Border Crossing

June 17

            Late.

We missed our self-imposed deadline to cross the border. Our goal was to leave early in the morning and arrive at our new home in Queretaro that night. We wanted to avoid a hotel stay. 

It took us longer than we had planned on to get dressed, eat breakfast, re-pack the car and check out of the hotel in Laredo, Texas. We had spent the night there the day after the CTEN orientation.

 Once we got of the hotel parking lot, we fueled up on gas. Then we  made our way for the bridge that crosses the river with 2 names.

Then came the famous immigration light that faces all travelers into Mexico. Green means go and no questions asked. Red means stop, unpack everything and be searched. 

Tension mounting. 

The car in front of us got a red light. 

Next our turn. 

Suspense. 

Green light! 

We breathed a sigh of relief and thanked God.

Next we drove for about 5-10 minutes on the Mexican side of the border to get to the immigration office in Nuevo Laredo. We were on the alert for criminal elements, but nothing happened on our way there. Another thank God!

We spent almost 2 hours inside the immigration office in order to get tourist visas. It was a very hot and humid day with no air conditioning inside the building. They had some fans but the cooling had very little effect with all the people inside. Our kids did very well under the circumstances.

Once we got our visas, we got in our car and we were on our way to Queretaro.

Well, almost.

We drove our car into a line of cars that was exiting the parking lot of the immigration office. It was a long wait, because there was only one person to attend each car one by one. However, it wasn’t necessary. This particular line was designated for those who were wanting to re-enter the USA from Mexico. We felt really stupid wasting all that time in the wrong line, especially with all the driving we had to do that day.  

We left the immigration parking lot around 12:30 pm.

The timing was not good.  

570 daunting miles were ahead of us. It didn’t look too promising that we could make it without stopping somewhere for the night.