Monday and Tuesday were pretty uneventful, driving driving and more driving. Monday 28th Call early to the transmission place in Asheville where our transmission was rebuilt, they gave us the name a shop in Mobile, AL, called them and they asked where we are driving to, then gave us the name and phone number of another shop just off Hwy 10w. After talking to "Randy" one of the owners, he gave us directions saying when you get to this location call me again, I'll give you more detailed directions which happened. Very impressed with both the folks who rebuilt our transmission at City Transmissions and the folks we ended up going to in Mobile. They got their heads together and decided to add a special anti stick additive and off we went, NOT One more problem! Thank God!
One thing that amazed both Dick and me was that the cats and dog were so good considering their being locked up in a car all day. Jake is used to riding long distances in the car but both cats, Toby and Trisha aren't. After having breakfast at the motel, they would get loaded into their crate then into the car. After being on the road for about 1/2 hour I'd let them out, then they'd settle into finding a place to hang out for the remainder of the day, with only a few moves throughout the day. The animals had their food, water and cat's their litter box, so aside for walks for Jake and us, that was all that was required.
Something that you'll see in these photos was that the land/water in Mississippi and Louisiana was always around us and/or under us, mostly elevated roadways. That continued into the eastern most part of Texas, there is just so much water in the gulf coast area, rivers, lakes, swamps; but explains why there are such issues when a hurricane come their way. We spent the night in Beaumont, TX. A nice town! Had a good dinner at Olive Garden, then back to read a little and snore a lot! Up early and on to Laredo, TX to spend the night there. Both Monday and Tuesday nights we spent in La Quinta motels, comfortable beds and quiet..Cat's slept quietly slept near us and didn't run around like wild cats all night. 2 firsts tonight, 1st cockroach outside on the sidewalk, Jake helped me corner and kill it. 1st Armadillo (dead) on the side of the road.
Tuesday 9/29/09
Houston is an amazingly large city! The port and river to the east of downtown was lined with oil refineries and holding tanks. Many tall buildings and very spread out! **see photos!
That area of Texas is mostly rolling hills, with lots of grazing areas.
We also passed around the east/south of San Antonio. Dick did his basic training here in 1963, he remembered it looking much different. Large spread out city too. As has been said everything in Texas is big.. Their overpasses are even large, on the tops of the columns holding up the overpasses had large Texas stars on them, some plain some with gold finishes on them! Excellent roads in Texas too!
Did you know how much rice grows in Texas? I thought California had the corner on that but Texas grows a lot of rice too.
Arrived in Laredo at about 5:30 pm. This city/town?? Surprised us both. It is Hugh! Every big box store or otherwise was here. Found that a lot of the Mexican citizens work on the Texas side"legally" and return home to Mexican side in the evening. Then do it over the next day, also the Mexican citizens like to shop in the TX side of the border! Noticed that there are guards in the shopping centers parking lots along with in the motel parking lots. Didn't have to worry about car being messed with, being that almost everything we took down was in the trunk.
Overnight then off to the border crossing in the am..
9/30/09
Arrived at the border crossing at 7am after paying to cross the Rio Grande River on bride #2, the bigger of the two bridges there. We were then directed to go through the "red/green lights"
WE got the RED light, but it ended up not being a big deal! Really! They were more interested in the dog and the cats then what was in our trunk, the guy asked where are you going and for how long, Dick answered and they guy gave us our paperwork back and said go on.. Then the fun started!
We tried to follow directions and signs to the immigration office to get our FMT visas' and also the auto permit. There are some funny oddities there..Only the person who's name is on the the registration is allowed in that area. Plus you must get your visa prior to getting the auto permit.
Had it not been for us getting into the wrong line to go back over the bridge we would never have found that office, the signs are confusing to say the least..
Now, out on the open road! Traveling toward Monterrey, MX..
After getting outside Nuevo Laredo and passing through the second "red/green Lights, and getting a Green light.
Now we saw a change in elevation and terrain. After clearing the second lights we felt as if we just kept climbing in elevation, which we were. I had forgotten that we had our altimeter with us.
I used it many times on our trip. The mountains coming into Monterrey are not only tall but beautiful! The lines "sedimentary strata" showing how the mountains were pushed up by water/ice was amazing when the earth was in the creation process. (Of course I see God's amazing creativity everywhere in everything, so no less here).. But these appear to be different in color then those in the US... I'd have to ask my sister or brother in law Ann and Chuck Dahl about that one!
As we drove several things stuck us. 1. What we perceived Mexico's interior to look like is much
different then it is, 2. the elevation of the land, the lovely green areas that had wheel lines in them 3. the size and look of the towns and cities were different then we thought they'd been.
We've been to Cancun, Cozumel, Mazatlan and Ixtapa, which are mostly jungle areas, this was grand, rugged and humble at the same time.
So, we're driving to get down to San Luis Potosi for the night, the highways- Cuota's (toll roads) are very nice, many SOS signs along the way, to make emergency calls for help, and also lots of Pemmex gas stations, price controlled at about $2.22 per gallon. Along with the gas stations there were usually Oxxo stores(like 7-11's), for drinks or snacks or a hot dog..
Now restrooms are also plentiful, sometime you have to pay for the t-paper 15-20 peso's! But you don't flush your t-paper, you put it in the waste basket. The pipes in non resort areas are old and get plugged up easily, or it can create problems with the septic systems.
We had been reading about what is called "no tell motel's" the first nice looking motel we saw was one of those as we drove into San Luis Potosi. We drove a little longer, but decided to go back to that place, didn't see anything else, it was about 5 pm. Now not knowing how they would receive pets, (I put the cats in their crate with a blanket over them and the dog was on my lap with a blanket over him.) then we drove up to the "check in" which was one of those "gates that gets raised" once you pay to pass through it.. Dick told them we wanted to stay for the whole night, not just a few hours! They told us which number room we were to go to, drove down to it and into the carport, he walked back down to pay for our room, 300 pesos! He came back and we closed our carport door which was electric, like a garage door, but a carport! Boy were we surprised when we walked into the room! It was VERY nice with two TV, wonderful bathroom and it was very clean and nice goodies too.. King bed in a separate area away from the sitting room area. Then it came to bringing in the animals and our stuff, next thought was what do we do for dinner? They took care of that too, you can order dinner and anything to drink that you wanted. They delivered to our room, so I had to keep the animals in the bathroom until them came with dinner. Very nice tasting! There appeared to be ONE BIG problem, where and how do you walk your dog when you're basically "locked in your room".. No door except the one for the folks who come in from the office area for food or cleaning, and the garage door, that's it.
Because of the type of "privacy issues" when you open the garage door that means you're leaving! So, I tried to get Jake to go in the carport and use our car tires, but he wouldn't. I don't think I've ever seen him do that..
So, he held it all night until we got up at 6am and left.
Another weird thing???
There is plastic on the mattress and pillows- I hate sleeping on plastic!
Dick told me he felt dirty sleeping there! Well I can understand that.
The next blog will be our trip from San Luis Potosi to Chapala...
Will post photos tonight..
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