Potatoes, Eggs and Onions

We are having these prohibited items for dinner tonight. If we can't eat it all tonight and tomorrow morning, we will give it away when we leave here in the morning. We do not want to have anything questionable when we get to the border or that sends us to the dreaded Agricultural Inspection that once took over two hours.

Parked For The Night

We are parked in our favorite Pemex between Monterrey and Neuvo Laredo. It is very hot (over 100F) but the restaurant is cool and they have a salad bar for 39 pesos. We will gas up in the morning and head out fairly early.

Here we are at our farewell seafood dinner last night at Arturo's in El Alamo. Great meal for a great price. I had to arm wrestle Juan for the bill. I will let him win when we are at a more expensive place next year!

Heading To Texas

Our little vacation within a vacation is over and it is time to head towards the border. Chris and Juan are heading home this morning. I can't believe we have been here a full week! Time flies when you are with friends. We all went out for a seafood dinner last night and then retired early so we would be ready to travel.

We will not make it all the way to the border for two reasons. Samana Santa is over today so the roads will be busy and worse, the border crossing will be a madhouse as Mexican Americans return to the USA after the holiday. Also, for a lot of reasons, we have a policy of only crossing borders in the morning.

There is a large Pemex along the route between Monterrey and Laredo where there is a store and restaurant.  That is where we will spend the night. Laredo, Texas tomorrow!

Semana Santa

Semana Santa starts today. This is "Holy Week" in Mexico and is the time when groups and families head out to play loud Music and to party, the things normally associated with praising the lord. It started getting pretty busy around here today with all the surrounding palapas being taken over by campers. We are lucky that we are in Campestre Monte Sur where the management takes security and the rules seriously. Security patrols are making the rounds asking people to keep the music down and we shall see how well they enforce the ten o'clock "quiet time". 

Most of the noise is coming from the central area where they have a fire going and a live band. This is a nightly thing and we have been over there three nights. Lots of fun but tonight we are attempting to have a quiet night.

The weather is good. Cloudy but relatively warm. It is presently nine o'clock and is still 69F outside. We are now planning to leave here on Sunday.

Check Chris' Blog for a more Mexican point of view of the evening. Chris and Juan are sitting in their palapa next door watching the action and sipping a vodka while Norma and I are watching some taped episodes of Law and Order. 

Hate - Then and Now

Over half a century of hate! What is so hard about Equal = Equal? Get used to it!

Check sign above. Typical of many haters, she is also illiterate.

Vegetating

We are just relaxing here for a few days. It rained all night and into this morning but has stopped now. Chris and Juan have driven home for a few hours (they live 45 minutes away) to pick up some stuff and for Chris to download some work. He does editing and his work is emailed to him. We were talking about going out to a local restaurant after they get back later this afternoon.

My Banda Ancha expired last night and I tried to renew for a shorter time than the one month I usually renew for by giving Chris 200 pesos to apply to my account at an OXXO store, I then sent my text message but it tells me that selection is not valid. I am using my “gift” time which is used up very quickly at one peso per megabyte. I think I have about 800 pesos in that account. maybe I will get Chris or Juan to call Telcel for me later to see what my options are.

In the meantime, it is a lazy day. The park here is deserted for now but should start filling up as Semana Santa (Holy Week) starts Thursday and Mexicans flock to resorts and campgrounds. This usually means late night partying but one of the rules strictly enforced here it the 10:00 PM “Quiet Time” so we should be OK.

Ha! My Banda Ancha is working again. 1 GB for 7 days. 169 pesos. That should see us out of Mexico.

Photo blatantly stolen from Chris’ Blog:

Campestre Monte Sur

We arrived here at about four after taking the mountain road (Mex 58) from Mex 57 over to Linares. Chris worried that the road might bother us but being from BC, we are used to mountain driving and this road was not bad at all! The first half was really good and it was actually hard to keep under the 100 KPH speed limit. It then got a little rough and the little Induction Stove we store in the overhead area fell. It might have been seriously damaged if it had not hit Norma on the way down but luckily, it survived! Oh yes, Norma has a nice bruise on her arm and shoulder but she will heal ;)

Here is part of a group of maybe a hundred horsemen on the road. These are real cowboys, no rhinestones here!

We had a little difficulty finding the RV park as the entrance is not at KM 196 like their webpage says but at KM 195 so we drove past the entrance before we even started looking for it. After a couple of kilometers we asked a cop who told us it two kilometers further up the road. Wrong directions! Three kilometers later we stopped at a Pemex and another customer sent us back in the right direction.

We pulled up to the gate and the guard, who was expecting us, sent us over to where Chris and Juan were parked and had saved a spot for us. We are staying for free as Chris and Juan had some complimentary guest passes they let us use but the rates here are very reasonable. You have to know a member to get in but the cost for overnight parking is only 65 pesos per person per night and includes access to the pools. We have low amperage power but no other hookups. This is fine because it is cool enough that we do not need A/C. I understand there is a dump station for us to use when we leave.

We will stay a few days and get ready for our return to the USA.

Another RV'er had problems crossing into Texas at Columbia Crossing on Friday so I am trying to get some details. It looks like they have changed where RV's enter AGAIN. They were forced to back up out of the lane they were in and go somewhere else. We cannot back up because of the dolly so we have to know in advance which lane or entry point we have to use. This will be the third change in five years that we know of. Sometimes we have to use the car lanes and other times, the commercial truck entrance. They never put up signs or lane markings and then they get angry when we guess the wrong one. I wrote a letter of complaint last year and got a nice reply thanking me for pointing out the problem. It evidently did not help.

Heading North

We are heading out soon to meet our friends Chris and Juan at their membership RV park, the Campestre Monte Sur. It will be a fun couple of days catching up with their latest adventures.

It is located on Mex 85 between Linares and Montemorelos, south of Monterrey. Google Maps says it is a three hour drive so we hope to be there around one or two.

After the weekend we will have to find a place to park for a day or two to get things ready to cross the border.

Fifty Years Ago Today

The Beatles released their very first album, "Please Please Me". Sales were slow to start but soon, history was written! I was in grade 12 and remember being at a party where someone had this album.

Blue Screen of Death

That was scary! I just got the Blue Screen of Death and my computer shut down and would not restart. It offered to do a "Startup Repair", buzzed along for a while and then told me it had to restore from a previous set point. A few minutes later it restarted and all seems normal!

I hate it when these things happen!