Well, I’ll start this post off by saying that I’m writing this from a LaQuinta Inn in Laredo, Texas. If you haven’t been to Laredo, don’t put it on your bucket list. BTW…if you travel with pets, LaQuinta’s rock. All of them, coast to coast, accept pets…dogs, cats, birds, you name it, they take it. And cheerfully….you don’t even have to sneak in the side door after checking in….not that we’ve ever done such a thing.

Yesterday, we drove from Ajijic to the little town of Matehuala. All in all, it was a pretty good drive. Most of the roads were good. Late in the afternoon, we were dragging as we pulled in to the little town of Matehuala. As we drove into town, things didn’t look good. After nearly a month here, we’ve gotten pretty good at sizing up towns quickly. So picture driving through any poor town in the US and looking for your motel sign. Please Lord, I hope it isn’t that one with the hand-lettered sign out front. And then, as if by a miracle, a huge sign appears on the horizon…..Las Palmas Midway Inn. Yippee!

We pulled into a spotless 1960’s era motel, complete with a miniature golf course, shuffle board courts, a beautiful pool, rooms you drive up to and park beside your door (a luxury I can’t even describe) a huge lobby and a restaurant with an outside patio where you can eat with your pets. Are you kidding me? And this is interior Mexico.

We check in, unload the car, take Tuck for a quick walk and head to the restaurant…starving after a long day with no lunch. Who greets us at the restaurant door but a waiter in a perfectly pressed and starched bright blue jacket, white shirt with a bow tie and black linen slacks. Wait….is this New York? Nope. To say we were speechless is a massive understatement. We were seated outside by the pool and no less than three waiters came over to our table. One seated us, one took our drink order (amazing marguerita’s) and one took our dinner order. Every now and then, the stars align and last night, they did. We had a wonderful meal and were treated like royalty. We don’t know who owns this inn, but whoever does is a rock star. We headed back to the room and took Tuck for a walk around the 5+acre grounds. This morning for breakfast, we had the same wait staff, but all dressed in different colored uniforms. Amazing.

Then, we headed out for the border. We knew it would be a tough day, as between Matahuala and the border at Laredo, there is….basically….nothing. No towns, no gas stations, nowhere to pull off the road….nothing but little villages that cropped up every hour or so. If you have a peanut bladder, you better not travel in Mexico.

As we approached the border crossing, we had a lot of apprehension, as we had heard a hundred stories on what to expect and all were different. Some people said all cars are searched, your papers are scrutinized, your pet needed papers from your USA vet, you needed prescription records from your USA doctor for all non over-the-counter drugs, your visa and passports were examined, your suitcases were searched…the list went on and on. We got everything out and organized before we pulled up to the crossing. Instead of a large building with great signage, we see a very small sign on our left that reads “entrega tus papeles de auto aqui”….aka…surrender your auto papers here. When you enter Mexico, you have to register your car and when you leave you have to turn all the papers back in…or you can never bring another car into Mexico. Sounds like fun, huh? Well, it turned out to be a non-event. We pulled up to the little building and a super nice guy came out and in perfect English said, “ are you surrendering your car permit”? Startled, I said yes we were. He took some pictures of the car and the license plate, scanned the windshield sticker we had been given at our entry and said…”have a nice day”. Boom. Done.

We drove about a quarter mile to the US border crossing and a very serious US army guy inspects our passports, takes some pictures of our car, asks us where we’ve been in Mexico and waves us through with a nice “have a nice day”. And just like that, we’re back in the USA. So…if you hear horror stories of border crossings, don’t believe them. We were treated with total respect and the whole crossing took less than 15 minutes.

Tomorrow we head out for Van Horn, Texas. It’ll be another long day, but the end is in sight.

Peace,

Wayne, Claudia & Tuck (the wonder dog….he never made a peep for 8 hours today)