Day 1 in Mexico

WHERE ARE WE? La Roja Oxxo, Saltillo, Nuevo Leon, Mexico

We were up and on the road by 7:30 am.  We had to drive 50 kms to Puente Internacional Solidaridad-Colombia Bridge to cross into Mexico and get our FMM and TIPs.  The Aduana opens at 8 am so we wanted to be there around that time.  The traffic was quite busy at that time of day so we were a little late actually.

We got to the border an all parked up in a big parking lot.  Normally someone comes out to inspect the trailers and trucks but not today.  No one seemed interested in us at all.

We did pretty good getting all our stuff.  Len and Judith had a couple glitches while us and Jeff and Fany breezed right through.  Bob and Cindy ran into a bit of a glitch and we figure they were just the brunt of a "I want to make you wait" agent.  And wait we did.  It was 11:30 before they finally stamped everything and sent us on our way.  That is just how Mexico is!!!  Nobody is in a rush.  

We met a lovely lady named Tracey and her dog Doyle and another friend at the border and they asked if they could tag along for a couple days.  Of course they can and we found them to be quite nice.  We always like when people tag along with us.  That's how we make new friends.  Only picture was of Doyle.

We had a fairly long day planned today and with the delay we were pushing it to get to our destination of Matehuala by dark.  This was our route today to the Oxxo.

We had good roads all day with a little bit of fog in the morning.

And somewhere along the way Fany spotted a Mickey Mouse cactus!!!

It is always nice to get a glimpse of the mountains.  Although a lot of trip is on flat land, we can always see mountains on both sides of us along the way.

There are always interesting things along the way in Mexico.  

Not everyone was interested lol

load security

random feet

We did have a couple alternate stopping spots for tonight, which we actually utilized.   We got down the road about three hours when there was a call on the radio that Lens diesel truck had gone into limp mode.  He had had this happen before and because of that carries spare fuel filters.  

Off with the old filter

Len has done this filter change before

He changed them out and we got going again.  We were going around Monterrey by now and it went in limp mode again.  Same process and got going again.  This time didn't go very far and it did it again.  Len was getting frustrated and we all agreed that it was a problem that needed someone to look at it.  That is when we made the decision for 3 of the convoy to go on ahead to the alternate stop and I would stay with Len in an attempt to get it fixed.  So we limped down the road a few miles and pulled in to an Oxxo.  Lo and behold there was a Mechanico in a little shack and he said, Sure I will fix it.  So he pulled Len into a tight little ally way and took the filter off and grabbed the spare and Len's wrench and took off to look for parts.  

That was the last we saw of him and the other guy in the shop said he probably wouldn't be back till morning.  Well that settled that, we were spending the night.  We got all set up in a corner of the parking lot near where Len was and made ready to spend the night on the side of the road somewhere near Saltillo.  To be honest, I never felt at all unsafe.  There were lots of trucks around but that made for a noisy night with backup beeps and dogs barking.

We got some pictures from the other 3 rigs and they are all safe and sound at the Parador Turistico San Pedro.   It is a big parking lot behind a service station and hotel.  Sleep well!!  Good Nite!!