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Tuesday, April 3, 2018

A long driving day in Mexico!

If we wanted to cross the border on Monday, then Sunday was going to have to be a long driving day! Still traveling with two other rigs, we were up and on the road at the crack of dawn.

Originally, our destination was the city of Saltillo, and the Imperial Hotel where we had stayed our very first night with the Mexico RV Caravan group. But traffic is busy in the city, and considering we were only staying the night and just needed somewhere to park, we nixed that idea and figured we would wing it.

Here's our drive for the day on Sunday..

 We left just before sunrise.

At least we had a full moon for light!

 We crossed the Tropic of Cancer.

Lots of Joshua trees in bloom.

Overall, roads were in good shape.

Scenery along the way.

The toll highway bypass around Saltillo.

We were looking for somewhere to spend the night. Most toll booths in Mexico have sufficient parking space, but in this area, that wasn't the case. So we just kept driving around Saltillo and on towards the bypass around Monterrey. It doesn't get dark now until almost 8:00pm, so we could simply drive until we found somewhere suitable. And so that's what we did.

Lots of people broken down at the side of the road. 
I would guess mostly because of being way overloaded and traveling at high speed.

The toll highway between Saltillo and Monterrey.

We made it onto the northern periferico toll road around Monterrey. Finally, there was a toll booth with sufficient parking for the three of us. I went and asked at the toll booth if we were okay to park there and got approval for the night. 

Ruth had made a big pot of chili con carne that had been cooking in the Wonderbag all day while we were driving. So we went to Kenny and Gail's rig and brought the chili over and had a final dinner together with them and James and Karen.

Our parking spot. 
This photo was actually taken Monday morning just before we departed.

We actually slept pretty well, but of course we were tired from the long drive. 

Sunday's drive, 622 kms (386 miles).
A LONG driving day in Mexico!

Next stop, the United States border!
I'll do another blog post this afternoon detailing yesterday's adventures, and we'll be all caught up.

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Pack of four beach towels!


And in Canada...





19 comments:

  1. Ya, those Mexican miles tend to be longer than gringo miles...Although I'm trying hard not to push so hard here either. And I got a bumper sticker for my RV that says "I'm Retired. Go Around Me."

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    1. Yeah they sure do! We can't believe that we had 3 days over the 3 months where Kevin and I did over 600km, which is something we have never ever done before in all our travels in Mexico. Two of those days were us trying to catch up to the group after our 2 breakdowns. Otherwise we are like you, we love to just take our time and not be in a rush.

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  2. 386 miles must be close to a record!

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  3. Those miles compare to driving from Phoenix, AZ to Los Angeles, CA. Scenery looks about the same too in flat areas. The mountain drive between Saltillo and Monterrey, Mexico is beautiful.

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    1. Yep, that was a lot of miles, thankfully it was an easy drive on mostly good roads. The drive between Saltillo and Monterrey is a beautiful one for sure. We love driving in mountainous areas, it makes for some nice scenery.

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  4. Wow tha5 was a long drive but at least you made some miles. Are you sad the ad entire is coming to an end? It must be strange after spending so much time with the group to have to depart. Enjoy your day!

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    1. Yes, it was a very long drive for us but the roads were in decent shape and the drive itself was an easy one.

      We have mixed feelings about the trip coming to an end. We were sad to say goodbye to many in the group and I am sure we will see a few of them again somewhere down the road, plus we will just miss Mexico, it is like a second home to us now. However, we are excited for the new adventures that lay ahead of us and seeing and exploring new territory.

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  5. 386 miles is a long drive any day.

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    1. Totally agree! Our perfect day is no more that about 100 miles in a day.

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  6. You may have had a long day, but it was a gorgeous one.

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    1. It wasn't all beautiful scenery, some of it was fairly flat and boring.

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  7. Long day no matter where you are. Glad everything went well.

    Safe travels.

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    1. Definitely! We are happy everything went well too and it made our next day's drive a little shorter.

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  8. Definitely a full day! Glad to see you're having a good return trip.

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  9. A little further and you would have found a large Pemex compound with parking and a nice restaurant. But toll booths are good to if you find one where trucks are not gearing down all night.

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    1. On the actual periferico around Monterrey there is no Pemex compound, there is one after you turn off towards Nuevo Laredo but it is right near the interchange so it is busy and noisy and also right by the airport. Where we ended up was actually very good and surprisingly quiet.

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  10. That chili was a perfect dinner to a loooong driving day! Glad you found a safe and quiet place to park overnight. Kinda sad for me to see the group parting, but looking forward to following you in your next adventure! Safe travels.

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    1. It did make for a good dinner for us all to share on our last night together. It was rather funny having dinner with the six of us in Kenny and Gail's rig while dry camping at the side of the road at a toll booth in Mexico.

      It is sort of weird not having the group together anymore but we knew that day would come.

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