The engine light came on somewhere in Texas. The Toyota GPS has a nice feature: it will guide you to the nearest Toyota dealer. There we discovered that the engine monitoring unit had probably not been reset when we got the truck serviced in Campbell River, so it thought that it needed an oil change. Just to be on the safe side, we got the truck serviced.
That meant an unplanned 3 hour stop, so we ended up driving into Eagle Pass, on the US side of the border, well after dark. The last section of the highway parallels the border, and every few miles we could see border patrol vehicles parked off just the highway to monitor the traffic.
Next morning we got up early and drove across the border. It was easy. They just waved us through. Too easy, in that we didn’t have any tourist cards or the import papers for the truck, which we expected to get at the border. So, we turned back, went back to Eagle Pass through US Customs, and went to the Mexican Consulate. After a long wait there, the Consul said that we could get the paperwork done at the border, but the problem was that we had not asked for it. So, back through the border, where they told us we had to drive 53 kilometers into Mexico to clear Immigration, and get the truck papers.
We bought a GPS with a Mexico map in Eagle Pass. It led us to the Hotel Rancho El Morillo in Saltillo. The hotel is a 20 acre haven run by a 3rd generation rancher/hotelier.
This is a desert. It rained all the way from Eagles Pass.
It appears from your GPS that you had “some difficulty” finding your hotel this afternoon?????????????
We are always amazed that we find anything! We’ve taken to using Lat and long in the GPS. It works better than putting in the addresses.