We Made it to Texas!!!

WHERE ARE WE?  Magnolia Beach, Texas

We were up and at it early again today.  Although we love Mexico, there is that excitement to get out of there before anything happens.  Breakdowns can take days even weeks to fix, and crooked cops can make life interesting.  Would we ever be in any bodily danger??  Nope!  Mexicans are as kind as they come and if you mind your own business, all they will ever do is try to talk you out of some cash.  If you want to give it to them go ahead or if you want to stare them down, they will go away probably, but not before wasting a few hours of your time.  The roads were especially busy today with trucks and at one toll booth, there was a line up at least 5 miles long.  We went around it on another road but I'm not sure we saved any time.  We were still over an hour getting through.

Archie was restless today for some reason too.  He is not acclimatized to the travelling yet and wonders what is happening. 

We stopped for gas and some lunch at a little Pemex and to just take a break.  With all the trucks roaring around you, the driving is quite intense.  The only saving fact are the roads which are in good shape.

The farther north we travelled, the more desert like the terrain became.  Lots of dust and the area is a popular area for mining cement for concrete which makes it even dustier.

                                      

No matter how far north we travelled, the sense of Mexico was still there with the squatty little houses and shops along the side of the road.  Lots of vendors out selling their wares.

Another sign of our northern movement was the Burger King along the road.  It was tough to pass it by.  We also saw a Church's Chicken at a truck stop.

A huge tire out in the middle of the field.  It was probably 40 feet tall.

There was one neat tunnel along the way.  They certainly have the concrete skills in Mexico to make really solid infrastructure at a reasonable cost.

Archie finally gave up on watching stuff and had a nice little relax on the dash. 

And then we made it to the Columbia Bridge border into the USA.  We pulled up behind a long line of trucks which was not moving and thought we would be here till tomorrow.  A border guy pulls up and motions us into the extreme left hand land which was empty, and told us to proceed.  We passed by I bet 2 miles of trucks parked two lanes wide and we rolled right up to the Banjercito to cancel our TIPs.  (Temporary Import Permits).  We have to have these on our vehicles while we are in Mexico.  We pay a $450 dollar deposit upon entering Mexico for this and they refund the deposit when we leave, so it is important to stop and cancel it.   This whole process took about 10 minutes for both Harold and I.  We then moved up to the US customs where we took about 10 more minutes to answer a couple questions and have a quick peek in the fridge.  Then we were off into Texas.  I might add that they had no urge to see dog papers or vaccine passports.  The hype of Covid is over down in Mexico as well as the USA.  Its time Canada got with the program!!!  Our country is in a huge power struggle under the guise of a pandemic.  Things need to change!!  Just my opinion.  We knew we were in Texas because we began to see the oil rigs drilling away.  Texas Crude!!!  Texas Gold!!!   

We committed the cardinal RV sin tonight and drove for about 2 hours in the dark.  We got to stop at DQ for a good old burger to keep us going for a couple hours.  The roads were good and we only saw a couple dozen deer!!!  We made it to Magnolia beach about 11 pm and picked a spot on the beach beside an RV that ran his Harbour Freight generator ALL night.   Goodnight!!!