Drive to Playa day 2 Brownsville to Tampico

Brownsville to Tampico 9-6-08
5:30 am came very early this morning but the alarm was set for 6am...I slept like a rock (highly recommend the Hampton Inn), the amenities were great, free breakfast and free internet. I was excited to cross the border. Today I get to see Mexico in a way I've never seen but have only dreamed about for the last 15 months. Today is the day that will test my level of emotional strength; I know whatever happens is meant to happen. I believe that I have a purpose in life and if I was not meant to go to Mexico then I think that I would have run into obstacles that I could not overcome much sooner than this. Therefore, I feel on top of the world today.


So at 7 am, we walk to eat breakfast...better fill up because we are not stopping. Toast with peanut butter and a 1/2 banana sliced on top for me and Lord only knows what my dear hubby was eating...something that resembled sausage. Ok, hurry I say...eat fast...we have to get there before customs open at 8am. 7:36 we hop in the truck. All bags...check. Visas, passports and all other important docs...check. Coffee...check. We're ready!!!:dance_banana: Oh God...there's that pit in my belly again. What is it???Am I nervous? Why should I be because we are taking very little so the border should be a breeze right? So I keep telling myself it's gonna be okay.


We are driving along Hwy 77 for about all of 2 miles, exit International Parkway, hang a right and there it is!!! I think that I could hear the Angles beginning to sing! It was so majestical but yet at the same time, it was so much smaller than I thought it would be. This didn't seem so bad. We pulled up to pay our toll (couple of bucks) and asked the tollman where to get our auto permit (I procrastinated and did not get this before we left Dallas!) and he pointed us in the right direction. He said begin crossing the bridge and we will turn to the right just up the road. We pulled in and walked inside of this building that resembled a place in the states to get your drivers license. We were greeted by a guy that wanted to sell us auto insurance. "Sorry...we already have it but can you please tell me where to get the auto permit?" Without hesitation or disappointment, he told us to proceed to Customs first. Customs was through a small door about 100 feet in front of me...no lines. Yippee. Visas and passports are stamped (the only stamps I have in my passport are from Mexico...I'm nearly a Mexican; I'd like to think ;)). Next stop the Banjcrito for our auto permit. One copy of the registration, one copy of the drivers license, 1 copy of both visas and passports and 1 copy of....wait...she did NOT ask me for the notarized letter from GMAC!!! What??? I shed tears almost over that letter! please, please, please ask me for it please...nope, she didn't. I'm guessing that it may be better to not tell her she may have forgotten something!:whistle:After 10 minutes of her checking and scrutinizing our docs she said that it would be ready in 5 minutes. PERFECT!!! This could not get any easier! Well, I must have had a memory laspe or maybe a moment of denial but we are in Mexico. 5 minutes actually means 20. No problem. I have until Sunday Sept 14 to hop on a plane to Dallas so that I can again hop back on a plane to Cancun 6 weeks later for my OFFICIAL move. Finally...got the permit. Not the friendliest of souls but it all worked out and I had in my hands a hot little commodity. So with perpetual grins on our faces and feeling oh so fabulous we were heading to our truck. Permit goes next to rear-view mirror. done. hop in and let's go!!!! WAIT Senior WAIT we heard someone say. Oh God...what is it??? Did I drop something, did someone try to jack with our car while we were inside and you want to tell us about it??? "What do you want", I thought to myself. But we politely said, "yes?". You have too much stuff, you should go ahead and go back inside to talk to Customs and arrange for a broker now instead of going through the actual hassle of having them MAKE you do it. "WHAT????" I only have a truck load of stuff...this is crazy. Why in the world would they make me get a broker for such a small amount???". Needless to say, better to deal with the issue now than to have to get back in the car and have them dictate to me what I can or cannot take across the border. So we walk back inside, almost feeling defeated, opened up the door leading to Customs and stood in front of his desk. He looked at us like we were flipping nuts for interrupting his morning at 8:30 am. Oh God...this is not going to be good. I proceeded to explain to him, in my feable attempt to speak Spanish because his English was ten times worse than my Tex-Mex broken Spanish could ever be, that we have a menaje de casa approved from the Mexican Consulant in Dallas. As I was trying to tell him we did not bring all that was approved he demanded us to show him our vehicle and all of the contents. I have to say that I was having an Oh Sh** moment. As we were walking outside, two ladies asked if they could help translate...there's those Angles singing again.:angel: She explained the situation to the Customs officer that we did not bring everything approved and he looked at her and even though I could not understand verbatium what he said, the point was that we were to hide, burn, destory or eat the menaje de casa and never, ever show anyone that document. We were then to write on any piece of paper that we could find, the actual articles within our possession along with the value. Okay...easy enough. I'll just copy the menaje de casa but only with the things that we have...garage sale...better yet...charity sale value...$321.00. That sounded fair. Even the Customs officer thought that was reasonable. $32 duty tax please. Oh heck yes...anyday I would gladly pay the tax versus having to unload all of this crap for all to see on a rainy day. Life is flipping awesome right now!!!!

Back out of the building we go. The two nice ladies, sisters, were standing outside as they were having troubles of their own. Apparently their credit card to get back into Mexico was no good so they were waiting for someone to bring a good one. I walked up to them, handed them a $20 bill for helping us, which they tried hard to refuse, and gave them a big hug. Maybe the Angels that I heard singing were them? Hmmm...not sure but I did know that they were an absolute Godsend to us this morning. We started talking for a few minutes and low and behold...they live in Tampico!!! We are going to Tampico. They invited us to stay at their home tonight and to spend the day with them tomorrow at the beach drinking beer. Oh man..that sounds so tempting! Can you believe this...someone wants us, complete strangers, to stay with them and spend time with them. I politely and apologetically declined as we needed to get back on the road and head to Playa just as soon as possible. They gave us their name, cell phone # and address...I think that I will keep in touch with them. They were so sweet and so caring. We take pictures and say our sad goodbyes and we hopped back into the truck, only spending a little over an hour at the border, once again smiling from ear to ear and eager to experience more. I love Mexico.

Just follow the signs to Cd Victoria I say as we navigate our way through Matamoros. While Dave is driving, I am taking in as much as possible. The scenery is amazing, yet shocking and beautiful all at the same time. It was weird to see, just past Matamoras, cows and goats roaming around but there was not fences. Wait...they are chained to trees!!! ooooo; now I am a little saddened.

60 km mark...the 2nd check point where we have to go through Customs. We pulled over, handed him our visas, passports and pointed to the auto permit. "Where are you going?" he asked in English. "Playa del Carmen, Q-Roo", we say. We'll I think he said have a good trip or good luck in your trip but I am not 100% positive as he had said it in Spanish. Regardless...we were clear!!!!! YAY!!!! Where's my champagne???

Just past the second check point is the most beautiful, undisturbed land. Pastures and mountains. FYI...if you see a sign that indicates somehow that you should reduce your speed, you should. Chances are there are topes. It only took once to realize this!

Driving along minding our own business, happy as two larks, when all of a sudden we come upon a 2nd checkpoint. UGH. We pull over, get out of the vehicle and hand him the requested list approved by the Customs officer. "Where's the printer" he asks in spanish. huh? please slow down on your pronunciation on what you are asking because we cannot figure out what you are asking. PRINTER he says. Oh...okay...you want to see the printer. Welllll....it's in the bottom box in the back of the Tahoe. We can get it out but it will require a few minutes as we have to disassemble the bike rack that we have rigged on the back. "I want to see the printer". okay...we will get the printer for you. As Dave begins dismantling the bikes so that we can open the back Tahoe door, I think that the Police Man realizes how much work is involved in this ordeal. Without a smile OR any show of emotion, he tells us to forget it. WHEW!!!! That would have taken at least an hour to unload and reload this truck to show him a stupid $89 printer! We hop back into the truck and are back on our way. I sure hope that these checkpoints are not common.

As we are driving out of nowhere pops up a little town, no bigger than probably the size of my thumb, with food vendors that line both sides of the road. The vendors run out into the streets as cars pass by trying to get them to purchase their goods. Dave just keeps driving. I didn't care if I was not hungry, I just wanted to talk to them so that I could practice my spanish. We kept driving when all of a sudden to my eyes appear...a drive through beer barn!!!! Holy crap...are we still in Texas???? Dave drives right past it but I demanded:hammer: that he turn around. I needed batteries for my camera and maybe a red bull. Bought 4 batteries. Good thing that I am smart enough to test them out first, since they did not hand them to us in the packaging, because all four were dead!!!:mad: Did they really think that we'd get so far down the road to realize that they gave us their batteries that they probably dug from the trash and we would not care? WRONG my friend. This gringa is not always that naive.

Finally find Hwy 180. Oh God please be careful on this road! When you first enter onto it, it appears to be freshly paved and in excellent condition. BAM!!! Holy crap...did we just fall off the side of this mountain and now I'm being punished because I did not die instantly???? About 2 or 3 miles into the newly paved road was a quasi-paved road that was barely a one lane one. Holy cow...this is terrible!!! 4 miles of this. It did not get much better though...2 lane road winding through mountains. Scary at times! Please NEVER drive this stretch of hwy at night. This is dangerous even during the day.

The flippin birds have given me the most anxiety throughout this trip though. My theory that so many bugs decide to fly north, and we, as drivers of the road, try to help them out by allowing them access to our windshield to splatter all over is really panning out to be a good theory. Because there are so many bugs alongside the road playing chicken with the cars that drive by, the birds hang out on the side of the road eating the bugs that committ sucide, or shall I say insecticide:devil: . However these stupid birds come within inches of your car! You constantly worry going down the road when you are going to hit a bird. We did not hit one today.
Okay...so now I've seen it all. Driving down hwy 180, in the middle of the most remote, desolate place ever, pops a sign that says "Hotel Yolanda". Next to the sign is an open air tent (roof only) with a bed under the tent! AND...there is someone sleeping in the bed!!!! :jaw-dropping:
Las Palmas...a nice little town, slighly larger than Puerto Moralas but with the same look and feel. Nothing too exciting except that I must say....If pictures are worth a thousand words then smells are worth double that. There are just some spots that you would prefer to be downwind from a pig farm in the middle of August in Texas. What is up with this smell???? Don't think I will stop to smelll the sewage, uh, I mean roses, today. Will try again tomorrow.

Finally we land on a nice 4 lane road but the signs says Cd Victoria the other way that we were traveling!!! Did we take the scenic route??? Holy crap...I bet we did! Darn maps...I will not ever buy one online again! I am not certain that we did but my map did say that hwy 180 was a 4 lane road when it was barely two! OH Dear Lord...where are we at???? Finally saw signs to Tampico. Whew. We're there. Let's drive into town and see what other hotels we can find. Let's just say an hour and half of driving in traffic that resembled NYC was enough for me. We headed back near the edge of town and settled into another Hampton Inn. Very nice. $118 per night but includes internet, free drinks for happy hour and breakfast. So that is where I sit right now...enjoying my maragarita and taking advantage of the internet while staring at my husband on the other side of this table hoping he knows how thankful I am to him for getting us here safely.

Our drive to Playa- DAY 1

Noon...right on time. This is the time that we anticipated to leave Dallas.This is a very large accomplishment for us since we are the couple that you see running to their flight, yelling down the corridor to please hold the plane! I think that we were right on time because we were truly excited about starting this journey. We had a countdown...3 days and a wake up, 2 days and a wake up. Well last night we only had a wake up left to go and we were completely ready. No last minute, oh my God stuff to do today other than go into work for a few hours. It was nice to be prepared before this morning. Everything was done. The Tahoe was loaded including the tightly wrapped headboard for our bed and the black rooftop cargo bag that was to ride on top. Lets just say plastic wrap and duck tape are great things to have laying around the house! Okay...we looked like the Clampits but who cares...we were ready to get on the road (coming from someone that cannot stand to be locked in a car for more than 3 hours). We measured the top of the truck to the ground just in case we came upon a bridge we had to go under. 2.5 meters. So we hopped into the Redneck mobile, of course the Redneck himself was behind the wheel (Dave), we said our little prayer that we always say right before a trip then headed off to the Freeway.

What a great trip this is going to be. Dave did such a fantastic job loading and packing and securing that I had the utmost confidence that I was going to worry about nothing today. But then we got on the freeway, we could only go 65 mpg or the Tahoe would get squirrley since it was so heavily loaded. The truck sounded like it was going to fall apart! What was that noise and is it going to stop? Dave assured me that it was just the plastic that wrapped the headboard flapping in the wind. Was the headboard and the rooftop cargo bag going to fly off the truck? What about the bikes hanging from the back? After debating on whether or not to stop and check...the noise FINALLY went away and all was good. (Sigh).

We are driving down the road, enjoying the silence with our thoughts bouncing through our heads, not really believing that we are finally doing this when all of a sudden, my uptopia was interrupted. Why was there so much traffic at noon???? Why are we in a traffic jam??? I don't care if it is Dallas and it's to be expected; don't these people know I need to get to Mexico?

After what seemed like eternity, we were in San Marcus. If you know nothing about San Marcus, just remember that it has, what appears to be, miles of outlet shopping just off of the freeway. Every store imaginable including some of my favorites. If only I could just stop for a moment...I could save alot of money here. But the inevitable happened...Dave said no way! Damn the luck!

By 5 pm we were in San Antonio. God I need out of this truck and I need a drink. We got to stop at a gas station and get diet cokes. That's okay...Susango said she was drinking two for me anyhow.
http://i236.photobucket.com/albums/ff31/macanded/Drive%20to%20Playa/Redneckmobile.jpg

So we are driving down I-37, almost to Corpus, which by the way is the LONGEST, MOST BORING stretch of hwy that was ever built with nothing but mesquite trees to look at, when all of a sudden a small SUV with a rooftop cargo box and a man-made trailer came zipping by. I wonder if they are moving to Mexico, I asked. 2 seconds later, a minivan with the same cargo load on top and the exact same man-made trailer behind it passed us by, too. Confirmed...they MUST be moving to Mexico! I said, "let's keep up with them" but they were hauling butt. Us...well we are still stuck at 65 mpg! Future friends gone forever.

Still driving, I come to the realization that bugs must migrate north at night. Maybe they are migrating north because they instictively know that it is their duty to go north, to the colder states, to die off. I'm okay with that thought. I don't like bugs. However, I really wished they would have picked another day to go north because I am traveling south...perhaps I should think of it as my good deed for the day because I prevented a gazillion bugs from taking the time and energy to fly such a long way and allowed them all to splat all over my windshield! We determined that everyone that was pulled over on the side of the hwy with their hazzards flashing had also allowed them to utilize their windshields to expedite the dying process. Gosh we are such nice people for doing them that favor!

Finally made it to Brownsville. We had no idea where we were going to stay despite that I printed off a list of hotels in every major town/city that we could stay in all the way to Playa. We settled on a Hampton Inn. We were lucky to find this place. The room was $109 with free internet and breakfast but the best thing about it was the reservation guy at the front desk. He saw that we had two bikes on the back of the truck and insisted that we park up under the entrace way (the covered driveway area into the hotel where you drive right by the front door). That way he could keep an eye on our bikes for us while we slept. He sounded geunine enough and regardless of what happens, I still deeply appreciate the kind gesture.
http://i236.photobucket.com/albums/ff31/macanded/Drive%20to%20Playa/parkingspotfortruck.jpg

Bud Light in hand I think that at the end of this very long drive so far, I can say that I saw parts of Texas that I've never seen and I didn't bestow my vast knowledge of driving skills upon my dear husband. All in all, I would say that this was a very good day!

Tomorrow morning up at 6 am and off to the border by 7. Customs opens at 8 and I want to be in the front of the line with anxiety. We will be driving to Tampico. Let's just hope we get the green light.Tomorrow I will post day two with very detailed information and lots of pictures. Stay tuned...