Getting to Mexico 4 - Texas

The hotel we stayed at had a continental breakfast, so we ate for free that morning. Luis saw two guys walk in and start to eat. Something must have looked odd about them because he commented that it would be a great idea to just scam on hotels offering free brekky. As long as you knew which hotels offered it, you could show up and act as if you had stayed there the night before, then have a free meal. Maybe next time we do this drive....

This was our last chance to get a Starbucks coffee. From here on out, we would hit small towns, then the border, then Mexico. And although you might think otherwise (Juan Valdez and his mule is American marketing fluff), coffee isn't a big drink down here. It's instant Nescafe or nothing. We had stocked up on Peet's coffee before we left Portland, knowing that our favorite drink would be rare in our new home. We found a Starbucks which was open early, and took our travel mugs in. The girl at the counter was friendly and asked us where we were headed. Mexico, we said. What's down there, she asked? A bar, Luis replied with a grin. She laughed, then saw that we were serious and her face changed to something between confusion and a polite Starbucks smile. Really, we said with big grins, a bar. We're running it for the next year. Ok, she said. Have a good time!

And back on the road we were.

We drove across the Texas west and eventually arrived at Fort Stockton. This was where we turned off the major freeway for a two lane 200 mile drive to the border. We got gas and started down the road. Ten miles outside of town, Luis jumps on the walkie talkie and says, "something's wrong with the car". We pulled off to the side. "I think the engine just died," Luis said as I walked up to the car. "Seriously?" "Yeah." Then he got on the phone to his friend who worked at the border to see if he could help us. Maybe he could drive up with his trailer and rescue us. We could abandon the Jeep at this point, but it was full of our belongings which we didn't want to leave, obviously. His friend, Tavo, had just sold his car 3 days before, so he couldn't help out. We moved the bike rack to the Murano and turned back into town to find help. Now, this Fort Stockton place is a small town. Small enough to not have a regular tow service. We had to go to two places to find someone who could even tow the Jeep to some local mechanic.

$85 later we were in front of the mechanic's place. It was just him and his very old father at the shop. He wouldn't be able to look at the Jeep until later in the day. It was noon. We had to decide what to do. Do we rent a truck and sell the Jeep to this guy? Do we wait to hear what he thinks the problem is and then decide? Do we drive the 3 hours down to the border, empty the Murano at Tavo's house, then return for the rest of the stuff in the Jeep? We took a much needed food break and decided to wait and see what the mechanic had to say. We hit up the local Wal-mart to buy undies for Luis' nephew Sergio who is about 5 years old, plus hair product for us. Then we took the old alternator to the local Napa Auto Parts and got $60 for turning it in. After burning off about an hour of time, we went back to the mechanic to hear what news he had.

He still hadn't really looked at it. So we called U-Haul to see what it would cost to rent a truck. The smallest they had was a ten-footer which was about 100 miles away (a town which didn't have a tow truck certainly wouldn't have a U-Haul), and would cost us $225 to get to the border, gas not included. Our options were narrowing. So we moved all the important stuff into the Murano, and packed the Jeep with the items we could live without for a while. Told the mechanic to look the Jeep over and we'd call him on Monday to find out what was wrong. In the mean time we'd head south with half our stuff. Luis has a Cadillac which needs to be legalized into Mexico, and that can only be done at the border. So we would have to come back almost this far anyway, we'd just drive an extra 3 hours further north to pick up the Jeep when we brought the Cadi up.

A note on American vehicles in Mexico: There are odd laws on what cars can be brought into Mexico and for how long. The Murano, for example is too new a car - only cars between 1992 & 1996 can be made legal in Mexico. And I believe until recently you could only legalize trucks into Mexico, not cars. That doesn't mean you can't bring a newer car into Mexico, only that it can only reside in the country for 6 months. They give you a pass for this which you put on your front windshield. After 6 months, you must return to the border to renew the pass. You cannot get Mexican plates for those cars. Cars which are within the legalizing window are allowed to be brought into the country and given Mexican plates. The Jeep qualified for this, so our plans were to bring it in and legalize it. Then maybe sell it once it was here. We'd have to see what our best option was. The Cadi had been in Mexico way beyond it's 6 month pass, and it had to be either removed from Mexico or legalized by the end of November or Luis wouldn't be able to bring any more cars into Mexico.

So we leave the Jeep at the mechanic and head south again. There were two road workers at the beginning of the two lane highway as we turned onto it. They stopped us to tell us there had been an accident 50 miles ahead, and that we should watch out for it. Small town, small highway, lots of nothing between them and the border. We passed the spot where we had broken down and kept going. Fifty miles of nothing but Texas borderlands later, we came upon the accident. A semi had jack-knifed on the road and dumped it's load. They were still cleaning it up as we passed, driving on the side of the road to get by. Suddenly I felt like we were pretty damn lucky to have broken down a mere 10 miles from that dinky little town. We still had another 120 miles to go to the border.

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