I thought of writing this blog of our visit to the interior of Mexico and it made me laugh. The experience of getting across the border is what made me laugh, considering how so many breech our border by just walking right through. Some of the other experiences once through were not so very funny.
My family lived in Texas in the late 1960's early 1970's and we used to cross the border into Mexico for day trips on a frequent basis. We crossed at different points to enjoy different areas of the country. One time when the Grimes family visited from Virginia with their camper we decided we should camp Mexico.
When the Grimes' and we grew up together we spent nearly every weekend camping, first tent camping then trailer. We all loved it and all of us have wonderful memories of it. So when we moved to Texas and the Grimes' brought their trailer out with them when they visited it seemed natural that we plan a huge camping trip and what better trip than an international one.
Plans developed and we stocked the campers and headed for the border. I am old enough now that I cannot remember where we crossed over. We drove both campers, cars and families up to the border stations and our fathers got out of the cars. Of course our Birth Certificates, Drivers Licenses, Car and Camper registrations and such were required in order to cross into Mexico. Our mothers and all eight children were waiting in the cars for hours as our fathers tried to get all our paperwork in order for us to go in to Mexico. More hours passed and we began to wonder what in the world was going on, neither man came back to let us know what was going on. Finally mom and Aunt Susan fed us children in the campers so we wouldn't "starve" and we continued to wait on our fathers. Frustrated fathers finally returned to our cars near sundown and my dad got behind the wheel very aggravated.
The Mexican authorities advised the "gringos" not to proceed past the border during the night as it would not be safe. Having not "made time" at all that day because we sat at the border all day my father and Uncle Bobby were determined to get down the road. Turns out the reason we sat at the border all day was because Uncle Bobby was being stubborn. After checking all the paperwork the Mexican border guards decided that they wanted to be paid under the table by the rich "gringos". After a number of hours of arguing my father finally gave in, he realized these were unscrupulous men and we weren't going anywhere unless he paid them what they wanted. Uncle Bobby decided he would stand on principle because surely these people have supervisors that would prevent these kinds of things. Lol, that was a no, turned out when you got the supervisor involved then you had to pay the supervisor as well. Finally, Uncle Bobby had made enough noise and gotten enough people involved that dad had to finally say, "Bobby, I can't afford for you to object any more." So Uncle Bobby paid his way in dad paid the extra money and we were on our way with less money in our pockets.
As we left the Border we were warned of the "banditos" after dark. So we decided not to go to far, we were very frightened. As we drove along the "highway" we were surrounded by multiple cars which sped up when we sped up and slowed when we did. Creepy. We stopped to get gas and the car windows were cracked as we did not have air conditioning but we always had the windows cracked so that was no big deal. As soon as my father stopped and got out to pump the gas (because no one came out to do so) all of a sudden there were all these guys and they were sticking their hands in through the windows trying to touch us, grabbing at us. We were having to roll up the windows, you know the old fashioned windows where you actually rolled them. It was horrible. No one came out to help us. Dad finished getting the gas because we had to have it, paid for it and we made it to a camp ground that was enclosed by a six foot tall wall. We knew the feeling of true exhaustion even though we hadn't actually done much that day.
I will stop there for this week and pick up with my adventures next week. Viva Mexico.
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