Oakland Mexico Trip

I hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas!

Anyone who was on the trip gets the humor of this post title. The group wasn't really from Oakland, they were from the City right next it - San Leandro. It's kinda like asking someone from Redlands if they live in San Bernardino. Anywho, Matt and I joined this group (and brought along Scott, Joy, & Nichole) for this build (and prebuild in Oct) in December. They were a great group, and we loved meeting all of them. This was a stretching trip for both Matt and I. Matt had to drive Brad's van down to the Ranch, empty, because all of the SL people were in the bus, which was following Matt. To recap: Matt drove to the Otay Mesa border, made it across, but then once they realized his van was full of luggage for the people in the bus, he was turned back, and had to find his way to the regular border crossing, got Dick through (he was driving the bus) and then proceeded to lead the troop to the Ranch. I think he met up with Carter somewhere in Ensenada, but I know he was stressed when Rick kept going (with the trailer) at Otay. But my husband was awesome and did amazingly well. It was hard for me because this was my first trip without Matt driving me in 5 years. I was with Scott, and he has done the drive many times as well, but the mind plays tricks on you and imagines worse possible scenarios (one of us getting pulled over and the other not being able to find him / her - you know cuz we weren't together). But the drive was fine and the build - well the team did great. We had nails that WOULD NOT go in straight. You had to drive the whole nail (and these were 16s, that - long long nail) in with about 4 or 5 swings. Even Matt was having nails bend. But in the end, we got the house up and had the priviledge of giving the keys to Socorro. Tje group from Creekside loved the trip so much that they were planning their next one before we even left that Ranch. In a way, Papa influenced this - because the Oakland prebuild for his memorial house is how Kathy found out about Hands of Mercy! Enjoy the random pictures that I took at the build (and the border)!