Mexico Day 1 and 2 - We Made Some Friends

If you read my post about our last day of driving, you may understand I believe we over-extended ourselves because of how easy the previous week of driving through Mexico had been.

We set out on Saturday, June 7th from Del Rio, Texas where we had a great stay at the Ramada for a couple days, trying to get ahead on some client work before the trip. We were pretty well rested and ready to go.

At the border, about 5 miles from our hotel, we weren't sure what to expect. We definitely got their attention with our packed FJ, trailer, and quad. They asked that we pull into another section so they could inspect and we could fill out some paperwork. Apparently, most of the traffic going through that crossing is very localized, Texans going shopping or to restaurants and such.

I waited with the FJ and the cats while Ken went in (he has MUCH better Spanish.) At some point, I had to go in as well and sign some things. While inside, we had a great view of the border check and Ken took a photo with his camera - big mistake. Apparently it's a federal crime and we spent more of our time at the border with Ken explaining why he took the pic and deleting it for them. In and out in an hour though, and darn it if they never even asked about our cats - the thing we were most stressed about since our health certificate was dated more than 10 days prior.

The first day we drove until just before dusk and then played it safe and comfortable with the Holiday Inn in Monclova Mexico. Not a lot to report, it was a little nicer than your average US Holiday Inn. We snuck the cats in with towels over their cages which seemed ridiculously obvious to me, but they allowed us in, so yay! The next day, Sunday morning, was a great brunch and I was introduced to a wonderful Mexican breakfast dish I need to find out the name of. Essentially it is nachos with long strips of tortillas chips, green sauce, chicken and cheese. All yum.

We also figured out a better way to sneak our cats in and out of hotels - Costco and Sams IKEA bags with a towel on top! We knew it would work great for Osa who ever meows and for Belle, well it would depend on her mood.

We got off to a relatively early start for us, 10 a.m. It took us about an hour each morning and evening to unpack and pack for a secure night for our stuff on the trailer and in the vehicle. I was feeling good about how much we could accomplish that day, especially because the roads were so good. We were taking toll roads (cuotas) where we could, but even the regular roads were much better than expected. No cartels in sight, no police with hands out for bribes. ;-)

About two hours into our journey south, we came up on some motorcycle folks stranded on the right side of the road and really didn't hesitate to pull over to help. It was pretty desolate desert, not somewhere you would want to be stranded.

Were we a little nervous? Sure. But it became quickly  obvious we had nothing to fear. This was a very cool multi-generational family who like to go out on rides together and found themselves in trouble. They had a set of training wheels for one of the kids and one of the wheels on it went flat. They needed to take the training wheel attachment off the cycle and had no tools. Then they needed to find a way to get the attachment to their hometown of Saltillo, about 200 km away. Luckily we offered both. Ken brought a ton of tools for our vehicles and we had our quad trailer and easily added it on top. Bonus was that the town was on our way.

You could tell there was a lot of love between them, a lot of kidding around too. They were so sweet and so grateful. They gave us a t-shirt, pin, and window sticker from their biker club, the Gargolas, and we proudly put it up on the Fj's back window. We also connected over Facebook and are regularly in touch.

Here's a photo of all of us together after loading the training wheel attachment:

So we didn't get as far on the map as we thought we would that day, but we both agree we had a pretty successful day. With all the warnings we received and all the concern that folks had for us, I have to admit it had the effect of an ongoing low-level anxiety in the back of our minds. After engaging with some real people though, I felt a lot of that fall away. It reaffirmed a basic belief that we are all the same underneath it all.