Ottawa to Cuernavaca - Fall, 1998
Wednesday, November 25th, 1998 - Setting Off South - Well, Really West
After getting off to a late start on Wednesday, 11 am, we decided to call it a day at 6 pm in Windsor, our last opportunity to stay in Canada, when it got dark and started to rain heavily.
Thursday, November 26th, 1998 - Detroit to St. Louis
The forecasters promised the rain would end overnight, and sure enough, we awoke to wall to wall blue sky and sunshine and set off at 9 am, crossing the border to Detroit, had breakfast in Ann Arbor, and then on to Indiana. We passed through Fort Wayne, the home of the Johny Appleseed Museum, then lunch by Indianapolis, then Terre Haute and on to St. Louis. Everything was closed for Thanksgiving, and a real family style "Country Buffet" had good food, but they had just run out of turkey!
This is the second year in a row that we have set off right into the US Thanksgiving weekend, and again, all the locals are too busy eating turkey to generate any road traffic.
Friday, November 27th, 1998 - Kansas City and Wichita
We got up early and left before 8 am. Spent a few hours in Kansas City, Mo., to do some specialized shopping. Then on to Topeka in the land of Dorothy. Carol didn't want to go to Atchison or to Fort Leavenworth, and we won't be going to Sante Fe either. We spent the night in sunny and warm, low 70s F (low 20s C), Wichita Kansas. We stayed in a La Quinta Inn, very Mexican. We had beer and pizza, but ended up with lots of Carol's veggie pizza left over for the next day.
Saturday, November 28th, 1998 - Oklahoma City
Today, we went through Oklahoma and stopped in Oklahoma City to look at what was left of the Murrah (federal) Building. Nothing, its is all torn down. However they have repaired the Catholic Cathedral next door that had all its stained glass windows blown out. It is all now a memorial site. Then we headed on down to Texas and ended up in Waco again, this time at a nice Holiday Inn. Not much happening in this town. Temperature here is 75°F (24°C). Feels good.
Sunday, November 29th, 1998 - San Antonio and Corpus Christi
Today we ran down to San Antonio to do some shopping at the Northstar Mall, something we have done before.
Then on to Corpus Christi, where we pulled into a beautiful bayfront hotel, the Marina Grand Hotel. We have a beautiful view of the Corpus Christi Bay and out onto the Gulf of Mexico. It went up to 83° F (28° C) today and the hotel people told us this is the day they turn off the airconditioning all day until 11 pm for annual maintenance. However we have opened the giant sliding door to our private balcony on the 5th floor to watch the lights of the boats in the bay. It has cooled down to about 70°, so it is nice, but at 11pm we shut the door and put on the a/c.
Carol had a delicious "blackened redfish" while I had the "gumbo" starter and a "keylime pie" for desert. This was at the "Water Street Seafood Company" the original one, on Water Street, Corpus Christi, whose branch in San Antonio we had been taken to both in December 97 and April 98. We recommend both.
Carol, of course, forgot her hairdryer, so we bought a new one, special for travelling, for both 110v and 250v, fold up handle. Can use it in Europe! It even has a ground fault detector built in, in case she should drop it into a bathtub.
As you can tell, we are ahead of schedule, we will have to slow down and cross the border on the 1st, because the Mexican insurance only kicks in then. But we should get the car routine service done before we enter Mexico for 4 months and we probably need to do some paperwork before hitting the "aduanos" (Mexican customs).
Monday, November 30th, 1998 - McAllen
We had the car serviced before leaving Corpus Christi and then drove along the coast and onto North Padre Island, driving through a US airforce base.
En route, the temperature was 85 degrees (29 celsius) and very, very humid whenever we stepped out of the car. We passed some fields where they were growing aloe vera plants, acres and acres of them!
Next stop was McAllen, Texas, the border town to Reynosa. We met a lady and her nurse daughter at a roadside rest stop, where we had to use the facilities. They had noticed our Ontario plates and told us they were from Hamilton. The daughter is working in McAllen as a nurse. She says McAllen is much nicer than that awful Laredo place. She has been in McAllen for 2 years, her mother was down for a visit and they had just been up to San Antonio for a day of shopping.
It is now Monday evening and we are in a Comfort Inn in McAllen, which as we were told, is a much nicer town than Laredo. It is a very nice motel, which has been recently renovated and has a hairdryer, coffee maker, fridge and a microwave oven.
We made the photocopies we needed in what appeared to be an old family-run drugstore, which seemed to sell everything under the sun and on top of that had one of those old-fashioned lunch counters that snake around. It was like steppiing back into the 50's.
They mentioned the Quebec election on CNN so we hope to hear the results later tonight.
Tuesday, December 1st, 1998 - Entering Mexico
We had a little bit of trouble at the border. They made us open the trunk and informed us that we had to pay duty on the stereo receiver because the limit per person, when you come by car, is $50.00, not the $300.00 which we were told by the embassy! Fortunately, it wasn't much, only $24.00US. Then we couldn't find the place to get the sticker for the car window, showing we have, permission to temporarily import the car. We went into one building where we thought it was and when we came out someone had parked behind us, boxing us in. Naturally in the land of "manana", we couldn't wait around until the owner re-appeared and so we were forced to drive over the chain they had used to try to stop people from parking. Yes, you guessed it, this was not an official parking lot.
All this was happening in the blazing sun, and to top it off with shades of "deja vu", Carol walked into a glass door which she thought was open. She was walking slowly so not much damage was done, but it knocked her glasses off and bent the arm so badly she could no longer wear them. She also had a small bruise at the corner of her right eyebrow.
Eventually we found the place and within 15 minutes we had the sticker and were off again. Then we couldn't find the road to Monterrey, but asked a guy in a gas station. A fellow customer, a nice Mexican, said he didn't know where highway 40 was but he was also going in that direction and told us to follow him. He lead us for about a kilometre before we saw the 40 sign and waved him off.
We reached Las Palmas, our favourite hotel in Matehuala about 5 pm, where we had delicious sea bass Veracruzana at their very good restaurant.
Wednesday, December 2nd, 1998 - Cuernavaca
This morning, after a hearty breakfast, we left Matehuala at 9:15 am and reached Cuernavaca at about 4:30 pm. The weather is glorious - sunny and warm - and the garden looks beautiful.
We met our new dog, who Carol says is really cute. She is a 9 month old Boxer and like all puppies very playful. Guillermo is trying to teach her not to jump up on people. She likes running and jumping and licking or nibbling people's toes.
November, 1998
