February 1, 2017

¡Hasta Luego!

We stocked up on Topo Chico mineral water, topped of the gas tank and said so long to family before hitting the road. Our time in San Felipe had come to an end. We came across little traffic on Wednesday morning. It was smooth sailing after the military check point. We skipped breakfast, so we snacked on enchilada peanuts that we had picked up at the market earlier. Frank went to open a bottle of Topo Chico we had left in his uncle's fridge (which kept such a low temp that items were freezing). The water is under pressure as is, and combined with the frigid temp to which it was chilled it completely erupted as he nudged the cap. I died laughing. I could hardly catch my breath. I'm not sure what part was more priceless - the fact that Frank has been getting me with water and ice for nearly 20 years and karma finally struck or the look of utter shock on his face with water dripping, from, well, everywhere. I hand him a tissue, like it was going to help. Hilarious. I did eventually grab the beach towel so Frank could dry the thousands of beads of water. His lap, however, would take a while to dry...



The highway is in great shape and there are long straight-a-ways, Frank was cruising along, the needle was buried easily. The gauges in his truck covert to metric so mph are not shown. Once the needle hit 140 KM we really didn't know how fast we were going, but we'd soon learn. Further up the road, federal police was monitoring the speed of oncoming traffic. He flipped his lights on and busted a U turn as soon as we neared the squad car. We were clocked at 155 KM when 80 KM was posted. After Frank showed his license and vehicle registration; the officer asked him to step out of the vehicle and walk down to his car. We speak little Spanish and he spoke little English, but we understood. Frank waited while he hand wrote the ticket, he was given instruction to pay the fine online, and then, we were free to go.



When we arrived in Mexicali, we completely missed the sign suggesting to turn for the border crossing. We had to go around twice before we spotted it. I expected large overhead signs, not some wee little sign that was barely a two feet wide.



We navigated our way to the proper lanes, we have Global Entry, but not SENTRI so no expedited wait for us. Still, it only took about 20 minutes to cross the border at Calexico. The border crossing agent asked, "both American?" Yes, Frank replied, as handed over our passports. He added we had nothing to declare. After a quick glance the were returned and we were on our way. It could not have been simpler.





After returning home, Frank learned from our dry cleaner that a new larger border crossing has opened that is even quicker to pass through. We'll have to locate that crossing next time.

We will be back.


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