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Published: June 26th 2009
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The Border
If you get to this point without checking out of Mexico, turn around immediately! June 24, 2007 We arise early and are on our way. We realize that we will arrive at the border late in the afternoon. I do not want to cross at a Nuevo Leon in the middle of the day, so we head to the Laredo-Columbia Solidarity Bridge. I have mixed feelings about us crossing at Columbia. I know that it is about an hour to an hour and half out of the way. But I also know that you can wait in line even longer if you cross at Nuevo Laredo. Moreover, there are the obvious safety concerns. We take the cut-off and head northwest of Laredo. I arrive at the crossing point with almost 2000 pesos (about $200 usd) in my pocket. I see a gas station. I stop. We fill the tank, buy lots of treats, snacks, and soda pops. I still have 1300 pesos. The attendant agrees to sell me his entire stash of dollars at 10 pesos per dollar. Pretty good deal. I still have 500 pesos. I buy a 200 peso bottle of tequila and cross with only 300 pesos!!
The Border Crossing. Gosh, did we ever blow the crossing. If you cross at
Car Permit
You must stop at this little building to cancel your car permit!! Columbia, and I strongly recommend you do, take your time. This crossing is set up for commercial freight. It does not have good signage for tourists. In fact it has almost no signage (hopefully that will change soon as many people are now trying to avoid Nuevo Leon). So, we just flew right up to the US Border and then said, uh…..uh……uh….oh shit……..Um, “hello Mr. US Customs officer. Could we please go back? We really did not want to cross yet. Mind if I just back up? Response: “Is there a problem? Can I help you with something?” “Yes officer, I really want to go back. I did not clear my car permit, my family’s tourist visa or my work visa.” I just flew right past that step. The backing up idea did not go over well. But, he did open a gate and let me go straight into an “Entering Mexico” lane. So great, I get to do it all over again. Hello Mr. Mexican Customs Officer, I know this sounds strange, but we really are not enter Mexico we are trying to leave Mexico. Do you understand sir?” That is when he pulled his gun….no that is not
Bella
The crossing was nerve wracking for Bella. true. He waived me over to a “special lane.” Most likely the “stupid American’s” lane. They asked me to exit the car and escorted me into a special room “stupid American’s” room where they processed our visas. I then drove to a very small building (think Home Depot or Sears type storage shed). They cancelled our car permit and for the second time that day we crossed the river. Went to the same person as before and this time he smiled and asked “are you ready to cross now?” Yes sir we are.
Officer: Passports please. Everyone US Citizens?
Me: Yes.
Officer: Any thing to declare? Alcohol or drugs?
Me: No. Well, we do have a dog and one bottle of tequila.
Officer: A dog, huh, ok you can go.
Me: Thank you
My thoughts: You just wait one cotton-picken minute mister. I spent a lot of time filling out all of this paperwork for the dog and you are darn sure going to look at it. Here, take a look.
I drive away and it finally hits me. We are in the US. I start looking for the cut off to the south back to Laredo. But first
The Oyster Bar
Little Rock, Arkansas I see something straight in front of me. It is a toll road and it appears to head north. It is clearly a new road. I drive up the to the toll booth. It seems so weird to speak in English and I laugh and tell the toll booth attendant that we have been in Mexico for 6 ½ months it is nice to ask questions in English! He tells me the road just opened this year and that it heads north directly to interstate 35. I am so excited I can’t believe it. What I thought would be an hour to an hour and a half delay has now become hardly any delay at all. About thirty minutes later we are on interstate thirty five way north of Laredo. Consequently I would strongly recommend anyone coming south from San Antonio take highway 255-Camino Columbia toll road directly to the Colombia bridge crossing. Given this new road it is a dramatic shortcut and much safer than crossing at Laredo.
We drive to Austin, Texas and spend the night at a wonderful Embassy Suites. Again, it just seems weird to be speaking to everyone in English! The next morning we
The Oyster Bar
Little Rock, Arkansas leave but only drive as far as Little Rock, Arkansas where we detoured directly to the Oyster Bar. The Oyster Bar was one of our favorite restaurants when Teresa and I lived here. The next morning we toured the river front, went to the farmers market, and had lunch along the river. The girls and Teresa went to the Children’s Museum which they thought was awesome. Bella and I walked down to the William Jefferson Clinton museum. Although it was free, they absolutely would not let me enter with Bella.
We set sail for home in the afternoon by way of Memphis. We have promised Madison a stop at the Elvis Presley Mansion. Bella and I sit in the car for over 2 hours while the girls tour the Presley Mansion. They loved it. We eat dinner at a pizza place and are back on the road. Bye nine o’clock we were in Louisville, Kentucky. We could be home in less than two hours but I was afraid we could have problems with the air conditioning, electricity or water. So we made our last hotel stop of the trip at a Holiday Inn Express. We left early in the
morning the following day, and pulled into our driveway at 11 am. For the first time, I felt the full impact of the drought everyone had been telling us about. Our lawn was brown and the maple tree I had planted in our yard 4 years earlier was completely dead. With those exceptions, everything in our house was just as we had left it. We were home at last and the great adventure was over.
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Mercy
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Question
Hello, Do you think it is safe for 3 american women one elderly, to take a bus from Monterrey to Queretaro?