It’s now one whole day since I drove somewhere and I can still feel the wheels turning under me, but that too will pass – I guess. Careening down the road at 75+ in the Jeep is somewhat less comfortable than in the Mark VIII, but reaching the final destination in one piece is the ultimate goal and by that measure the trip was a success.

Monday, day 1 started at 4:30 as the alarm announced it was way too early to get up, even Max was still asleep. I hit the road at 5:15 to get ahead of the Guadalajara traffic and that was a good plan. In  the pre-dawn about 120 miles out there were suddenly people walking toward me along the side of the road, I first thought it might be people walking to catch a bus to work or something. But the numbers grew and over the miles there were hundreds and finally I decided it was some sort of religious pilgrimage (they’re big on that stuff down here). Being a Baptist I didn’t have a clue, but I knew that it isn’t a Baptist thing to walk in 40 degree darkness along a Mexican highway, so after some careful consideration I guessed it might be in honor of St. Hub, the patron saint of lost hubcaps and these folks were recreating his tireless efforts walking the roadsides looking for lost hubcaps – or not.

Just as I exited Lagos de Marenos the sun was exactly in my eyes and I had to make a sudden decision and I went right (it’s a natural choice for a Conservative) about 5 miles up the road was a sign to “Leon” – wrongo, do a Returno and back to the point of error and take a left which put me back on the road with the oncoming faithful. This part of the trip is the worst, a narrow two lane more-or-less paved road winding over hill and gulley. By now the faithful were awake and had massed in large walking groups holding flags and religious standards and by now there were no walking areas beside the road so they were on the road and we came to a stop. Some local policía had joined in and shut down traffic to one lane and we moved to the other lane. The oncoming traffic was already backed up a half mile, but the faithful were happy and so was I as we were allowed to drive on.

By now the next challenge appeared in the form of fog and of course being impatient we were passing in the fog hoping that the oncoming trucks had their lights on – this game of Mexican “chicken” is highly exhilarating and NOT recommended for the sane among us.

I needed to fill up midway but managed to space out that small requirement and after running the overhead console readout to “0 miles left to empty” and having no idea where the next gas station might be, I elected to return to the last vestige of civilization and backtracked 13 miles to the nearest Pemex. (remember this, it will come up again)

We careened on through the morning across the vast open spaces, past the “snake people” and through Monterey (I think). The pollution and smog were so bad you honestly couldn’t see much of anything, they really need to get a grip on this situation and get over burning everything any time anywhere, it has to be creating serious breathing and health problems for a lot of people gringo and “other”.

The trick to rapid tránsito here is to take the autopistas or coutas (toll roads) vs. the “libre” or free roads. And I was making great time even with my minor distractions. The total tolls to Neuvo Laredo are about $796p or about $73USD and worth every penny. I had stocked up on pesos before leaving, so I had a drug lord’s wad available for proper dispersal.

Every once in a while you hit a check point like one in the middle of nowhere, they wanted to know if I had any food or plants? – the more I think of it they didn’t look very official, maybe they were just hungry, I said “no” and they waved me on. Then the military checkpoint where they have some very serious guys dressed in military green with very big guns – there’s something about an armed group of Mexican’s that brings on an instant case of “humble” in me, but they smiled and waved me on, guess old gray haired gringo’s are out of season.

Apparently I missed the memo on navigating through Neuvo Laredo to the International Bridge (this was my first time) as I suddenly was in a mostly residential section with no signs directing me? Now, it was only 5pm so I wasn’t too worried, had it been later at night the anxiety level would have been significantly higher – more like panic. At that point I fell back on basic instinct, I knew the border was north, so I started navigating by the car compass, I stuck it on N and pushed on and eventually I popped out about 1 block from Bridge #1 and a nice man with a very large automatic rifle directed me to the proper lane – I didn’t hesitate. As I was sitting in line waiting to enter the homeland it was exactly 5:15, 12 hours and 700 miles from the Lake.

As some of you might remember I’ve been running around with invalid plates since last October, so as I approached the American side I was a bit concerned and sure enough the Customs agent ran the plate and no “wants or warrants” showed up. I was also carrying two paintings for my neighbor to ship back to Canada and the agent took one look and said “have a nice day” and I was back on home ground – TEXAS.

Let the fun begin, first get some American $$$ and head for the nearest Taco Bell! – the adventure continues in the next edition titled “It’s blowing the fuzz off peaches for gosh sakes”.