Apr 11, 2013
Long day into the USA
It took ten hours to drive 375 miles!
When we woke up at 6:30AM in San Carlos we were freezing. It was 56F outside and 61F inside. First thing we did was turn on the furnace. While Colin filled that stubborn inside dual tire I prepared fruit and coffee for driving. We aren’t convinced that we actually have a leak in the tire but more that the Pressure Pro sensor valve is creating the leak.
The road north of San Carlos is full of pot holes. Rather than staying in one lane Colin just kept the RV between the holes. Compared to years and years ago Hermosillo is now a dream to drive through. With all the construction finished it is a relatively quick drive through with lots of signage. We stopped somewhere along the road to Santa Ana for the girls to do their business and a nearby local asked if Caeli was pregnant. No ‘ solo gorda ‘. Just fat.
A 6 KM line of trucks waiting to go through a military check.
The truckers really have it tough in Mexico. They are constantly being stopped and searched or waiting in a line to be searched. How do they make a living when so many hours are spent stopped?
At KM 111 just south of Santa Ana ( about 11 km south of Benjamin Hill ) is the big military check replacing the one just north of the Sonora border. I haven’t read anywhere where other RV’s have been stopped here but for the second year in a row we were.
RV's line up in the auto lane, buses are on the right and the trucks are to the right of that ( under the arched canopy ). The second revision is just past the line of cars and to the right. Basically they are looking for drugs.
The soldier came in and opened a variety of cupboards, my night table drawer, my closet, the spice cabinet, the fridge and seemed surprised. He said something to the effect that this really is your home. He looked at our photos of RV parked on the lake in Kelowna and seemed to realize that we were not drug smugglers. He quickly checked the tow car and scanned Colin’s passport and we were good to go. It only took fifteen minutes.
Not more that a few miles down the road an impromptu police check had been set up. Once again the truckers were being searched.
I have to say that other than the pot holes from San Carlos to Hermosillo the roads are in very good shape. From there to the US border the little bit of road construction did not hold us up at all. We barely slowed down the entire journey.
Last year we only paid 106 pesos for the toll but we had to cough up 149 pesos this year. It is still worth every pesos.
I have never seen this in Mexico. Likely because of the amount of traffic thru Altar they are protecting their children.
Our next stop/delay was at the new Banjercito office to turn in our car permit and to get our refund of $300.00US. This is a new location in the Pitiquito area at KM 91
There have been many write ups as to the best way to get in and out but none as well explained as this one by Kathy on her blog. Bob of Island Vagabonds did a great write up of where to turn and what to do. However once we got there, there were a few changes.
We were asked to pull a U turn in the middle of the parking lot to get out, right before the Banjercito office. We did not come in as per the arrows on Kathy's map but entered at the next white lane to the left of her arrows.
Next stop at KM 228 was Immigracion. Once again an official had to be hunted down. The door was even locked. Finally we turned in our FMM cards and got our passports stamped! But wait! The date of the stamp was March 10 not April 10. How many people had their passports stamped with the wrong date and for how many days has this been going on? We caught it and had it re stamped. In the whole big picture I am not sure how important the correct date is but I think in all things official better to be right than wrong.
By now we are all getting very tired.
The final stop before the border was the Pemex in Soynata. We have always fueled up here. For the first time there was a line up. We got parked next to the pump and waited and waited. Some official looking guy in a Pemex uniform kept marking numbers down on a paper from the pump, then another guy came and looked and the finally after 15 minutes we started to get fuel. We watched as the pump was set to zero and watched as the numbers added up. We knew how many litres we should had received and how much it should cost. I thought we had paid about 1000 pesos too much but off we went. It had taken 30 minutes to fill up and we were anxious to cross the border.
It wasn’t until after we had crossed into the US that I had a moment to compare litres and dollars to last year that I spotted what I thought was 54 litres more of diesel. How could we drive the same distance between fill ups and use 54 litres more of fuel? Impossible. Looks like we got ripped off. I think that the meter was running funny and we were scammed. The manager had been fiddling with our pump for along time before he stared filling the RV. We have not had time to go into the details of this yet but we will.
The border crossing itself was easy. Just the one lane open. The agriculture lady came to the window, saw we were Canadians and that I knew the spiel. No citrus, no pork or meat but romaine, tomatoes and hard boiled eggs are okay. She didn’t even come in the RV. A quick two minute crossing. No questions about where we had been or for how long, just the food questions.
Next stop was by the border patrol. Finally we got to mile 55 just before Why and the BLM area we were spending the night. The good part was the time change, here in Arizona it was only 5:15PM while on the other side of the border it was still 6:15PM. It was a very very long ten hours but the next two days will be easier.
The beauty of the desert.
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Welcome to the U.S.A.! Don’t forget to go to Trader Joe’s for the doggie glucosamine chondroitin. It really has helped my terrier-mix Cali!
haaa!! cold now? just you wait. unless the temps in the RV are up to 75, we’re frozen….the only downside of a southern winter. tennis tomorrow at 8, with a overnight of 1C… ridiculous!!!
Welcome to the USA! Safe travels.
Certainly a very long day. But at least you have warmer weather than here.
Enjoy the rest of you journey and travel safe.
Gas station problems remind me of just one of many such experiences in Mexico. As in they connecting the premium price of gas to the regular unleaded sale. It was only because at the time the regular price of gas was under 50p per litre and so when the cash register showed more than twice the pesos over the number of litres it was easy to spot.
Victoria is at the high of the day at 9:00am at 7*c and feels like 4. Just make sure your furnace is working at top efficiency on the way home.
Safe travels KenB
We got no food questions. He just wanted to know how far south into Mexico we went.