After heading out from San Bernardino and a short stop in Pasedena and Bakersfield we made it through the mountains and the flatlands of central Ca. Arriving tonight late I wanted to blog before we collapse. We are planning on visiting several departments tomorrow so it will be busy. I am posting some pics from our travels.

After a long drive yesterday from San Felipe we had a good dinner and a good rest. This morning we went to the Main Tecate fire station to say good by. As in the past, we loaded up a dozen oos air paks and 40 out of date air bottles along with several items that were repairable. You See, we have been taking them back to refurbish or surplus and then we return the serviceable items back the following year. When we make a committment to provide assistance with safety equipment we are serious. We are working to help maintain their bottles and paks and other gear in serviceable condition to our standards here in the US when ever possible.

Every day we are surprised and amazed at how extensive our fire and emergency services family is. We have settled in the city of San Felipe for some R and R and found an establishment that is proud to display hundreds of  patches and decals from Police and Fire agencies from around the world. We added Seattle to the collection.

Its 90 degrees and I sit overlooking the Sea of Cortez a beautiful site. Our group including Franco Soliz, our liason in Mexico visited with the San Felipe Bomberos and were treated to an embracing and brotherly reception. We truely are the same. San Felipe is a city of 60000 people covered by one station with 5 FF's on duty each day and a Substation for Mexicali ,a short 135 miles to the north. The other constant is the need for equipment. As we sit and talk to the bomberos we begin to form our plans for the coming year.

Our talks with Ensenada yesterday were very fruitful. They are at least on the surface willing to talk about bringing training to firefighters as a group and attempt to combine their resources and influence to better their jobs and services. Sound familiar?Â

Finally able to upload I am including some pictures from the training in Tecate and the presentation made to us by the firefighters of tecate to show their appreciation for our efforts the past 7 years.

We leave San Felipe and travel to Tecate for one more day. Friday we enter the US and make contact with several interested firefighters to personally introduce ourselves . On our way back we hope to visit with San diego, CDF in the Coachella valley, Turlock and Lathrop fire departments.