World - BRIDGET THE MIDGET

Amarillo to Grand Canyon

5th August 200914th March 2020 By roychinnorNo Comments

Last day of July and the drive from Dallas to Amarillo went well. The first 100 miles was a little worrying as I kept smelling petrol which has occurred previously. Eventually I pulled into a service station and lifted the bonnet (I don’t want a repeat of the Volvo’s fate). Instead of the trickle that has happened before it was running out quite freely. I switched off the engine and removed the carburettor bowl, where the leak appeared to be. The gasket looked OK but I wasn’t totally convinced and so I checked my stores for a spare. Unfortunately it was not one of the items I had but I did have some ‘instant gasket’ which I used. I also refitted the old gasket and since that I have had no further problem. The remainder of the journey was really straightforward. As today’s drive is fairly short I started rather lackadaisically but Bridget was very ready to go. She accelerated smoothly...

Lone Star Country

31st July 200914th March 2020 By roychinnorNo Comments

Exiting from Mexico was far easier and quicker than I had ever expected. In fact I just drove straight out without getting an exit stamp in my passport or anything, I just passed straight through the customs area and over the ‘International Bridge’ to the US entry point. I am not at all sure if I was supposed to do that or if I accidentally short circuited the system but if all signs are in Spanish and you don’t understand the language what can you do? I was also pleasantly surprised how quick and straightforward entering the States was by road. I had expected all sorts of paperwork and searches but again it was very easy with the exception of purchasing car insurance. This did present some difficulties that took me several days to resolve. Each State has its own rules regarding auto insurance and in Texas insurance is compulsory, which is pretty much universal, but to purchase it you need...

Goodbye Guatemala, Hello Mexico

25th July 200914th March 2020 By roychinnorNo Comments

We drove from Guatemala City up to Huehuetenango just 30 miles from the Mexican border. From a mileage point of view a very relaxed 180 miles, however the road from 20 miles out of Guatemala city was really poor and just to test my flexibility my new found ‘travelling companions’ decided to see how my relationship counselling skills were. They fought from first light to early evening with her threatening to walk off in the middle of a rather beautiful range of mountains because of some comment he supposedly made. She is definitely a fiery Costa Rican and it took almost half an hour to coax her back into his car for the remainder of the journey. How do I get into these things? Give me the Taliban any day! The last 50 miles of Guatemala is mountainous and beautiful. The crossing into Mexico was unexpectedly straightforward with friendly, helpful officials. There is a spectacular gorge that is narrow but very...

Do You Know The Way To San Jose?

19th July 200914th March 2020 By roychinnorNo Comments

The drive from Panama City to David in the north started well enough. We left around 8:00am and quickly found the Pan American Highway. Traffic was fairly light and the weather was bright, then becoming hot and humid as the day wore on. The road surface was not perfect but the potholes were generally avoidable. I relaxed and started to enjoy motoring again. David is a city some 30 miles from the frontier with Costa Rica and approximately 300 miles from Panama City, so the driving time would not be too long. We were stopped a couple of times at police checkpoints and where the officers were friendly and thought that Bridget was great. When we were about 45 miles from David we were following a 3 tonne delivery truck and on rounding a bend I saw more police. We were almost parallel with them before one of the officers saw Bridget and waved his arm at us and blew on his...

Persona Non Grata

14th July 200914th March 2020 By roychinnorNo Comments

Well the initial news reports about the Saturday earthquake were fairly accurate, it measured 6.2 on the Richter scale and although a few houses were destroyed along with a couple of bridges there were no serious injuries. Sunday evening we had another quake, this time measuring only 5.3 on the Richter scale, so it hardly counts! Friday 10th July, I went with the local agent to Colon which is the port where Bridget was delivered. We presented various documents together with a dozen copies of each to the authorities late yesterday and they confidently said that I would be able to collect the car today. We duly reported to the main port customs office just after 8:00am and were greeted by a gentleman that seemed to know my agent. We then waited for the statutory minimum three and a half hours before being told the chief honcho was not coming after all and so the man we first met signed our...