Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Tampico to Rio Verde

After a quick breakfast we got off to a fairly early start this morning. We found the Tampico Bypass described in the Church’s book and made the u-turn into the Pemex station to enter the Liberamento. As I made the turn, we noticed a four or five inch dropoff from the pavement of the highway onto the gravel in front of the Pemex. I slowed down as much as I could and we made the turn with a lot of twisting of the motorhome and banging as the car dolly bottomed out (for the thousandth time this year)!

The Church’s instructions were perfect and we completed all the unmarked turns for the Bypass and soon found our way to Mex 70 headed towards San Luis Potosi. This road was not bad for the first half or so when it changed to a narrow, winding road full of potholes and washboard climbing up some pretty steep hills. The V10 got a good workout on many of these and the brakes equally so on the accompanying downhill runs. Claude had a little easier time with his Mercedes diesel. We also noticed the difference between the gas and the diesel when we stopped for gas! I took over $1000 Pesos while Claude filled up for $360! We both drove the same distance at the same speed. To be fair to the Ford though, Claude is 24 feet compared to my 31 and is not towing a car. Still……. Three times the cost…..

We arrived in Rio Verde at about four and, after many sets of questions and instructions found the local Bodega Aurrera, the Mexican Wal-Mart where we are parked for the night. Claude, whose Spanish is much better than mine, asked the manager if we could park and we were immediately granted permission. We are in the back part of the parking lot and I think it will be very quiet. We went shopping in the store and stocked up on a few things, including some nice shrimp that we fried up for dinner. It was another great day and we have covered a lot of ground in the past two days.

Tomorrow will find us in Matehuala, near the unique little Puebla of Real de Catorce. This is an old mining town where many movies were filmed and the Puebla has not changed much since it’s early days. It will be fun to explore. Perhaps there will even be Internet available tomorrow…

2 comments:

  1. Enjoy reading travels from here. Our neighbors left this AM so the park is more empty.

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  2. I recommend you to visit the "Huasteca Potosina" Is a region of San Luis Potosí and part of Querétaro. There are a lot of water, a few water falls and many beatiful places to enjoy where you can get a refreshing shower. Spring is the best season to be there!!!!

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