Hell’s Half Acre

Man, we are just BLOWING through the todo lists!

I found the registro civil to be the most efficient office of government I’ve dealt with yet.  It only took 3 tries (1st to determine WHERE the office was as the ayutamiento website listed it in a previous location; 2nd to determine I was outside office hours and 3rd to get the CURP).  It was fantastically easy – I expected to have to return with some paper I was going to be asked for that I didn’t have, but she just asked for passport and FM3 and within 5 minutes I had a laminated CURP!  So I quickly registered the phone via Internet and was sweet as pie.  As of April, TelCel will terminate service (we’ll see…) on any cell phone which has not been registered.  Unfortunately, you need an FM3 and a CURP to do this.  Luckilly, I already have an FM3, so obtaining the CURP was the last obstacle.

Ellen, who has been dying to get her ear re-pierced (it closed up last August or so) FINALLY made it to the tatoo parlor for the repiercing.  AGain, we went once (it was closed for holiday), a second time (didn’t have the right earrings – needed gold post to prevent oxidation) and finally the 3rd was the charm.

Pike is happily back at Judo and now that we’ve finally gotten Jesse to the doctor, we found that indeed, Dr. Google concurred with Dr. Cuervo that he has Osgood Schlatter.  So now Jesse has to decide if he wants to try Judo again and see if his sensei can figure out a way to protect his knees.  Dr. Cuervo gave us recommendations for a band to keep the tendon in place and maybe we can try that.  The doctor visit was super sweet – so typical of here – I dropped by the hospital one day on the way in for errands (I’m not sure why I never thought to call, I guess we’re just used to having to show up to get anything done) and made an appointment.  We showed up tonight (7pm) and found the hospital FULL of tourists on crutches and sporting slings.  Geez!  Once Dr. Cuervo was ready to see us it only took 20 minutes for the consultation, re-direct to x-ray, x-ray film developing and reconsult with the x-rays.  I swear, the x-rays took about 5 minutes tops!  We never felt rushed and I really liked the doc.  Everything (x-rays and consultation) was about $1054 or $81USD.  How sweet it is!

I think I might start marathon training.  The season here runs November to January so I really can’t do any events until then anyway, so I might as well go for the big one.  We’ll see.  My body might not be able to handle that kind of training, but one thing I’ve definitely determined is that I consider myself a runner.  No longer a swimmer and not simply “exercising” but a runner.  I’m reading blogs and checking shoes and reading race accounts.  I’ve crossed over to the dark side.

And what is this?  I didn’t even make a resolution, but HERE IS ANOTHER POST!!!!

So I got up this morning after at least 6 hours sleep and planned a 3-4 mile run.  Since I’d gotten out of bed yesterday afternoon after being sick in bed since Friday, it made sense, right?  I was ready!  Well, I’m ready to STAND instead of lie in bed, but not quite ready for a run.  Since it is so bitterly cold out (62F/17C right now) I figure I can even run this afternoon.  Normally, that’s just not possible due to the heat, but hey! freezing temperatures do have their merit.

We’ve been looking for a fridge to replace our freezer since we came back and found our fridge had stopped working since September or so.  This was the fridge that survived both Emily and Wilma and then went on to provide a good couple more years service.  It was a small fridge (8-10 ft3) but a trooper.  One of the abaniles next door took it away – I’m sure he’ll be able to coax it through a couple more months of duty.  That leaves us with the fridge occupying the livingroom (as it leaks like a waterfall in the summer which runs directly off the deck into the calica next to the trailer) which, upon return, we found is really a freezer.   I took possession of this fridge when one of our neighbors put in on the road in retirement (she got a new one) and I excitedly ran to Jamie and made him help me bring it in our lovely home.  I t has always had a water problem – but this was in the heat of summer – some 105-115F.  We find that in the winter we can’t dial the temperature low enough.  So the trailer fridge (6 ft3) is the produce fridge and the livingroom fridge is the freezer.   With the aguinaldo payout in mid December, Telebodga put on a huge discount on appliances and we’ve been salivating at the thought of buying a new fridge.  And a mini-split for the trailer and recamera.

We’re limited to 30amps of power here and the limping AC of the trailer uses about 15 of that.  So we’re thinking of replacing it (since it is definitely on its last legs) before the heat of summer with an 8amp mini-split and also replacing the recamera AC as it is slowly dying also (remote doesn’t work, only works at low fan, doesn’t remove the humidity of summer unless the room is never used).  We didn’t realize the draw of the appliances we had been looking at until late in the game.  We have one more trip to Cancun and the Telebodega there before we make a choice.  The Daewoo and Samsung brands are deliciously low in amp draw, at under 2amps for even the largest fridge, but Mabe, at 3amps has a lovely layout.  Now that we found the Xbox 360 (thank you Santa!!) draws FIVE amps of power, we’re watching each and every amp.  I don’t know why we’re dragging our feet on this, if we wait much longer the aguinaldo sales will be gone (they probably left with Xmas) and we’ll have to negotiate really hard to get those same discounts.

Pike had his first back-from-vacation Judo class yesterday and was supremely bummed to find his friends were either still on vacation or had left.  I’m hoping he’ll return to Judo – the dojo could really use the money and he is really talented.  I’m hoping to get him to commit to the month of January and see how that goes.  Course, if he’s not having fun (missing his friends) it really doesn’t make sense to go other than to rid his body of the buildup of testosterone.  I really really really need to get off my ass and get Jesse and appointment with an orthopedist.  He has had knee problems since the summer and I want to make sure that we’ve diagnosed him correctly and he isn’t harboring huge tumors there.  I think I’m just going to go with Hospiten as I never could find the house/office of the other ortho in town.

Jamie fixed the driver’s door on the van!  Ever since Dean, we’ve had a broken driver’s key/lock thingie when our van was broken into in the lot of Costco where we’d evacuated.  To open the driver’s door, you’d have to open the side doors and squeeze over to the driver’s door to release the electric lock (since the passenger door electric controls are broken).  I’ve been too sick to actually check and make sure I understood correctly, but he gave me a key and I’m hoping that means the driver’s door can be opened with a key!  What a miracle!  You know, it really is the little things in life…

I have been having stomach trouble ever since we crossed.  We always eat “off the street” but after 4 months in the nawth, I think we lost all our Mexican bacteria.  It got to the point that I even took a course of raw garlic and things improved.  But I was still occasionally nauseous in the mornings (no, this isn’t going to end THAT way!) and had occasional cramping.  Then I made crack.  Or crap, as we call it.  And I HAD to try some.  Just a smidge of dairy-infused crack, but I couldn’t stop at a smidge, because dairy or no dairy, this stuff was like CRACK!

I’d gotten used to excema and hives from occasional contaminants of dairy – I either didn’t read a package well enough or decided to have something that listed dairy well down the ingredient list – but I’d forgotten the full-fledged effects of pure dairy.  And either I’m paying that price now, or my Mexican bacterias are coming back.

I had planned a 5 mile run this morning and ever since I started logging my miles I get a bit obsessive about wanting to complete the mileage and this morning is no different.  I’d planned x miles for the week and now I’m going to be 5 short.  But luckily, my 1/2 marathon planning is no longer a time-of-the-essence issue because the 1/2 marathon I’d planned to run is in SPAIN!!!  Can you believe it?  I found a reference to it on a Mexican runners site and ASSumed it referred to the Merida in Mexico but I’ve been searching and searching the Mexican running sites even more and I’m almost positive now it is not the Merida of Yucatan state but of Spain.  Oh well.  So I can hang out here in the 3rd of a 12 week training plan for quite a while with no problem.

In other news, we’ve had a reprieve from the construction next door.  They managed to work Xmas eve and New years eve and each and every Sunday since we’ve returned.  Hammering, throwing so much concrete and wood dust into our palapa that it was sometimes hard to breathe and making us hate with the hate of a blinding rage, the whine of their saw.

But since the New Year it has been quiet.  And MUCH cleaner!  Every day I wake without the whine of a saw I wake refreshed.  Even if my stomach doesn’t.

I’m planning on running today’s run tomorrow though.  That ought to take care of the mileage bitch.

So, we’ve (let’s be serious, *I*) have been in an organizational mood lately. I created a huge “honeydo” list (which accidentally ended up as a post) and have been working on both knocking out individual items and adding more. Because as soon as you begin to knock one out, you find about eleven more that you need to add. After some 2-3 years of living with a half-painted bathroom, I finally decided to spend the $10USD for 4L of paint and finish it off. It only took two 1/2 days and now the bathroom looks absolutely brilliant. We had no idea how much it would brighten up the room after living with grey cement for so long.

I finally managed to get the TIP (temporary vehicle permit) updated to remove our trailer (since it will be permanently installed here in PaaMul) and for once, all the preparation I’d done (with documents and signatures) was for naught as the Banjercito guy just took my word for everything. I was actually a bit disappointed as it took diabetic gifts and a few days to gather the documents, but he didn’t want any of it. So we’re finally totally legal to drive the car. Once the original TIP had expired (some 2 years ago), it was not really defined whether or not it was illegal to drive it. A TIP obtained with an FM3 is legal for as long as the FM3 is valid (and the Banjercito guy gave me copies of the Aduana manual to prove that). A TIP obtained with an FMT is valid for 6 months. A TIP obtained with an FMT which is then converted to an FM3 is not really addressed. So now we’re DEFINITELY nice and legal. But since our car looks exactly like a colectivo, we’ve really never been hassled for this paperwork (other than the border).

After unpacking our volumes of CRAP, the recamera was quickly turning into clutter central and there were days that I actually had a hard time walking through it,  so one day I decided to obsessively clean it.  I then obsessively uncluttered the bathroom also.  And for that, Jamie says I’m getting anal in my old age.  But he definitely likes the after better than the before.

While in Minnesota I picked up a year’s worth of Frontline (flea meds) for Kilo but found, once we got home (as I still had old Mexican Frontline while we were in the US) that it seems to be ineffective on Mexican fleas.  Or maybe any fleas.  We’ve been putting up with fleas for a month and I finally broke down and got Frontline from our vet here and magically no more fleas.  Of course, this had to be accompanied by washing everything we own and cleaning any place he’s gone and dusting everything standing with diatomaceous earth and/or flea powder.  It has been about a week and we seem to be flea-free.  It is SUCH a relief I can’t tell you.

We had a marvelous Christmas – so low-key it isn’t funny (I played Soduko all day long lounging on the sofa) – and the kids got loads of presents.  Santa even managed to leave the boys an IOU for an Xbox 360 and Ellen got a bag of dirt!  We have the BEST Santa!  Dirt AND and IOU!!!  Seriously, the little boy across the street came over very concerned the day after Xmas and asked if Ellen had REALLY gotten dirt from Santa.  I explained that YES, she did get dirt, but she also got six flowering plants, 4 planters and 3 envelopes of seeds and she was VERY happy.  What she doesn’t know is that she has two pair of shiny new beautiful earrings that Santa left for when her slacker parents finally get her ear re-pierced.

Heads full of dreamy dreams of the Xbox IOU, the boys poured over (actually it took them about 30 seconds) the Internets and decided on an Xbox 360 super-killing edition.  We hemmed and hawed and tried to decide on muling it in vs. importing with Merkalink or finding it here in Mexico.  We finally found it locally and it ended up being about $20USD cheaper than importing with Merkalink.  Now Jesse just needs to figure out how to connect to LIVE and they’ll be very happy campers.  One thing Santa didn’t count on is how much power that baby draws.  While our electricity is paid with our monthly rent (and we’re pre-paid to 2012) we only get 15amps.  That bad boy Xbox draws FOUR AMPS!   Almost as much as a window 5000BTU air conditioner.  Once the Merida house is finished, the boys will be paying electricity out of their own pockets (electricity is VERY expensive in Mexico).

I’ve decided to train for a half marathon and have been merging Hal and Running something that I can’t find the link for anymore half-marathon training programs.  I’m going to add the daily mile widget you see in the post below to my sidebar so you can see my mileage increase.  The only Spring run that looks doable from here, however, is the Merida Half Marathon, but it starts at ELEVEN in the morning.  By March 7th, that should be really hot.  So I’m thinking if I just finish that will be good.  I’ll also have to gauge my training by how well I can stay injury-free.  I’m on week 3 right now (or is it week 4?) of 12, so I’ve got a ways to go.  While in the US I got 3 pairs of new shoes but one already has 200 miles on it and I’m already salivating for a different type to try.  I’m currently looking at the Brooks Trace and the New Balance (FUGLY) 1224/1225.

And that’s all the news I can remember for now.  I’ll try to update more frequently (hey!  a RESOLUTION)

I’ve just spent the entire day chasing FAP issues.  For some reason, we were downloading much more than our allotted amount (satellite FAP) and I couldn’t figure out why.  I didn’t know if someone had hacked our router or if one of the 5 laptops had a virus or what.  I tried to kick everyone off the internet, but that didn’t exactly work (on the honor system).  So early today, after attacking Mount Laundry, I started fishing around.  I first disconnect the modem from the router – people could still connect to our router but they couldn’t get internet.  So now, if any of the minions tried to get on the internet or accidentally left their computer open it still couldn’t connect.  And a hacker would be SOL.  I really didn’t think we had a hacking problem though.

I researched numerous methods of monitoring usage, but Hughes really doesn’t make that easy at all.  I then super-secured the router and started attempting to get the various computers to connect.  I couldn’t get Jamie’s MAC to connect in any way, shape or form to the router using WPA so I moved to WPA2 and then manually configured everything on his end and it finally worked.  I then scoured each of the other computers and found two had Windows setup for auto updates and others with Asquared for 4-hour updates.  I think I might finally have all the laptops under control – I just wish I could get hnfapmon working over the router.  As long as I’m directly connected to the modem (DW6000) it will work, but not once I go wireless.  Sigh.  I’ll leave that for another day.

In other news, I HATE F*ING MOSQUITOES!  I am SO SICK of those little bastards I can’t even begin to say.  They are constant and I’d somehow blanked from my memory how insidious those creatures are.  I have great visions of wrapping the entire palapa in mosquito netting but I’m not sure how possible that is.  The boys are also growing out of their trailer beds and we’re thinking of trying to convert the diningroom to a bedroom for them.  Tomorrow I see what the office will allow.  I had my first run yesterday and didn’t anticipate how wrecked the heat and humidity would leave me.  It seems that summer is lasting much longer this year than last – the other day we had 97F/37F with heat index and the day I ran, I found out afterwards it was 94F.  Oops.  Still got in some 4 miles of running and 1.5 miles of walking.  Tomorrow I head out again to run and maybe I’ll just go for 3 miles or go Much Much earlier.  I don’t remember a winter that was this warm this late.

We all slept very well and didn’t get up under after 7am.  For some reason that felt very late to me and I scrambled about trying to get ready quickly.  We knew we had even more mileage to cover today than yesterday and we had no toll roads to count on for making the kilometers fly by.  BUT, the Yucatan roads are relatively new and the route we picked had very sporadically spaced towns (and thus, fewer topes).  We were on the road by 8am and since Frontera is such a small town, we were really on the highway by 8:09.  This is such a weird way to travel – stressed by getting on the road early and stressed by putting away the kilometers instead of discovering new places, but we were all Very Ready to get home after almost 4 months on the road.  It is really very very different traveling from hotel to hotel without your house. Once you’ve traveled with your house (trailer, RV, camper of some kind) it is incredibly hard to take that same nomadic life from hotel to hotel.  And we were Very Ready to settle in for a rest of some kind – if nothing else, a rest from the endless pursuit of more kilometers under our collective belts.

We decided to drive up to the Ciudad del Carmen area and then drop down to MX187 and over to MX307 and up the coast home.  I’m not sure I’d make that same decision – it is definitely pretty, but I think heading up to Merida, then down to Coba, over to Tulum and up might be a faster way to do this in the future.  We remembered many of the towns we went through and had an excellent surprise in what we affectionately call “the armpit”, Escarcega.  We always stop at the Pemex there – it is an excellent place to wait out a hurricane or spend the night with your rig.  They also have a hotel/motel there and cafe.  I took the girls inside for a pee break when I was treated with the site of an espresso machine and simply could not leave without a sample.  She filled my coffee cup, we got gelatin, flan, gum and a latte for Jamie and hit the road yet again.  Back in Ciudad Victoria I’d noticed a small truck towing a boat from Houston and we were shocked to see it pull into the Pemex at Escarcega!  The kids cheered me on to catch up to it, but first we had a chicken lunch to get and wrong streets to meander.

The kids got more and more excited as we got closer and closer and after crossing the state line (Quintana Roo) we finally caught up with the boat.  Not sure where she’s headed, but I have a picture of her outside Ciudad Victoria and along MX187 outside Escarcega.  Our amazing neighbors had cleaned our palapa and I can’t imagine how much work they had on their hands, especially considering our neighbor has been under construction (wood and lots and lots of concrete) the entire time we’ve been gone.  There must have been a good couple inches of concrete dust everywhere.  We are so lucky to have such good friends.

The kids have been playing non-stop since they got home but i’ve been laid up with some gut thing.  I started the raw garlic regime yesterday though and hope it will be kicked by tomorrow.  Poor Jamie has been trying to unpack and get provisions but I was, finally, able to get internet up late last night and the kids were all very happy about that.

We’re seeing lots of things we want to do with the palapa – we’re thinking of converting the diningroom to the boys’ room and we have plans for the upstairs as well.  But first we have 2 ACs which are about to die and a fridge we’re not sure will last the week.  And oh yeah, there is that house in Merida.  So our dance cards are definitely full.

We knew the road from Tampico to Tuxpan was supposed to be bad, and it was, but we had forgotten how bad it was south of the Emerald Coast.  Each day we seem to naturally get up earlier and earlier and this day was no exception.  I was really missing the great coffee we had when we left Ciudad Victoria – it is odd, in a country FULL of excellent beans, how incredibly awful the coffee can be, so the most excellent (and strong) coffee brewed by the receptionist in Ciudad Victoria more than made up for the partay of the night before.  Well, for me anyway.  When in Texas, Jamie and I had stumbled upon a Target sale of Starbucks instant coffee and I got 2 packets (with 3 servings in each packet).  I was wishing this morning on the rainy Emerald Coast, that I’d bought more.  We had the kids up by 7:00 and we were on the road before 8am.  That, hands down, is the earliest ever.  We seem to be having the luck of driving out of the rain by the end of the day but overnight it catches up with us and we start the next day in, I assume, the rain we’d out-run the day before.

We were starting to get low on pesos and I knew that the day would bring MANY toll charges.  We hadn’t visited a grocery store since Texas but were kept in mandarinas from the vendors roadside.  I really don’t sweat the food issue much in Mexico as you can get anything from packaged candy to freshly made tamales at each of the topes.  And you hit a LOT of topes.  There are also many taco stands and restaurants (sometimes just a person’s house) roadside.  We’d stopped at one of those yesterday – cheese was being made in the backyard from their herd of goats and the kitchen served both the house and the “restaurant”.

It took us 2.25 hours to go the first 61 miles and I was a bit worried but knew we had lots of toll road ahead to (hopefully) make up for the slow going of the Emerald coast.  Jamie also managed to find a stash of pesos he’d forgotten about and I was able to relax about having to find a bank along the route and we could concentrate on getting to Frontera.  We weren’t really sure we’d make it and I honestly have NO IDEA how all the RVers put such huge mileage in on this coast.  I can’t imagine it is fun or anything other than heart-stoppingly stressful.  We saw many sights we’d remembered from years past and also many many pilgrims.

The feast of the Virgin of Guadalupe is HUGE in Mexico and the first week of December is dedicated to pilgrimages made from near and far TO near and far and sometimes to the basilica in DF.  We saw so very many people making their pilgrimage; on foot, on bicycle and sometimes supported and sometimes not.  It rained pretty much all day long and we really felt for the poor pilgrims.

We existed on tope food and peanut butter and jelly and were famished and looking forward to dinner on the plaza in Frontera.  About a block before we hit the plaza, however, the traffic came to a standstill.  I could see that the plaza was absolutely choked with pilgrims and pilgrim support vehicles and all manner of festivities.  I finally had Jamie and Pike head over to the hotel to see if they could secure lodging.  We were all really looking foward to the 3 beds – 1 king and 2 queens – the boys and I had had on our last stay.  Unfortunately, the hotel was locked up tight (probably due to the noise and festivities) but Pike found us a marvelous hotel right next door with a lovely sitting room and view of the plaza AND internet!  It took a while to be able to move the car and unload it and eventually park in secured parking, but by nightfall we were eating tacos al pastor on the plaza and enjoying the plaza festivities.  There were carnival rides, religious paintings and clothing, popcorn, elotes, crepes, christmas decorations, jewelry, fruit stands, clothing, fake flowers – pretty much anything you could imagine – for sale along the plaza.  We wandered a bit, then hit the panaderia and super for supplies for the next day.  We were close enough, we figured, that we could be home the next day and we were going to go for it.

So it turned out that after promising the hotel attendant that Kilo would not bark, it turns out I should have grilled him on how many loud parties are allowed in their hotel.  It was raining and without an umbrella and in the dark, none of the kids (understandably) relished the idea of walking around our hotel.  It was also very cold and in a busy part of town, so I wasn’t really interested in trying to keep them safe.  As such, there was a bit of pent-up energy I was constantly trying to redirect and keep the noise level down until we were able to convince the girls to go to sleep.  The boys had their own room as the clerk was going to charge us for them anyway and the room Jamie had looked at was too small for our beds and their bedrolls.  They were very happy to have their own room AND their own beds.  About 2:30 in the morning I was awakened by the sounds of a boisterous party going on upstairs.  The party room windows faced the same area as our window and it sounded like the party animals were right in the room with us.  It was absolutely impossible to sleep and I was very happy to hear them clumping down the stairs so I could grab a few more hours before we got up.  Guess I didn’t need to try to keep the girls quiet.  Jamie was pretty sure the sheets were dirty and both Ellen and I decided to sleep in our clothes.  I don’t think I could really recommend the hotel but they did accommodate Kilo and the clerk made some really good coffee to get us on our way.

Even after such an awful night of sleep, I managed to wake about 6:45 and we packed quickly enough that we were on the road by 8:30.  I don’t think we’ve ever gotten such an early start.  I had hoped to get as far as Tampico, what I thought to be 300 km from Ciudad Victoria, but it turned out to be only 230 or so and we were there before noon.  Unfortunately, the road between Tampico and Tuxpan is famous for its awful road surface and even buses are reported to take 3.5 hours to travel the 180 km between the two cities.  We had a day of very few wrong turns – all our guesses (as to which turn to take) were either good ones or my navigator has come into his own.  But I did have to evade a transito.

As we were traversing the ring road of Tuxpan, we came to a light and I asked Jamie if the light was green or not.  We slowed and looked carefully and it sure looked green.  All traffic was stopped for us so I headed through the intersection.  it seemed that the transito was just waiting for such an opportunity and motioned me over as I finished crossing the intersection.  I knew it was going to be a long negotiation and I wasn’t going to bribe and I just didn’t want the hassle.  So I ignored him.  He blew his whistle and frantically gestured, but I kept on heading away.  Jamie was sure that he would radio ahead and have us cut off or someone would be following us and I did notice a car quickly enter the road after the would-be infraction, but I managed to get enough slow-moving trucks and other cars between us that it couldn’t have caught up.  I really didn’t even think twice about evading the transito and I really didn’t expect anything to come of it, and it didn’t.  I guess I’ve adjusted pretty well to the culture.

Even though it took us about an hour to go the last 60km to Tuxpan, I decided I really wanted to get further down the road, so we headed to the Emerald Coast.  We knew there were many hotels and motels along the coast and I had high hopes of Kilo running on the beach (after such a long day in the car) and the kids running around, getting energy out on the beach and no hassles for more than 2 kids and a dog in the room.  We ran into traffic jam after traffic jam and spent about 30 minutes traversing a bridge.  It was taking longer and longer and longer and after FINALLY hitting the coast we found a lovely-looking place, lit up and very clean looking.  We thought we were home for the night.  The encargante (I assume) approached my window and I asked if he had any rooms available, a silly question since the lot was devoid of any cars or people, and he said he didn’t have any rooms.  Luckily, the next hotel had no problem admitting us and I mentioned nothing about kids or dogs but they couldn’t care less.  We had a lovely walk on the beach, tried to get the energy out of the kids and Kilo and a freezing shower.  It’s very clean and a large room and while Jamie tried to get the price down to $400 from $450, I was happy to pay the asked-for price.

Tomorrow we hope to pick up the cuota and blast from Veraruz to Villahermosa, and hopefully stay at the same hotel the boys and I did in Frontera.  It is looking like we can be home in 2 days time.

It seems like we’re always either sneaking a kid out with an expired FMT or sneaking Cuban rum or trying to get past checkpoints with iffy documents.  Just once, it would be nice to have all our papers in order and not to have to sweat and wonder and worry what will happen when we get there.

Our van is so incredibly loaded with STUFF that I’m surprised we haven’t broken at least 1 of our 3 leaf springs.  Normally, bringing a car THAT loaded across the border requires some type of menaje de casa tied to our FM3 and obtained something like within 90 days of obtaining said FM3 and organized by the consulate.  Lots and lots and lots of paperwork.  I figured we’d roll the bones and hope for a green light and no questions.  We got out of the La Quinta by 9:15 or so and I was shocked that we left at all, as by 8:30 I had decided I’d be happy just to be out by 10am.  In retrospect, we should have done a LOT of packing and car cleaning and organizing yesterday, but with the rain and other errands, it just wasn’t a priority.  We had no problem finding the border after a stop at the post office (Mom and Dad and Jon and Mariluz, you’ll have mail) and gas station (diesel at 2.55/gal but I didn’t have to use precious pesos) we got the green light and were ready to start the paperwork trail.

I knew, when I left the country that I was risking trouble coming back in as I did not cancel my vehicle permit since I knew I’d need the trailer physically present to do so (as the permit is tied to the trailer; when we entered the country we never imagined we’d want or need a 10-year permit.  DOH!) and that was going to be impossible.  The law is more than a bit vague about our exact situation, though, so while our vehicle permit is not exactly illegal, it also isn’t really covered by any law.  Welcome to Mexico!  At the border, I spent about an hour trying to cancel or renew the vehicle permit without a bribe, but couldn’t get anywhere so we left and decided to take our chances at the Aduana checkpoint down the road.  I knew they’d be checking our paperwork and I was hoping I’d be able to divert the adunaero’s attention while he was looking over our paperwork and he wouldn’t notice the lack of “FM3″ on the permit.

I was almost certain we’d be turned around, headed back to Matamoros and I’d figured out a few options.  We could try to get a new permit under Jamie’s name and hope the VIN wouldn’t show up already tied to an uncancelled permit.  We could try to find roads around the inspection station.  We could try to bribe the aduanaero.  Yes, I seriously considered bribery.  And I totally would have done it.  Or we could have tried to figure out a way to cancel the permit without the trailer present (working with Mexico City and reported to be a 2-3 month process), but at a minimum, we would have to spend the night back at the La Quinta (either Brownsville or South Padre Island) and risk the red light (inspection of our van) or green light (no inspection) again.  And I REALLY didn’t want to do that.  About 50km down the road from the border, we found the Aduana station and I either sufficiently distracted the aduanero or he just didn’t care, but he passed us on and FINALLY, we were able to celebrate crossing the border.

I was constantly surprised at the good surface of the road as the last time we’d driven MX180 it was so pothole-ridden we ended up doing about 40km for hour after hour.  We were quickly in Ciudad Victoria and began the hotel-that-takes-dogs search.  Most travelers with animals use the auto hotels, but those only have 1 bed and too much p0rn on the TV for my comfort level.  I’d imagine we’d need 3 rooms for enough beds and I’m not all that interested in having the boys sleep on the floor there.  Just outside the center of town, much like our experience driving out of Mexico, we found a small hotel and since their 3 bed rooms were occupied, we got 2 doubles.  The boys are in heaven with both their own room AND their own beds, and so far, we’re only out $850MN/$65USD for the night.  Tomorrow we head for the coast and see how far we get.  I’m hoping for Tuxpan but with iffy road conditions, you never know.