You have used persnickety verb tenses incorrectly, making it difficult to follow. Your first and last sentences are in present perfect tense, which is a wonky tense to write in. But pretty simple to fix I think.
Three simple verb tense suggestions to make it less clunky:
- It took him only two hours to drive from the border
- where he first rented a room
- Borderia stayed neutral
Thank you very much for your suggestions.