like the main point of contact for this letter saying, like, hey, I've I formally give you know Trevor Lakin the the authority to pass through Mexico with this, with this da-da-da-da signed.

SPEAKER_02 55:11

No, we didn't sign it Trevor Lacen. We we didn't we use Allie's name?

SPEAKER_01 55:15

No, I'm saying it the first time. Oh whenever I took the paperwork back to him, he's like, You can't sign on your own paperwork. It has to be a big thing.

SPEAKER_02 55:20

Oh, right, right, right, right, right, right, right. It has to be somebody He must have known what you were doing.

SPEAKER_01 55:24

It has to be somebody in the business, like some owner of the business that gives you.

SPEAKER_02 55:27

I'm like, I I'm the only person in the business.

SPEAKER_01 55:30

So I'm like, okay, sure. No problem. No problem. We'll figure it out. So we left back, left outside again. And he's like, Do you he's like, you can and Russell was talking to me, he's like, you can put my name on it, da-da-da. And he's like, I don't know, it might be a little bit shaky because it seems really sketched, da-da-da-da. And I was like, we have a friend that's basically been a power attorney. I was like, okay.

SPEAKER_02 55:47

I don't know if we told you this, Allie, but uh We did after the fact.

SPEAKER_01 55:52

Yeah. But anyways, so we ended up putting our friend Allie on the name as the owner or like a thing.

SPEAKER_02 55:58

No, it was like the marketing something. It was like some bullshit title.

SPEAKER_01 56:02

Marketing creative director of the business and you know, it signs so and so. Went back in there and mind you, this is a like this is a well, we went in there first, did our first attempt at the paperwork, that failed. We came back, we came back to the RV, resituated it for Ali, came back, and then once we got to the office, the internet was down. So I'm like, so the whole office, that's one of the biggest part of it. The whole office internet was down, so that screeched everybody to a halt. And naturally that was so the internet came back, and then of course everybody had to go to lunch. So then we had to wait for everybody to come back from lunch after the fact. And I am like, like boiling at this point. So the guy finally comes back to his window. It's probably like an hour and a half at this point of just waiting, and then hey, here's our paperwork again, yada yada yada. And he looks over it, he's like, Let me talk to my supervisor and see if this is right. I'm like, Oh my fucking God. So he goes and basically gets it approved, and you know, here's the situation, da da da. And the supervisor guy's like, even he wasn't speaking English, but even in Spanish, I could tell he was like, Why are you giving them such a hard time? Like, this is it, this is it. Like that he's he's got all of this shit. Like, let him do it, let him go.

SPEAKER_03 57:14

Yeah. And I'm like, Yes, you should probably listen to him.

SPEAKER_01 57:17

So he's finally stamps us, we pay our uh our visa entry fees and whatever else. And then we have to come back to the RV, get back in line to go back and cross through the border again. But they wouldn't let us now the U-turn. U-turn, but they wouldn't let us cross. We had to like try to cut in our way in traffic, unfortunately.

SPEAKER_02 57:38

When like the thing was the tr line of traffic was like a mile long, like bumper to bumper a mile. I was sitting on the side of the road, on the side of the road where like people are crossing the border into the US. That's the side of the road that I was sitting on. Um, but the crossing, the lane to go into Mexico, it just kept stacking and stacking and stacking and stuck. I was like, oh my god, there's so many cars. At one point, some guy just came out and took like a piss in front of the RV. I was just like, oh my god. I was like panicking that someone was gonna try and get in because they just thought it was like an abandoned RV on the side of the road. I was like, please don't do that. I'm just watching Finding Nemo. Please leave us alone.

SPEAKER_01 58:21

So yeah, it is so we had to get we got back in line. And um, once we get back in line and everything, we have to go back up to the border again. Same guys, same border patrol agents that are there again, saying that our rig is too big. And then they're like, Well, you can't come through with the with a car attached. You have to drive the car through separately.

SPEAKER_02 58:40

We were sat there for a minute, and I remember I remember we were sat there for a minute because Kaya was sat in my lap in the passenger seat because you were doing all this stuff with Russell getting the car off and like all this or whatever. Um there was a guy in like fatigues, and like he had a mask like up to up past his nose. Like a past his nose. Massive machine gun. He's standing there, and Kaya was just kind of like looking at him, and all of a sudden he starts doing stuff to try and make Kaya laugh or like wave at him or smile or something, and it was the craziest thing. I was because I had so much nervous energy and so much panic, and you were like on another level. You were like just ready, you were oh my god, you were storming about, and then just in the midst of all of it, it was like a little butterfly floating by in the midst of like a dumpster fire. It was just in the midst of all of it, there's this guy in fatigues who just like he's like pulling down his mask and like waving at Kaya Boo with Kaya. Playing peekaboo with Kaya, one hand on his giant machine gun, and then what and I was just like, Mexicans aren't that bad.

SPEAKER_01 59:45

It'll be all right.

SPEAKER_02 59:46

It's gonna be it's gonna be fine. Yeah, in that moment, I was kind of like, I think we were lied to. I think this is gonna be okay.

SPEAKER_01 59:54

Yeah, yeah. But it was uh I mean it was stressful just getting up to that point. But so we get back in line, get through, and like w the the actual you have to basically cross a uh a scale, drive through this scale, and the scale has all these like scanners, like electronic scanners and and all of that all of that other stuff to basically make sure like you're not carrying not pulling a we or the millers and carrying like kilos of drugs and stuff. They had dogs all around. So you don't remember that?

SPEAKER_02 1:00:25

I remember when they got on board.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:27

So you you drive through the scale first and basically like this the machine on either side of it, like the the scanners or whatever, basically checking to see if you have any like major firearms or any firearms at all. Like it'll be able to detect it. So I'm like, thank God we got rid of that fucking pistol. I did not. Yeah. They had huge signs before we even got to the border. Like, if you have firearms and or narcotics, get rid of them now. Like, do not bring them across the border. They it is a felony.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:49

Yiggity yigges.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:50

I'm like, okay. So we uh driving through, and again, the rig is eight and a half feet wide. This pass must have been eight feet three quarter, eight three-quarters feet. It was it was less than nine feet. And I mean it was on the curb itself. I could feel like if I'd turned the wheel just a half a degree, I would have been like brushing on that curb.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:13

Well, and this was And I did brush the curb. This was part of the problem was why they didn't want to let us in earlier because they were like, You're too heavy, it you're too wide, you're not gonna fit.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:22

Right. So, but this was the only lane that was open. Like that's all we could do. So I just narrowly passed through this this thing and get off, get through the scale and whatever, and you basically pull up to a bay at the next part, and that's where they do the inspection. So this is like the next leg of it. So they're like, we need to come on board, you know, basically, you know, do our inspections and check everything through. And I'm like okay.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:47

They they were we had the dogs with us. So we had Maverick who is a pit bull mix. He's like he was like 75 pounds, and then Rosie, who's like a little scruffy dumps dog, you know, whatever. Yeah. Um people were really scared of Maverick in Mexico.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:03

They were terrified.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:04

I don't know, and if I mean cur I don't know. I don't know if pit bulls are just like not normal in Mexico, or if it's not normal for like normal people to have pit bulls in Mexico, but they were so scared. This wasn't the last time in Mexico that someone was scared of Maverick.

SPEAKER_03 1:02:20

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:20

But we told them when they were getting on board, we were like, oh, we have dogs. Yeah. And they were like, oh, well, you need to kind of like shut they were kind of like uh like umming and awing about it, and we ended up shutting them in the bedroom.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:35

Well, we we just ended up closing the door to like their little corridor there. So they could stay in the bunk area. So he's like, we need to come on board, just do an inspection. And he the the guy that was doing the inspection was was firm, but he was still kind about it. He's like, it's nothing crazy. Yeah, he was really he's like, I can see you guys are frazzled, you know.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:52

Yeah, it's he was really, really nice.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:54

Um he's like, we're just gonna check through some stuff and then get you guys on your way. And I'm like, okay, cool, whatever. And of course, naturally, anytime the door opens and they and the dogs were barricaded basically in the back, all they all you could hear is Maverick just like like just Yeah, like scratching feverishly at the door. So immediately the two guards that came on board, they're like Yeah, they looked really unsure. So they I shit you not, dude. Like what we were checked, we were scared, terrified of is like they just looked through like the cabinets with the with like all of our glassware and stuff was and they went and reached down. You can't see it, obviously, but they reached down and basically tried to pull one of the drawers underneath the dinette.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:34

Which is not a drawer because we had kind of like renovated it, but we just hadn't changed the faceplate. So it still looked like a drawer.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:40

It looked like a drawer with a handle on there, and he went and like pulled it thinking it was.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:44

He pulled it pretty hard.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:45

And then it snapped the face of it snapped off and pulled the door off. And he he immediately was like, oh shit.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:51

He was very apologetic.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:53

Um by that time Maverick heard it and was even more like specifically.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:58

But the guy the guy was so he was like, Oh my god, I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. I'm so he was really apologetic about it. We're like, it's fine, don't worry about it. I was like, it's cool. It's not a big deal. It's okay.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:07

He uh he was super apologetic, and that point he just basically put it down. He's like, Okay, you guys are good. Yeah. And then he like immediately went off. He was they were not even on the case.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:15

They didn't even check the bays.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:16

Nope.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:17

They didn't check any of the bays underneath the off on the outside. It was just they basically came in, looked in our kitchen cabinets, and then that was it. They were like, okay, bye.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:25

They were in and out in less than 60 seconds. Yeah. So I was like, okay, cool. Well, I guess I don't know like what to do now. So I talked to Russell, and um the one time that we did get hit up for a bribe was at this point was Well, later on we did as well, but that was kind of we'll get there. Yeah but this was the let's say this is the initial one. So we get back and get our get ourselves settled in the RV, and the the car is separate from the RB still at this point. And um one of the guards basically comes over to Russell and is is kind of chatting with him, and he like basically stopped him from getting in the Kia or from in the car. And I was like, what the hell's going on? I was like, what's going on? And Russell comes over and he's like, so they didn't realize that you had spare tires for the trailer in the back, and there's a tax. I'll use heavy air quotations. There's a tax to bring those extra tires that you need to pay the guard. And I'm like, Is this a bribe, dude? And he's like, I think so. I'm like, okay. He's like, well, he's like, his argument is that we held up the line because you guys held up the line for so long we couldn't get more people through, and da da da da da. And I was like, that's not our fault. I was like, you guys stopped us. And he's like, I know, I know, I know, I know. And I was like, How much does he want? He's like, he wants like eighty bucks. Like, fine.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:38

Well, he didn't he tell you in pesos, and you were like doing the math in your head or something like that.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:42

It's it said something in pesos. And I was like, What dollars? Dollars, man. What do you what do you mean in dollars? He's like, it's like eighty bucks. I was like, okay. I was like, will that make him go away?

SPEAKER_02 1:05:49

Yeah, fine. 80 bucks, sure, have it.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:51

And he was like, Yeah, he's like, that'll give us get us off a get him off our backs. I said, Okay, cool. So I gave it to him and he goes, Okay, cool. The guy turned to walk, walked away. Way and got in the car, and I was like, Jesus. Okay. This is it. But of course, of course, after that fact, there was no other contact with the guard. They didn't tell us where to go. They didn't tell us what direction to take. They were just like, Yeah, just go over the bridge.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:12

You just drive into like no man's land.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:14

Well, they say just go over the bridge, but then when we pulled out, the bridge was oncoming traffic coming out of Mexico into the U.S.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:22

I can't remember any of this. I think I was in such a state of just like numbness at this point. I don't I didn't remember any of that.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:28

No, there was it was that because I remember Russell wasn't with us at the time. He was driving the car.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:32

Because he was driving the car behind us. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:34

So he was driving behind us. I was like, I don't know where the fuck to go. I had no and I was like, there's oncoming traffic where I'm supposed to I was told to go. I'm like, I don't know. Okay. So I just went into like oncoming traffic with the RB over the bridge to head over the border. I'm like I don't because the only other way to do your turn is to come back through and go through the border again. Yeah. So I'm like okay, yeah, fuck it, here we go. And at that point we did uh the turn and went over the bridge and we got over to what I saw like was the first little uh little shop or something, like a little mechanic shop. And Russell pulled up behind or pulled up in front of us and he's like, Okay.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:07:24

What do you think? I'm like, are we like in? Like are we done?

SPEAKER_02 1:07:29

Are we here?

SPEAKER_01 1:07:30

Are we fucking done or what?

SPEAKER_02 1:07:31

He's like there was like nothing about it was just like there was not there was like you said, this little tiny mechanic shop on the side of the and like nothing as far as the eye could see.

SPEAKER_01 1:07:40

Well, the ri the bridge we crossed was the Rio, was Rio Grande.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:44

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 1:07:44

So we crossed over that, we saw the wall. We saw the wall, which I was like, this is already problematic, and I'd just seen this in person.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:53

Yeah. But the dumbest thing ever.

SPEAKER_01 1:07:55

So we we get over there, we pull over to the little shop and everything, and again, this is I mean, this is just over the border. Uh Russell came back around, he's like, Okay. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:08:04

Let's get the I remember we did a little video right before before Russell came up to us. We did a little we were like, holy shit, we got into Mexico. We I was crying. I was like, I can't believe we did it. You were like, holy sh I think you were still like holding on to some stress. Yeah. Because it was like we had done that one obstacle, and then it was like, oh fuck, now we have to drive really far.

SPEAKER_01 1:08:31

Now we have to start into Malibus to drive. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:08:34

And it was late at this point. It was like 3 30. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:08:38

It was late.

SPEAKER_02 1:08:41

And we were like, oh so then that stress hit. But we had a moment of like We finally made it in Mexico. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:08:50

Which I didn't think it was gonna be that much trouble.

SPEAKER_02 1:08:52

That was crazy. But yeah, and then Russell.

SPEAKER_01 1:08:54

Yeah, Russell came back on. He's like, okay. He's like, let's hook the car back up to the trailer and let's get the fuck out of here.

SPEAKER_02 1:08:59

Yeah, literally. I was like, let's get the fuck out of here. You don't have to tell me twice, homie.

SPEAKER_01 1:09:04

So because even then, like as we were hooking the car back up, I could see like a couple of guys like coming out from the shop and kind of like like sizing us up.

SPEAKER_02 1:09:12

Not sizing us up, but we just stopped on the side of the road, which is not what somebody normally does. I mean, we're this massive RV stopped on the side of the road just outside of the border.

SPEAKER_01 1:09:20

Right. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:09:21

So it was pretty crazy.

SPEAKER_01 1:09:23

We just hooked the fucking car back up and away we went.

SPEAKER_02 1:09:26

Away we went. Yeah. It was um how did you feel when when we just just crossed the board? Did you let that sink in at all? I was feeling absolute euphoria because I was sobbing and I wasn't thinking about the fact that we had to keep driving and all that stuff. I was just like, oh, that was all that was my only emotion.

SPEAKER_01 1:09:47

I didn't have that feeling until our first stop.

SPEAKER_02 1:09:51

So what were you feeling when we crossed the border then?

SPEAKER_01 1:09:54

At that point, I was like, this is just the beginning. Like this, I well, I I I thought I'd at that point I was pretty much I was almost completely tapped out. Yeah. Like mentally, I was tapped out. And I was like, you gotta find another gear, dude. Because like we still we can't stay here. Yeah. We can't we can't stay right at the border town. So like we've gotta fucking go. It it shifted it to a part of my brain where I couldn't I wasn't in a position to feel anything. I was I was in a position to feel the accomplishment of okay, we got this done.

SPEAKER_02 1:10:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:10:29

Now we need to really fucking go.

SPEAKER_02 1:10:31

So you didn't feel like it was a moment where you could take a breath or anything. It did you was it like a small win for you?

SPEAKER_01 1:10:38

It was a small win just for having gotten through that obstacle.

SPEAKER_02 1:10:43

Yeah, because that negotiation was rough.

SPEAKER_01 1:10:45

It was rough.

SPEAKER_02 1:10:46

But four hours at the border, guys. It was rough. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:10:50

But I I think my head was so focused on okay, like what's next? Yeah. So like I was so laser focused on between now and Belize, like just whatever you feel, compartmentalize it, shove it down deep, and figure it out and process it later on because you don't have time to do it right now. So I just had to like shut that part of my brain off. I'm like, all right, let's let's just go. Let's go.

SPEAKER_02 1:11:14

Yeah. So at this point, we had crossed the border. It was about 3 30, I think. Um, if you can go back and remember our rules of the road um in Mexico, rules are you say it with me now. Don't drive after dark. Yeah, don't drive at night.

unknown 1:11:32

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:11:33

Um, and don't drive through Tamalibus. Um, where were we? Tamalibus.

SPEAKER_01 1:11:38

When was it? Nighttime.

SPEAKER_02 1:11:40

When was it? It was 3 30. And at this point it was winter, so it was getting dark around like 5 30-ish. Um so we were sat there, kind of with the realization that A, we we had two choices at this point. We would either not be able to go as far as we wanted to go from the border.

SPEAKER_01 1:12:06

Um or Which was a more of a safer point.

SPEAKER_02 1:12:09

What do you mean?

SPEAKER_01 1:12:10

Like the the where we where we were Are you talking about the first stop?

SPEAKER_02 1:12:14

Yes, but I'm not gonna get into the first stop. I'm I'm creating a cliffhanger, baby.

SPEAKER_01 1:12:18

No, I know that. Well, what I'm saying is that we had what you're saying is what we had option-wise. We had two options.

SPEAKER_02 1:12:23

We had two options, yes. I'm I'm getting to it.

SPEAKER_01 1:12:25

Sorry. Okay. I won't cut you off. Sorry.

SPEAKER_02 1:12:26

So we had two options. One option was that we would drive it's 3 30. We would drive until it got dark. And we're sitting there thinking, like, okay, well, we're just not gonna be able to get as far as we wanted to get from the border. Like, we're gonna have to just kind of hunker down like as soon as it gets dark. Or we have the option of driving at night through a potentially dangerous area in Mexico with our RV and our whole lives, our family, and a guy we met the day before.

SPEAKER_00 1:13:06

Yeah. Yeah, that pretty much sums it up.

SPEAKER_02 1:13:11

And that's where we're gonna leave you. Is uh on that cliffhanger. Yeah. Um But we're across the border.

SPEAKER_01 1:13:18

We cross the border, finally.

SPEAKER_02 1:13:20

Yeah, cross the border.

SPEAKER_01 1:13:22

I naively thought, like, as as the I mean, it is 3 30 now.

SPEAKER_02 1:13:27

Is it? Um my god, that's so crazy.

SPEAKER_01 1:13:29

I naively thought, like, oh, a U.S. citizen getting to Mexico, like they would just fucking wave you in. There would be like confetti popping off. They're like, yeah, fucking welcome to Mexico.

SPEAKER_02 1:13:37

Maybe there's not confetti for a U.S. citizen's.

SPEAKER_01 1:13:40

Trust me, I know. No, I even they don't want you. Oh, I know. Oh, I know. Trust me. I felt that tension at that window.

SPEAKER_02 1:13:48

Can you imagine what it would be like now? Can you imagine what it would be like now? No way. And honestly, fair play to them.

SPEAKER_01 1:13:56

Like Understandably so.

SPEAKER_02 1:13:58

Fair enough.

SPEAKER_01 1:13:58

Like, come on now. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:14:01

Um, but yeah, we're in Mexico.

SPEAKER_01 1:14:03

We're in Mexico.

SPEAKER_02 1:14:04

We made it, baby.

SPEAKER_01 1:14:05

We fucking made it.

SPEAKER_02 1:14:06

I know.

SPEAKER_01 1:14:08

The banda music.

SPEAKER_02 1:14:10

Oh my god. Oh, and the best tacos of my life. Yeah. But that's next episode.

SPEAKER_01 1:14:15

It's next episode, we'll leave.

SPEAKER_02 1:14:17

Um, so hot take to end this one with. All right, hot take. Because this is one that I think you and I don't agree on. Hot take. Top sheet. Necessary or superfluous?

SPEAKER_01 1:14:29

I don't need a fucking top sheet. I'm not unusual. I don't know. I a comforter, dude.

SPEAKER_02 1:14:33

I had a comforter.

SPEAKER_01 1:14:35

I'm a millennial. I just need a comforter.

SPEAKER_02 1:14:37

I had a top sheet my entire life until I moved in with you.

SPEAKER_01 1:14:43

Yeah, so did I.

SPEAKER_02 1:14:45

I you had a top sheet?

SPEAKER_01 1:14:46

Yeah, it was like part of my bed setup. And then I realized I was a fucking adult. Now I need a goddamn top sheet because I lived in Florida where it's a billion degrees.

SPEAKER_02 1:14:54

But the thing is, okay, yeah, so a top sheet, you can like throw your comforter off and you've got a top sheet, so you still feel like cocooned in safety, like a little babe. I just let my foot out. Like, but you're cool, you know? But you still have like a sheet on top of you. Okay. I just let my foot out. Because then you have to undo your whole body. And then like, but if you don't have a top sheet, then you have to wash your comforter.

unknown 1:15:17

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:15:18

I mean, if you have a duvet and like a duvet cover, it's different. Like you can wash your duvet cover, which is what we ended up doing because you were so against a top sheet.

SPEAKER_01 1:15:26

Right.

SPEAKER_02 1:15:26

But like you could just have a top sheet.

SPEAKER_01 1:15:30

You can have a top sheet. You're more than welcome to. I don't need the other half of that. I can just use a comforter because again, I'm an adult.

SPEAKER_02 1:15:38

What does being an adult have to do with it? I feel like kids are less likely to have top sheets.

SPEAKER_01 1:15:43

Yeah, I'm in this okay, so I'm the same same mentality. Like it's it's unnecessary. It's like wiping before you poop. Why would you need to do that?

SPEAKER_03 1:15:51

How is it like wiping before you poop? For what?

SPEAKER_02 1:15:54

Oh, it's just an extra layer of protection so the boogeyman doesn't get you. If you're like hot at night, you have to like throw your covers off and just be all bare assed in the wind. You can have like a sliver of comfort and you know, in between you and intruders. No, it's good.

SPEAKER_01 1:16:10

Do be violently American. Keep a fucking bazooka bedside like everybody else does and blow them away if they decide to intrude.

SPEAKER_02 1:16:18

What? What does that have to do with anything? That has nothing to do with anything.

SPEAKER_01 1:16:22

You said Boogeyman intruders, so I'm just bringing up bazookas. No topsheet. Top sheet. No topsheet. Yes, top sheet. We don't have a top sheet now.

SPEAKER_02 1:16:30

I know, because I can't listen to you whinge about it.

SPEAKER_01 1:16:34

You're more than welcome to double up on that top sheet and live your best bed life with that, if that so helps you. But me and the rest of the other like-minded adults and listeners.

SPEAKER_02 1:16:44

Let us know in the comments, guys. Top sheet. Top sheet or no topsheet.

SPEAKER_01 1:16:48

Oh my goodness. I guess that's it. That's it.

SPEAKER_02 1:16:50

We in Mexico, baby. Vámonos.

SPEAKER_01 1:16:56

So if you guys aren't following us already after this crazy cop crazy podcast, we are on uh we're all over the place. I don't think so. Literally and figuratively, we're all over the place.

SPEAKER_02 1:17:08

So guys, if you're not following us, we're on Instagram and Facebook and TikTok. I never fucking go on TikTok, I'm gonna be honest with you, but we're on there. Maybe I'll post something, I'll start posting again. But uh burn the blueprint is burntheblueprint pod is our Instagram for this podcast, but the umbrella to all of that, leaving La Vita Loca. You can find us on Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok.

SPEAKER_01 1:17:32

That's correct. And then next episode five. Episode five?

SPEAKER_02 1:17:35

Yeah, we're not gonna tease that. That's it. We're done. We're done. Let's just peace out. We're so bad at ending these things.

SPEAKER_01 1:17:40

Episode five, we're going into Mexico. Further into the belly of the beast.

SPEAKER_02 1:17:45

It's not a beast. Belly of the beast. Oh my god. Bye. Love you. Bye.