Talk about your long and winding roads. If you’ve ever thought about driving to Mexico from Connecticut, you probably haven’t considered stopping in Wisconsin along the way. Mexico after all is south of the border. Wisconsin is a fair piece north of that. Like, almost Canada.

Truth be told, Bryan Nurnberger and his friend Jennifer DeBisschop didn’t plan to visit the Badger State when they boarded their old yellow school bus and headed off from the Naugatuck Congregational Church two weeks ago. They had planned to be in Mexico now, heading to an orphanage in Oaxaca called Casa Hogar, where 80 children with severe disabilities wait to greet them.

They’re still waiting.

When they left Connecticut on July 7, Nurnberger and DeBisschop thought their only concern would be whether the bus would survive the trip. Laden with donations, including individualized quilts for each of the 80 children, made by church parishioners, the bus itself is a gift to the orphanage.

The bus broke down twice – just two days into the trip near Atlanta, when a hose broke, and more seriously on July 13, when the exhaust manifold cracked just over the border in Texas.

Those breakdowns were nothing compared to the paperwork snafu that has prevented the duo from driving the bus across the border.

“Everything is big in Texas – including our delay,” the wrote in their July 16 posting to a Web log on the site devoted to the trip, www.simplysmiles.org.

After getting an update from a friend named Carol in Mexico, Nurnberger explained the problem in a posting the next day, July 17:

“Here is the deal: We have some issues. The Mexican Government, in their infinite wisdom, has informed Carol that we need a whole ton of paperwork that they failed to mention we needed months ago when we got this crossing set up. Here is the bomb: This could take weeks.”

With nothing to do in Texas but wait, Nurnberger and DeBisschop decided to give their friend, Renee, who was along for part of the trip and has visited Casa Hogar herself, a ride home to Iowa. It was from there they decided to head further north, stopping in Wisconsin at the Mall of America in Minnesota.

Perhaps it was visiting a shopping Mecca like the one in Bloomington, but the side trip left Nurnberger reflecting on the deeper meanings of the journey to bring supplies and gifts to the poor orphans with severe physical disabilities in southern Mexico. Deeper meanings for him, and for those who have supported the endeavor.

“It’s not the goal to change the rich culture of the children at Casa Hogar, but to help them learn form our resources and love, ” he wrote in a July 23 posting. “We find that, when we give at Casa Hogar, we receive so much in return. Our hope is that, through your generosity, you are also receiving.”

Renee, meanwhile, said the children have been looking forward to the bus’s arrival for half a year.

“Daily, I had to answer questions… ‘When is Bryan coming?’ ‘He’s bringing a new bus, right?’… As the rainy season began in Oaxaca and the roads resembled rivers and the old microbus kept breaking down taking children to and from school, it was an encouraging truth to know that Bryan would be coming with a school bus for the children…and not only a school bus, but a bus just like the ones the children in the United States use!”

She adds that “all the donations that are on the bus will make these children feel like princes and princesses.”

That of course, is if the paperwork snag doesn’t turn the bus back into a pumpkin.

As of Saturday, July 26, things were looking a little brighter: The word from Mexico was the man who processes the papers would be back from his long weekend on Tuesday.

Soon after, they’d either have permission to cross the border without paying taxes on any of the donations, or they’d swallow the 17 percent tariff on items like the new clothes, toys and medicines.

“If all goes as planned right now, including a return trip for Francisco to Mexico City and a good deal of driving for Carol, we plan an crossing next weekend,” he wrote Saturday from Dallas.

That’s the thing about long and winding roads: you never know what twists and turns will come next.

Stay tuned.