Wednesday, December 14, 2011

Villa Corona to ?

Well, this was a day I am not anxious to repeat!

We left Villa Corona at about 10:30 and headed for Guadalajara and the highway to Queretaro. Ms. Garmin wanted us to drive through the center of the second largest city in Mexico but lucky for me mom didn't raise any dumb kids so I turned onto the periferico and ignored all her pleas to turn around. she finally caught on and directed us to take Mex 15D. Norma was looking at the maps and thought we should be on Mex 90 but Ms. Garmin had our destination locked in and both highways headed east so we let her do her thing. Bad decision!

After a hundred KM or so she told us to turn left onto a narrow secondary road that connects with Mex 90. This road went through a small town on the way. When I say through, I mean through! The road got narrow and by the time I passed the "No Trucks Allowed" sign I was committed! We were on a very busy, narrow street with cars double parked and trucks unloading. Cars and buses were trying to pass me on the right but there was no room so they just beeped their horns. Ms Garmin then told me to turn left onto an impossibly narrow street and I had no choice but to ignore her. She objected loudly and then told me to turn right onto an almost as narrow street heading steeply downhill. The street ahead was getting even more congested as it got closer to the center of town so I turned down the hill. Luckily there was little traffic coming towards me as I took up 2/3 of the street and I could see a divided avenue at the bottom. Sure enough she now told me to turn onto that thankfully much wider street. We crawled along behind dozens of trucks for a good hour until we got on the road headed to Mex 90. We arrived at a 24 hour Pemex that has lots of parking and stopped for the night. I have no idea where we are. It looks like we will be safe here and I will walk over th the gas bar when the night shift starts and give them some pesos to watch out for us.

It is 91F outside and 81F inside.

I know your day was better than ours! Good night!

9 comments:

  1. wow that was some trip...no wonder your not anxious to repeat the day's drive...have a good rest tonight...

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  2. Ouch!! That is why we use CPS instead of GPS!!! At least I can see where we are headed. Good save. Relax and enjoy some brew!! You deserve it.

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  3. That's why I suggested Hacienda Contreras...

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  4. Would love to have been a fly on the wall (RV) to hear what you and Norma were saying to each other during this!
    Kelly

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  5. I hate madge (magellan) for that, she often turned us around all over the place before we realized she was taking us the wrong way!
    Coming back from Houston to Alberta was certainly a chore for that!
    You get so turned around, at least there was no low bridges there!

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  6. Come on, a bad day in Mexico has got to be better than a good day in Canada! ;)

    I love that you have no idea where you are. This has been your most exciting post ever! Good luck getting back on track tomorrow.

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  7. Our GPS goddess (we call her Rhoda for ROAD-DUH!).

    Rhoda is not in tune to Mexico as well as she might be - She is 85-90% reliable in the United States - but she has her homework set out for Mexico.

    Do not give up on her - she has a LOT of good qualities.

    In other words Stay Tuned to your girl - but question authority - certainly in Mexico.

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  8. Remember...you have the 'Detour" button to fall back on, si? :)

    Also, use the view map option to see the route it takes, before moving the rig. Roads on the map change colour, and size. That's an indicator to watch for.

    While today was a bit more exciting than expected, I agree with Rae that being 'lost' is a great thing! You may run into something fabulous because of it...

    Cheers!

    Rob

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  9. Yes, the GPS is far from perfect, even in the US. It doesn't know the size of your vehicle and thus takes you on some roads that ar enot appropriate. Ours took us through downtown Toledo Ohio on the way back to Canada from the US, no fun hauling a 5th wheeler!.

    Now, I always plot, check and print out the route on Streets and Trips, if the GPS deviates we follow the S&T routes, the GPS will come back into line. There are detailed PDF files of Mexico you can download off the net, those or Roji could help you.

    Al (almcc)

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