Road Trip to Mexico - Part 3
—Blogpost written by Bob
Wednesday, October 13
We were on the road by 8 AM, on our way to Laredo TX. We left Greenville TX and drove toward Dallas on Interstate 30. We bypassed Dallas and then picked up Interstate 35E toward Waco. We hit patches of rain along today’s journey, sometimes hard.
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We’ve been putting about 7 pounds of ice ($3 per bag) into our IGLOO cooler every day despite the outside temperatures being in the 70’s—it clearly wasn’t insulated very well!
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During this trip we have witnessed a lot of energy-saving features added onto tractor trailers. The most common one is the addition of a "skirt" between the forward and rear wheels of the trailer. The next most common was the addition of a shape to the back end of the trailer, making it more aerodynamic. The most unique and least common was a smooth filler piece that filled the empty cavity in the wheel wells--the tractor trailer that had this feature actually had all three features described above.
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We got into our hotel (another La Quinta) at about 4:30 PM. This hotel was significantly different than the others--we could park right outside our room on the first floor.
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| Parking just outside our room in Laredo was very convenient. |
Thursday, October 14
(We made it to Mexico!)
As we were leaving our hotel room in Laredo TX, we noticed that when we flushed the toilet, brownish water gurgled up the drain in the bath tub. I am not even going to attempt to understand why this happened but it was pretty disgusting (and this was in Texas—not Mexico). (I don't think we will be staying at this hotel again anytime soon.)
We were up and on the road to the border before sunrise. We tried to follow the directions provided by a blogger from Minnesota (Lost in Journey). We crossed the border at Bridge #2. We got the random red light at the border crossing, meaning that our car’s contents had to be inspected, even our luggage in our rooftop cargo carrier. It didn’t take very long, maybe 15 minutes at most. When we were released from the inspection area, we were directed onto a service road heading south—we never saw a 4-way stop sign as described in the Minnesota blogger’s directions.
We fumbled our way around, making a u-turn to go the opposite direction on the service road. Miraculously, we found signs to the immigration office. It was still dark outside. We were the first one through for the day—the whole process took about 20 minutes. (By the way, they no longer use TIP stickers for cars—it is totally digital now.)
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While we were in the immigration area, I had to use the restroom. Like we’ve previously experienced in Mexico City, one had to get their toilet paper outside the stall and then go into the stall to do one’s business. There was a little waste basket to deposit used toilet paper since the sewage piping supposedly can’t handle it. Of course, none of the toilets had toilet seats—I have no idea what happens to them. However, everything came out alright in the end.
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Maggie had sufficient cell phone coverage on her new iPhone 13 to get us through and out of Nuevo Laredo in Mexico. (The area we drove through looked pretty rough.) We were just lucky I think but we got onto Route 85 South and then 85D (toll road). We were able to use our GPS at this point in our trip, though the address of our next hotel couldn’t be found—so, we had to use a combination of Maggie’s iPhone and our GPS and it was quite frustrating.
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Added to our frustration, at times it seemed like we were driving with a carload of circus animals, namely Lola and Kali, who would occasionally get rambunctious. (They slept more than anything else though.)
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| Our carload of circus animals. (This image was actually taken in Memphis.) |
We had our first taste of Mexico at shortly after 9 AM at a little roadside stand near a toll booth on Route 85D. We got four little tacos filled with an unknown (but tasty) meat mixture and hot sauce on top for a late breakfast—they only cost about $2 for all four. At this stop we met a fellow traveler who currently lived in Dallas but who was born in Mexico—he was quite helpful with our selection of tacos.
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The toll roads were very good but rest stops and gas stations were very far apart, sometimes, greater than 50 miles.
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| A typical scene of the vegetation along the newer toll roads. (I think the taller plants were Buccaneer Palms but I could be wrong.) |
When we got to our hotel (Las Palmas Midway) it was 2:45 PM and our room was still being cleaned. It was almost 4 PM when we got settled. We had a great dinner at the hotel, including a unique appetizer containing cactus blossoms.
Over dinner we discussed that we don't want to make this type of road trip to Mexico again--it's too taxing. Next time, we will fly...
Friday, October 15
(We made it to San Miguel de Allende!)
Las Palmas Midway is a Mexican 4-star hotel located in Matehuala, about 4 hours north of San Miguel de Allende. It is reminiscent of the roadside motels that were built in the 50's and 60's in the United States where all the rooms are on a single floor and there is a single-car parking space under roof next to each unit. The hotel has an outdoor pool which we saw people using while we were having dinner last night in the centrally-located hotel restaurant.
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The maids wore pastel pink uniforms with white trim and they pushed a cart full of supplies from room to room. (The painted-white cart seemed like it was constructed from 1/2-inch diameter steel pipe and it had bicycle wheels.) All the waiters wore uniforms, black pants and royal blue jackets (and spoke excellent English).
The upholstered chairs in the hotel room were stained from many years of use and the gold curtains on the windows were fragile from outside sun exposure. (We know because Kali accidentally ripped a big hole in one--we patched it on the backside with duct tape.)
The shower was fully tiled in white and was sunken (about 3 inches from the surrounding floor), a style that was popular a long time ago in the U.S.. Everything was well maintained, just old (except for the excellent WiFi and the portable credit card readers in the restaurant).
We were both up at 5:30 AM, a carryover from recent early days on the road. (We had to wait until 7 AM for breakfast in the hotel.)
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Our breakfast at the hotel included fresh fruit (mine was diced papaya while Maggie’s was a mixture of pineapple, papaya, and cantaloupe) and I had a delicious oatmeal cooked in milk while Maggie had breakfast fajitas (I don't think she realized what she was ordering).
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We got on the road shortly after 8 AM. Mexico Route 57, south of Matehuala, was lined with small homes and cafe’s in various stages of construction. (I suppose with Mexico’s cash economy that when someone gets some money together, they make an addition to their property. However, unlike the United States, they own what they have in full.)
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| Partial construction of nice (but unfinished) home along MEX Route 57 South. |
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| Some more scenery along MEX Route 57 South. |
They never seem to be quite finished with their additions—this is so typical of Hispanic culture in other places we’ve visited. (Many times, elaborate walls around their entire property were constructed before their house was livable.) Behind the homes and cafes that line the highway were fields of scrub brush, cacti, and buccaneer palms. A very high mountain range was far away in the distance on each side of the highway. Occasionally we would encounter roadside memorials that were very fancy.
We ran into a traffic jam at 9:45 AM—both lanes were at a standstill for about 30 minutes. Later in the day we ran into another traffic jam with another 30-minute delay. We finally arrived at our apartment's street address on Cancion India at 2:15 PM, about 2 hours later than we expected.
As we got out of our car, the mellow sound of jazz saxophone greeted us--it was coming from our building--the purple one. The site manager (Beto) is a tall young saxophonist who occupies the lower apartment in the front of the building.
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| We were pleasantly surprised by the sunlight in our apartment, created by the overhead skylight along one entire side of the entranceway. |
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| The little kitchen in our San Miguel apartment. |
The site manager explained to us that everything was included--the electricity, the propane for cooking, purified water for drinking and even once per week maid service. This was the respite I was looking for--no more (boat) maintenance for me! We were so glad to get settled in one spot for awhile…Thanks for following our (now un-sailing) blog!
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