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December 26, 2006 Christmas is over for another year and we are ready for the road. As we have no shopping plans, Boxing day is a travel day. Our plan is to start driving south and keep rolling until we can safely fill the trailers water tanks with water. Global warming was on our side this trip. We drove the length of Illinois and crossed the Mississippi into Missouri today. We head for a Flying J truck stop where the showers are perfect and they don't mind RVs parking for the night. This is the most efficient kind of stop when distance is the goal. There's background noise of trucks all night, but at least it is warm enough to sleep in the trailer. December 27, 2005 It's not much fun hanging around a truck stop. Actually that's also part of the distance strategy. If you're not having fun where you are, get in the truck and drive! We drive slowly but steadily across Arkansas and locate another Flying J in Texarcana Texas. Nice showers. December 28, 2005 The temperature is truly moderate now and it's time to fill the larder. We like to joke about Wal-Mart shoppers, but that's a no! no! today. We head for the nearest Wal-Mart. I've been thinking about having the oil changed in the truck to get 20W-50 for the hot weather and mountain climbs and as they might say in Quebec "voila", the Wal-Mart has an RV oil change bay. Obviously this saves us un-hooking the trailer and we can shop while the oil is changed. The blue-uniformed associate who greets us is quite definitely a Mexican. Yep, we learn that he's from Chihuahua. And turns out to be the most cheerful associate in the entire store. If Congress builds their border fence to keep the Mexicans out, W's buddies in Texas are going to have to start changing their own oil. Or ship their trucks to China for an oil change. Good on 'em. We stock the fridge, switch it onto gas and roll! Texas is as dry as, well, Texas. The grass is yellow and the grass fires are burning everything up. The highways are mega lanes wide and the sport utes block the sun at midday. The Texas sunset picture is red with the smoke from the fires. With such a late start we can manage to get barely half way across Texas and we stop at - you know where, don't you? I predict the fifty first state will be the state of "Flying J". December 29, 2005 Our 18 wheeler alarm clock wakes us for an early start and we head for the border town of Eagle Pass. Nuevo Laredo was a real trial last year and Brownsville is not a place we feel any need to visit twice in the same lifetime. Once south of San Antonio, the countryside is particularly desolate and it seems that we are already in Mexico. We arrive in Eagle Pass at dark and stop for gas and directions to the nearest RV park. We're told there is one on the main highway right in town just a couple miles from the border. We locate the sign which welcomes overnight guests. It's really a mobile home park for mobile homes that don't look particularly mobile. We drive in. I have a momentary lapse and walk over to the trailer nearest the entrance where the door is open. I have clearly forgotten that everyone here is armed. The episode ends well, I'm told the owner is not around and they don't know when he will be around. We pick an empty spot where I can point the truck in the direction of the exit and pull in. The truck stays hooked up; we plan for a very early and very fast getaway. I can't attest to it, but I'm quite sure the Clampetts must have stayed here on their way to Hollywood. December 30, 2005 We must have eaten something. We usually do in the morning, but all I remember about that morning is getting out of trailer park hell as the sun was coming up. We reach the border in a few minutes and drive past the US station. There is quite a bit of auto and foot traffic coming into the US. People headed for work. The Rio Grande is not particularly grand. Basically a wide, dry ditch with a trickle of water. The Mexican name which is Rio Bravo del Norte isn't much better. I would have called it Dry Creek and been done with it. But that wouldn't have played very well in Hollywood, would it? We know we are on the Mexican side when we encounter our first tope. For those who have never seen one, it is a kind of asphalt telephone pole across the road. Go slow or go to the repair shop. We get the "green light" which means customs will not be looking at our stuff and seconds later find ourselves on the streets of Piedras Negras, Mexico. We proceed on a wide street through a pleasant town that doesn't seem to have the squalor of the other border towns we have been to and are on our way! We drive for quite a few kilometres looking for the Banjercito where vehicle permits and tourist cards are issued. It seems a bit strange to be driving around in a foreign country where no one has even said hello yet. The Banjercito is a good introduction to Mexican procedures. Go to this wicket with your passports. Go to that wicket for photocopies, be sure to have some pesos, by the way. Go to another wicket with your truck ownership. Back for some photocopies. Back with passports. Back for copies. You get the picture. An hour and a few pesos later it's back to the truck and off again! Just behind the Banjercito there is a customs post with the green light red light thing, but the lights are off! How should I know whether to stop or not? The customs guy waves us over. We expect he will want to search the trailer or the truck or us or everything, and he calls his buddies over. I open the trailer for him and he asks "how much is the trailer worth!?". He wants to buy it! We just have to say "los siento" because we really need it to sleep in for the next three months or so. He understands and we drive off, border crossing formalities completed. It's a long haul to Matehuala, but we know there's a good camp there called "Midway", where we have stayed before. December 31 - January 3 2006 We stay in Matehuala for five nights in the campground at a good hotel. Mostly we are working on computer work and have a nice look around town. The truck and trailer are a bit shaken up from the first day in Mexico, mostly because we drove a bit faster than the road conditions indicated. I tightened a couple of things, solved a water leak in the trailer and had a small welding job done on the exhaust system. January 4, 2006 We have a pleasant drive to San Miguel de Allende, the "gringo capital" of Mexico, and check in to another of our favorite trailer parks from last year. There are a few other campers here including Felix and Gislene from Montreal who we met last year in Yucatan. Small world. A couple of days later we meet Harvey who we recognise from Kingston. Later in the week we meet a fellow we know from Bloomfield, Ontario in the town square. Smaller world. January 5, 2006 In Mexico, Santa Clause is nothing but an ad man's dream. The people aren't much interested in the jolly old Canuck. Who they are interested are the Three Wise Men. January 6 is dia de los Reyos Magos (Three Kings Day) which makes the night of the 5th of January kind of equivalent to Christmas eve. The square is full of people and there are locations where three kings in full dress are having the little ones sit on their knee for a picture. Every day we experience fresh surprise! January 6, 2006 On the Day of the Kings, the children receive their presents and every business has a traditionsl, round, braided cake on offer to customers. We go into a shop where we had been invited and cut off a slice. In Jean's piece was the prize, plastic baby. She is now on the hook to throw a party on Feb 2, which is another special day the name of which I forget. I would need a 365 day calendar to keep track of them, but the locals always know what to do. Usually it involves fireworks. January 7-15, 2006 We do the tourist things. Eat at some decent restaurants, go to "The March of the Penguins" which we missed in Kingston and obtain a "Blockbuster" card. Maybe we will use it when we get home. Yes, Mexico is different, but at the same time so similar. Best to everyone,
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