A Little Trouble Makes Life Interesting

WHERE ARE WE? Larado, Texas, USA

We got up in good time and I got the Stinky Stowed and ready for travel.  The mast I built seems to be working just fine.  It is sure easy to put up and store.  We got on the road by about 8:30.

We have a little over 600 kms to go today.  About half way through today we both said that we will break our trips up into smaller legs from now on if we can.  Here is a map of our trip today.

Our trip today was full of slow downs and major truck traffic with a fair share of accidents.  We were about and hour at one spot and a couple others were 15 to 25 minute delays.   This road is 99 percent truck traffic and they are sometimes almost bumper to bumper going 100 kms or more.  The amount of freight that goes up and down this road in a day is unbelievable.  I often wonder how many of those trucks are carrying drugs of some sort.  It would be tough to screen that many trucks at the border without quite a few slipping through.

One of the accidents had a lot of police and army guys passing on the shoulder and in the ditch.  Most of the highways have a dirt road that runs in the ditch alongside so it is handy for emergency vehicles to get by the traffic.

We saw quite a few multi axle trailers with big vessels on them today.  They must be transporting them south somewhere.

We are always amazed at all the industry in the cities of Saltillo and Monterey.  Monterey is the second largest city in Mexico with Mexico City being the largest.  Guadalajara is number 3!!!

Miles and miles of row housing I guess for the workers in the factories and in the cement industry.   Every house is exactly the same for as far as the eye can see.

And for our daughter Kaitlyn who works in the traffic control world, these delineators were piled in the ditch for a long way.  I would say thousands of them.  There is a big project coming up I guess.  Maybe ATS should bid some jobs in Mexico?

About 150 kms before the border we had a couple guys honk and point at the jeep.  I found a place to stop and found out that one of the jeep brake drums was getting hot.  It was bad enough that it was smoking a bit.  I figured the brake pad must have fell down and was dragging.  I gave it a good go over with the hammer and dug out some brake pad and we continued on for another 30 km or so.  It didn't seem as hot this time and was not smoking.  I hate stopping close to Larado because it is just a bad area to be in supposedly.  I have never had a problem but I pushed on.  I checked one more time, and yes it was hot but still not crazy hot.  We finally made it to the border, and yes it was really hot by now.  We were about 15 minutes turning in our TIPs on the Mexican side, and and another 5 minutes at US  customs and we were off again.  

We were heading to the Welcome Center in Larado which was another 30 kms or so.  It was dark by the time we got a few KMs up the road.  At the border, I notice that the seal on the wheel must have failed from the heat because there was oil on the tire.  By the time we got to the Welcome Center it was really really hot.  I hope we have not caused too much damage.

 The Welcome Center is a really nice spot to check out and a good overnight spot.  We will forget about our trouble till morning and have a good sleep.

We will have the reefer melody tonight for sure.

A little bit of supper, some Survivor and off to bed.  Lots to do tomorrow.  Good Nite!!