Here’s the update from Sheriff’s Department spokesman Ed Troyer:

We just arrived in Puerto vallarta..good timing.This is the first time I have had internet access this week that works decent. We left Autlan at 8:00 am and arrived about an hour ago. Went went through the mountain pass and a heavy rainstorm. All of us are here. All of the vehicles and the equipment and supplies in them have been donated in good working condition. The fire fighters in Autlan a town of about 60 thousand spent the evening cruising the streets in their new fire engine.

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They are on the road again.

The Mission to Mexico crew left Mazatlan this morning and are headed to Ayutla. One group is taking an ambulance to Barra de Navidad, then will rejoin the rest of the group.

Here’s a couple of Twitter posts today from Pierce County sheriff’s spokesman Ed Troyer:

“Lied about internet, can’t find a connection that will let us upload. My fault should have brought air card.”

“We’re all on the road again. Every vehicle running great. We expect to be in the mountain towns around 6 tonight. All cars running good.”
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The vehicles are running and it’s about time to start doling out the goods.

That’s the latest report from Ed Troyer and the Mission to Mexico crew.

Here’s his early-morning post on Twitter:

“All vehicles are running good. We’re all ready to start giving all this stuff away. I know tomorrow we will have internet connection.”

The team left Gig Harbor on Saturday and went across the border earlier this week. They’d made it to San Carlos late Tuesday and were reunited with one member of the group who got stuck at the border

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A majority of the Mission to Mexico team is across the U.S.-Mexican border and heading south to deliver emergency vehicles and supplies to a handful of towns.

“We are all in Hermosillo safe and ramping up to head south as far as we can get,” Ed Troyer tweeted earlier today.

However, one emergency vehicle is stuck. It did not clear customs with everything else so one member of the team has stayed behind.

Troyer plans to blog and post photos of the Mission to Mexico Web site but has had trouble finding an Internet connection.

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What a surprise … it’s not been a smooth start for a team of South Sound residents who are driving 10 used emergency vehicles to a handful of Mexican towns.

Two vehicles have broken down, hours have been spent in small towns and there was a rain storm in the mountains.

But the good news is, it appears they are planning to cross the border today.

The 22 volunteers pulled out of a Gig Harbor on Saturday morning for the third “Mission to Mexico” trip. Besides the

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More than 20 volunteers will be heading out Saturday with emergency vehicles bound for Mexico.

The trip is the third “Mission to Mexico.”

The News Tribune chronicled the first two trips.

During this trip, volunteers are taking down 11 emergency vehicles. They’ll be delivered to small towns, including Autlan, Ayutla, Barra de Navidad, El Grullo and San Pancho. The trip was originally scheduled for May but was postponed because of the swine flu outbreak.

This year, Pierce County sheriff’s spokesman Ed Troyer (who’s a volunteer with the mission) promises to blog and Twitter from the road. Follow the progress on the Mission to Mexico Web site here or on Twitter here.

Below you’ll find a story from September, which recapped the second Mission to Mexico trip and recounted how the mission began.

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San Pancho may be the paradise Bill Garrison thinks it is after all.

This morning a friend of his named Manuel said the man who pulled out the gun on the beach last night is a well-known local sociopath who lost his eye in a fight with police years ago. Manuel thinks the gun was not a real one. He says the man waved a gun around in a San Pancho restaurant last Christmas and emptied out the whole place. The gun turned out to be plastic.

Bill Garrison showed us the San Pancho school where the

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Bill Garrison, Chief Investigator for the Pierce County Prosecutor’s Office, left, checks on the progress of a tiny elementary school in his vacation home of San Pancho. Some of the Mission to Mexico computers will end up here. From left: Garrison; Lucio Alberto, 11; Almicia Cisneros, 11; principal Raymundo Garcia; and Nicole Swedlow, who runs the Mis Amigos programs.