Our journey north to Pharr Texas

For the last 4 years we have traveled up the west coast of Mexico from  Lo de Marcos with a stop the first night at Mazatlan, next night Los Mochis and finally  a night in San Carlos before crossing the US border at Nogales.  Once in the US, we would travel north to Tucson and then east across Arizona and New Deming to reach Texas. The Mexican roads are rough on that route and you are not allowed to take any fruit, vegetables or eggs as you cross the borders of each of the 2 state-lines you cross traveling up to the international border.

This year we decided to take a shorter route to enjoy some time in the Lower Rio Grande area of Texas:

On Friday March 20^th we traveled from Lo de Marcos to Guadalajara and then north to Aguascalientes.  We stayed overnight at a PEMEX gas station in Aguascalientes parked amid buses and trucks.   

Saturday we continued on to Zacatacas, Saltillo and Monterrey.  We stopped for the night at a  PEMEX on toll road Hwy 40D. The station was located about 1 hour west of Reynosa.  Surprisingly that stretch of the toll road was very quiet at night and we were the only vehicles that stayed overnight at the site as the entire complex of gas station, variety store, restaurant and insurance office shut down at 9 pm.  During this entire trip we crossed 6 borders and none of them had agricultural checks.  It made it easier for us as we could bring fruit to munch on as we traveled and make our own meals if we wanted.

Sunday we drove to Reynosa to cross the international bridge to Pharr, Texas and were settled in to Bit-O-Heaven RV Park by noon.  This route was shorter and the roads in much better condition than the west coast route.  We were particularly impressed with the free Hwy 54 (libre).  It was the best free highway we have driven on in Mexico – rarely any potholes or rough pavement. It was in better condition than the toll roads up the west coast.

We enjoyed the drive.  There were low lying clouds plus rain off and on as we were traveling much of the way at about 6000 ft elevation. .

low lying clouds

forests of yucca trees

driving into rain

more scenery along hwy 54 Libre

lots of flowers due to the unusual amount of rain this year.  This garden was located at a PEMEX station where we stopped to have lunch

more scenery along Hwy 54 Libre on our way to Monterrey

our travel buddies George and Carmen traveling ahead of us

The process to return our vehicle permits and visas at Reynosa was similar to Nogales.  But the customs check on the American side here was much simpler and more relaxed than in Nogales.

As usual we are happy to be back to smooth roadways with no topes (speed bumps) in the USA.