Made in all the way to the USA on our Third Day

When we woke up at 5:00 AM at Neptuno we saw no lights in Rob & Shirley’s motor home but we discussed our route the night before and it looked too long to make it all the way to the border but a shorter day if we only drove to Soto de Marina.

When we were ready to leave after a good waffle breakfast, there was still no sign that they got up, so we figured they preferred to leave a little later, we really weren’t travelling together but taking the same route.

We pulled out about 6:10 AM and it was still dark but by the time we got to the Poza Rica bypass Quota the sun had risen and it looked like it was going to be a warmer sunny day. We made good time on all the roads which had some bad spots but get better each year. maybe because it was on a Sunday that the traffic was light and fast.

We were concerned that we would run into the same police scammers that Brenda did but we saw no police but we tried to go slow and stay in the right hand lanes but did drive through the middle of the town past the airport. The road in Altamira was rough but then was fine all the way to Aldama on MX-180. We had hoped that they would have made better progress widening & rerouting the road south of Soto. I swear they only finished about 10 more miles in the last year and a half.

We reached Soto at 2:30 in the afternoon. I got on the internet, rechecked anticipated driving time and figured if we didn’t get into any long inspection stops we could make the crossing at Los Indios before sunset. So off we went, again, no stops very light traffic except near Valle Hermosa where we bought the last cheaper Mexican gas. The only weird thing we experienced was right at the Mexican side of the border. We knew MX immigration was closed on Sunday here but we didn’t need to cancel our 10 year vehicle permit and didn’t think it would matter whether we turned in our FMM’s, since these were paid by the airline when we flew back to MX after the holidays. We figured we would pay the toll bridge and head right to the USA customs stop.

There were two MX military guys that stopped us right before the toll booth. The one said to turn off the engine which I did but asked me to step out of the car. He spoke no English, I barely speak a few words of Spanish but he understood my NO, I’m not getting out. Why inspect me to leave your country. He kept speaking very fast Spanish I kept saying no. So finally he waved me on to continue. I have no idea why he wanted me to get out.

There were way more cars waiting on the US side then I have ever seen at this crossing which the border people said was typical for a Sunday night. We got there about 6:30 and even with a drug dog search and several agents looking everywhere including in small spaces under my hood we cleared customs at 7:10PM, in time for a nice dinner at our favorite Bar-B-Q just down the road in San Benito, TX.