Yup, we made it. Another 10.5 hours and we ended up at the USA border in Laredo, Texas. Not too many incidents today. And that is what we were praying for. I’d love to write a nice long post filled with sentimentality about how we will miss Mexico and already don’t like being gone, but I don’t think that will happen. In fact, this might not even be that long of a post. Both kids are already asleep and I am close, but I am trying to stay awake for when Michelle calls me to tell me she and Katria are safe. They’re flight should now be in Calgary (although the airline’s site is not updating the status.)
Highlights of today? Hmmmm, tough to say. Chelsey and Jared were once again awesome. And I consider it especially awesome since it was the second 10 hour day in a row. Driving was pretty much easier today, we did 900+ km’s on 4 lane freeways. I did get a bit annoyed with the constantly changing speed limits on the highways; sometimes it would be 80, than 60, than up to 110 than down to 60 after 100 m for no apparent reason. My biggest pet peeve of the speed limits is probably that the toll highways will allow you to always go 110 or 120; but once you’re off the toll portion the speed limit drops to 80 even though the highway has not changed in quality or size. Then again, I noticed that NO ONE (not even the police) bothered to follow the speed limits. So, as I learned in Mission Training School, be like the culture…
Remember yesterday (for those that bothered to read it) where I mentioned how hard it is to find a decent place to eat along the highways in Mexico. Today (of course) I was proven wrong. At least in the San Luis Potosi area.
It was still morning and we had just had a minor disappointment when we turned onto the toll highway bypassing the city. The disappointment was that we were seeing advertisements for a Subway coming up in a couple of minutes, but then we turned off that highway. Me and the kids were looking forward to grabbing some subs for lunch at a later time. Darn it.
But then we see another Subway advertisement! And there is was, SUBWAY!!! So we pulled over, bought a couple of 30 cm (not a foot long) and put them in the cooler for lunch later. And they were amazing for lunch.
The border crossing was a little odd. Just as we were finally getting to the border (which was tough because I didn’t know we had to drive all the way into Nuevo Laredo in all their traffic. And I have never been to this border crossing so I had no idea where to go) and finding the place to turn in our visas to Mexican authorities, Jared announces that he has to throw up. Oh great, that’s just what I need. A throwing up kid as we come out of swine flu crazed Mexico.
Thankfully it is just a little one which I blame on the sunflower seeds he bought for a snack. Then he’s all good to go.
So ya, our hotel is nice. It is hot and extremly humid in Laredo. I have an extreme dislike for driving here in Laredo. My GPS doesn’t have many addresses for it and it is awfully confusing. They may even be worse than Edmonton for driving, and that’s saying something. We had wanted to get our van into Wal-Mart to get the oil changed, but once we finally found it (long story which I am too bitter to tell, but it involves annoying Laredo roads) and the Lube place closed a half hour earlier.
So tomorrow morning we have an appointment at the local Dodge dealer to check out why my “Service Engine Soon” light has not gone off for 2 months (ya, I’m expecting it to be expensive so please pray for a cool event to happen here), then we will hopefully have time to get an oil change done and then it’s onto the I35 up to San Antonio where we’re planning to catch a matinee of “Monsters vs. Aliens” in 3D.
And that’s that. We’ll write tomorrow from Abilene, Texas.
Ryan, Chelsey and Jared