We left Queretaro late Saturday afternoon with the plan to drive to San Luis Potosí for Saturday night, then Cuidad Victoria, then the border at Matamoros/Brownsville the following day. However, the roads north of Queretaro were a dramatic improvement over the roads we had been traveling, and we made it from Danny and Alan’s house to our intended stopover for the night without any delays, and in not much more time than the GPS software had said.
We stopped at a rest stop that offered a fenced parking area for semis and campers. It was a little loud with trucks going in and out all night, but very safe.
It wasn’t the prettiest place we’ve ever stayed, but we were treated to a beautiful sunset.
Because we’d made such good time, we took another look at the map and decided to try to drive from San Luis Potosí to Matamoros the next day, with the caveat that if we got to Ciudad Victoria too late in the day to make it to the border before dark, we would revert to our original plan. We were pleasantly surprised to find that the roads were even better than we’d seen before, and while there were a few rough spots and a fairly stiff wind, we hit Ciudad Victoria around 1:30. We stopped for fuel and asked how long it would take to drive to the border, and were told that it was under 3 hours for a normal car. We knew we would take longer, but even double that time would put us there before dark.
We literally drove through mountains as we headed towards the coast. We started at about 2100 meters in altitude, and ended up on the coast at less than 10 meters.
The Tropic of Cancer is marked along all roads in Mexico. I have to admit I felt a little anxious at leaving the tropics; my blood is quite thin!
The roads closer to the border weren’t as well maintained as the roads just north of Mexico City, and it was very windy which is tough when driving a large square box down the road, but we still made it to Matamoros around 5:30. We didn’t realize that we had a choice of crossings, and followed Siri’s instructions. That was sort of a mistake, but probably one that worked in our favor in the end, since it took us to the small bridge where most people walk back and forth between Mexico and the US, rather than to the longer bridge where most of the commercial traffic goes.
Siri’s instructions took us right to the toll booth to pay for the bridge crossing. However, we had to check ourselves out of Mexico and check the truck and the two motos out of Mexico so we could get the TIP we’d paid in Chetumal back on the two motos. We pulled over, and Tom got out to see what had to be done, and found that the small booth we had just passed was the cashier who handled vehicles. The lane that passed the booth was made for cars and was too small for our truck, but the official told us to just pull over a little more where we were, and he would take care of us. The only problem was that he had to take photos of the motos’ VINs, and because he didn’t want to climb into the tightly packed moto garage, we had to unload my scooter so he could get that number, and to give him space so he could go in and take a photo of Tom’s bike’s VIN. This whole process only took about 15 minutes of the official’s time, but it took us another half hour to get the scooter loaded and secured, which turned out to be most of the time we spent on the Mexico side. We both walked into the immigration hall to get ourselves stamped out of Mexico, which took about 10 minutes, and we were on our way across the bridge less than an hour after stopping.
We had never crossed this bridge before, and we were both surprised both by how small it was - obviously made for normal cars and pedestrians - and how short the bridge was at this point. When we had crossed before, we had unknowingly gone over the commercial bridge, which is much longer and busier. We pulled up and paid the $80p toll for the bridge, and were surprised to find that we were only about 5 cars back from the US immigration booth on the short bridge. We had a brief moment of panic because the immigration booth is down a little hill from the bridge, and before we realized the little hill was there, we were thinking we were going to have to back up because we were too tall. But, despite everything at the crossing being obviously made for cars, we fit both between the rails and under the awning, and pulled up at the booth. We had noticed a bit of scurrying around on the part of the officials when they saw us, and by the time we got there, they had a whole team ready to process us.
The first man in the booth scanned our passport cards and had us follow another official, who walked in front of us and watched our roof and sides to make sure we didn’t bump anything. She had us pull up next to the building rather than in the area where the regular cars were being searched, and instructed us to get out, open the camper, get the dogs out, and unlock the travel locks on all the cabinets. Then two more men joined her and they did a thorough search of the camper. They were apologetic that they had to seize some frozen chicken and sweet peppers, and were more interested in asking questions about the camper than actually doing a search. One of the men came out to talk to me about the dogs…but, to my surprise, rather than demanding paperwork or giving us a hard time about bringing them in from Belize, he just wanted to know where we got Kismet because he really liked her. I was honestly able to answer that we got her in Houston, and told him to contact Shaggy Dog Rescue if he wanted a dog like her. They told us that if we did the crossing again in the camper, we should probably go to the commercial crossing where they have the gamma ray scanners and it’s built for commercial sized vehicles, but when we told them we only went where Siri told us to go and that we didn’t even realize there were two crossings, they just laughed and said it was no big deal, and that they enjoyed seeing the camper. We were through the gate and into Brownsville and the US in just about 45 minutes, and we were delighted and surprised at how friendly and helpful everyone had been.
We drove immediately to a Walmart and asked and were granted permission to park for the night. We picked up a few groceries and spent our first night back in the US in the Walmart parking lot, just like we spent our first night almost 16 years ago when we sold our house and started driving towards Belize with a pickup and travel trailer. We ate dinner and went to bed, after a very long and stressful day.
The next day we got up and walked the dogs in the neighborhood behind the Walmart. We felt a bit like we may have been in enemy territory since some of the cars in the neighborhood had F*ck Biden bumper stickers, but everyone we met was pleasant, and it was nice to walk the dogs without having to worry about packs of street dogs. After returning to the camper, we had a good shop in the Walmart and got a bunch of things we had been delaying purchasing until we got to the US - things like outdoor folding chairs that are ridiculously expensive in Belize and not much better in Mexico, but which are reasonable in the US, and we actually had choices.
That done, we decided that we’d been off line long enough since our Mexico phone cards hadn’t worked since we’d crossed the border the night before, so we went back to an AT&T store that we’d seen on our walk to see what plans they had. Our plan was for one of us to get an AT&T plan, and the other to get a Verizon plan, so we’d have decent coverage throughout the US even if one of our phones didn’t work. We got info from AT&T, then found a Verizon store. We decided there that I’d get the Verizon plan, and Tom would go back and get the AT&T plan. The process of signing up for these two plans took all afternoon, in part because the last time we had US phone plans, cell phones were a very new thing, and both the AT&T and Verizon reps had to explain a number of basic things to the two old people who were obviously technologically inept.
We got done with the phone stuff right around 6PM, and headed towards South Padre Island, which is less than an hour from Brownsville. It was a straight and easy drive, and we found a place to park at a county park just before the park closed at 7PM. We suffered a bit of sticker shock at the parking fee after spending a month in Mexico where all parking was free to cheap, but we’re on a flat spot just on the other side of the dunes from the Gulf of Mexico. It was dark and quiet in the night, and we took the dogs on a long walk on the beach this morning. We’re planning to spend tonight here and hopefully finish a bunch of paperwork and planning before heading towards Houston tomorrow.
We had never crossed this bridge before, and we were both surprised both by how small it was - obviously made for normal cars and pedestrians - and how short the bridge was at this point. When we had crossed before, we had unknowingly gone over the commercial bridge, which is much longer and busier. We pulled up and paid the $80p toll for the bridge, and were surprised to find that we were only about 5 cars back from the US immigration booth on the short bridge. We had a brief moment of panic because the immigration booth is down a little hill from the bridge, and before we realized the little hill was there, we were thinking we were going to have to back up because we were too tall. But, despite everything at the crossing being obviously made for cars, we fit both between the rails and under the awning, and pulled up at the booth. We had noticed a bit of scurrying around on the part of the officials when they saw us, and by the time we got there, they had a whole team ready to process us.
The first man in the booth scanned our passport cards and had us follow another official, who walked in front of us and watched our roof and sides to make sure we didn’t bump anything. She had us pull up next to the building rather than in the area where the regular cars were being searched, and instructed us to get out, open the camper, get the dogs out, and unlock the travel locks on all the cabinets. Then two more men joined her and they did a thorough search of the camper. They were apologetic that they had to seize some frozen chicken and sweet peppers, and were more interested in asking questions about the camper than actually doing a search. One of the men came out to talk to me about the dogs…but, to my surprise, rather than demanding paperwork or giving us a hard time about bringing them in from Belize, he just wanted to know where we got Kismet because he really liked her. I was honestly able to answer that we got her in Houston, and told him to contact Shaggy Dog Rescue if he wanted a dog like her. They told us that if we did the crossing again in the camper, we should probably go to the commercial crossing where they have the gamma ray scanners and it’s built for commercial sized vehicles, but when we told them we only went where Siri told us to go and that we didn’t even realize there were two crossings, they just laughed and said it was no big deal, and that they enjoyed seeing the camper. We were through the gate and into Brownsville and the US in just about 45 minutes, and we were delighted and surprised at how friendly and helpful everyone had been.
We drove immediately to a Walmart and asked and were granted permission to park for the night. We picked up a few groceries and spent our first night back in the US in the Walmart parking lot, just like we spent our first night almost 16 years ago when we sold our house and started driving towards Belize with a pickup and travel trailer. We ate dinner and went to bed, after a very long and stressful day.
The next day we got up and walked the dogs in the neighborhood behind the Walmart. We felt a bit like we may have been in enemy territory since some of the cars in the neighborhood had F*ck Biden bumper stickers, but everyone we met was pleasant, and it was nice to walk the dogs without having to worry about packs of street dogs. After returning to the camper, we had a good shop in the Walmart and got a bunch of things we had been delaying purchasing until we got to the US - things like outdoor folding chairs that are ridiculously expensive in Belize and not much better in Mexico, but which are reasonable in the US, and we actually had choices.
That done, we decided that we’d been off line long enough since our Mexico phone cards hadn’t worked since we’d crossed the border the night before, so we went back to an AT&T store that we’d seen on our walk to see what plans they had. Our plan was for one of us to get an AT&T plan, and the other to get a Verizon plan, so we’d have decent coverage throughout the US even if one of our phones didn’t work. We got info from AT&T, then found a Verizon store. We decided there that I’d get the Verizon plan, and Tom would go back and get the AT&T plan. The process of signing up for these two plans took all afternoon, in part because the last time we had US phone plans, cell phones were a very new thing, and both the AT&T and Verizon reps had to explain a number of basic things to the two old people who were obviously technologically inept.
We got done with the phone stuff right around 6PM, and headed towards South Padre Island, which is less than an hour from Brownsville. It was a straight and easy drive, and we found a place to park at a county park just before the park closed at 7PM. We suffered a bit of sticker shock at the parking fee after spending a month in Mexico where all parking was free to cheap, but we’re on a flat spot just on the other side of the dunes from the Gulf of Mexico. It was dark and quiet in the night, and we took the dogs on a long walk on the beach this morning. We’re planning to spend tonight here and hopefully finish a bunch of paperwork and planning before heading towards Houston tomorrow.
As we crossed the bridge to South Padre Island, I was surprised to realize that it’s a real city, since I’d only ever seen photos of the beach. We were happy to find a camping spot that wasn’t in the middle of the city.