Apr 06, 2018
Adios Mexico
Our last sunrise in Mexico. We will miss you but we look forward to seeing our home again. Driving by 7:10AM.
The first large town North of San Carlos is Hermosillo. As you can see they are rebuilding the highway right into the city. This fellow’s car had died right in the middle of early morning traffic. By the time we had reached him and passed him a good half hour had transpired.
It took a while for this ambulance to reach this point. It seemed to me that they were in a huge hurry to get to medical facility. I hope that all went well.
Got through Santa Ana about noon.
I have always liked this simple church and square in Altar.
Here we are at the ’new’ facility just before Soynata/Lukeville to turn in our TIP and to get our vehicle deposit back. After lots of research and input from others we decided to enter via the autobus entrance. Colin has been discussing with this fellow about how we will get out. Behind them is an x-ray machine that we can’t drive through. We asked! To the right you see the narrow opening that we are supposed to exit through.
We had pulled up as close as we could to the building so that we had a better chance of aligning ourselves with the exit. That will only work if no one else puts themselves in your way, not to mention a bus.
Fortunately for us the bus left first. It had a difficult time making the turn. Directly in front of the bus is a yellow curb that is black from tires running into it. And then there are the chipped and blackened edges of the curb that a vehicle has to first pass through.
Colin told the officials that it was almost impossible to do, so someone came out to direct the process. He really had no idea what he was doing. It was oblivious that he just wanted us gone.
So Colin crept as far to the left as he could to align the RV with the narrow exit.
I was not sure how this would end up.
It was very close to being a disaster. The mudflap flopped over the curb and as you can see the RV barely missed the curb either by width or height. We know for a fact some 45’ RV’s towing that could not do this. We for one have no intention of doing this again. We will try via the auto exit next time and can only hope that we are not too tall.
We got caught in the new military inspection mere meters from the US border. Basically just a few young people wanting to see the inside of the RV and what was in every cupboard. Then they had to check the Jeep. I had a bag of books in the car and they had to thumb through several of them. In the 15 minutes that we were stopped we tried to find a place to turn in our FMM, Visa cards. The one place that might have been correct had no one in the office, so in the end we just left Mexico with the cards in our possession. The RV in this photo happily pranced in front of us while we were in the detained jail area of sorts. Here we are about to go through the border into the USA. Cell phones off! Why? Anyway we were sent on our way with not one single question 🙂 How things are changing.
Stopped at the Passport America Holt Shell station in Gila Bend for the night. Welcome back to the USA. It was a very long and tiring 457 mile driving day.
<< Older Posts Home Newer Posts >>
Always quite a drive back! In 2016, we went north through Lukeville/Sonoyta and mistakenly flew right by Pitiquito where we were supposed to turn in our vehicle permit. Instead, reading old notes, we went to the old spot nearly at the border, only to be turned around and headed back to down Pitiquito. Yikes!!
Is the new facility in Pitiquito now closed???
PS – Thanks for the Pemex number. Updating all my notes for next year…..
That was along day but now you are finally back in the USA, soon Canada.
That narrow opening must have caused numerous troubles and maybe damages to passing vehicles. Engineering miscalculation or what? Good you made it through without mishap. I guess spending time in Mexico is part of the adventure. Safe travels!
I pitched a fit and said I couldn’t make that turn and they finally let me drive through the x ray machine with out it being turned on. Our friend drove through the auto area with his big 5th wheel and they didn’t say anything, much better way to go, happy travels through the US. Are you coming up I-5 through California? If so we will meet you some where for lunch, Roger and Chris
Welcome back to the Excited States. Don’t hurry home, it is cold here!
Hopefully the rest of your trip home will be uneventful!