Another Day in Mexico

This is the gate as cars are headed into the US. Its five wide and each boarder guy has a booth. They check passports and ask what you are bringing into the US. If they pick you for a search, then you get out of this line and get pulled over into a search area. That is where the drug dogs crawl all over your car and they go thru your bags and trunk. I doesn't look too fun.

So walking will do for us. This is where the folks are backed up to pay their quarter and go thru the turn style.


Same old drill, the walkway is red over cream so we are still in the US.


As you come off of the bridge and go thru declarations. I was trying to capture the signs. Can you translate them? And there is that monument, that every first timer has to have his picture taken with. Note Loyce's silly sun hat as you will need to recognize it to pick her out two photos down.


Estacionamiento is parking, Declare Merchandise, Point of revision ? What does that mean?
Bathrooms, No Arms, Information, I'm not good when they start abbreviating, but they want to sell you a permit for your vehicle. And you have to declare more than $10,000 US Dollars.


You do not even get past the fence and a kid is there to shine your shoes. And the first sign is for Dental services. I ran into another sign farther up the street advertising dentistry for cowards. Oh My! I wonder what his technique is? Not today!


Remember the sun hat? That is all you can see of Loyce, as she is negotiating for a purse. This is interesting as it shows all the folks on the sidewalk are gringos. Bringing US dollars into Mexico.


I didn't take any more photos of the streets and stores, as they are just more of the same from the last time we were there.

So when your legs can't take it anymore, its time for the Red Snapper restaurant. From our table in the back of the dining room, this time we have a different perspective. The garlic shrimp was just as good as the last time we were here. I'll miss that!


The bar and the lady that collects the money. She sits right out in the middle and sees to it that the waiters bring the cash back to her. Thats exactly how the Fat Daddy Bar B Que worked the other night, on the US side of the bridge. But then they are only about 6 miles apart.


The decorations are interesting. This lamp adds to the otherwise bland florescent lighting.


So we went and bought a bunch of Vanilla again, and Loyce got her turtle that is made from plaster of paris. My back and feet were protesting today, more than they did the last time we were over here. Two days of flea market, and a trip to Mexico have taken their toll.

As we were leaving to cross the bridge, there were 30 or more Mexican soldiers standing in the street as you approached the bridge. They were on the sidewalk as we filed by. Their commanding officer was in an armored vehicle with a machine gun on its top. He was barking out orders and the men were following his instructions. It occurred to me that I should take their picture, but a night in jail didn't sound too good. So I let it pass. Besides they had real bullets in those weapons.

Customs? This time we know, with passports we could use the outside sidewalk desk, and we went right thru, without more than a question or two.

As we got back to the car the dash temperature was 87. No wonder I have been sweating, carrying all this loot. The wind is just howling out of the South about 25 to 30 MPH and as we now know, this is just common and to be expected on a warm winter day in the RGV. All that warm has to come here from somewhere.

I am struck by how routine this all is. The folks that sell all these items, are there every day. Seven days a week. They seem to have no sense of time. We are fairly stuck in our routines also, but wouldn't it get really bad, asking gringos for another dollar? We are so lucky to have been born North of this border.