Actually we returned to Arizona late Thursday afternoon.
The return trip from Mexico was as easy, if not easier, than our drive south last week. First off, some shots of beautiful San Carlos in Sonora, Mexico.
Isn't this part of Mexico gorgeous? And it's an easy 6 hour drive from Tucson, including a stop for the border crossing and customs/immigration.
Another plus for San Carlos: it's in the Hassle Free Driving Zone, so a Mexican car permit isn't necessary for foreigners. And if that's not enough, the world famous blogger, Brenda lives right next door in Guaymas and she's a wealth of information about the area :)
As I mentioned at the beginning of this post, our round trip to Mexico was incredibly simple this year. Not to mention safe.
Except for one strange incident that occurred about ninety minutes from the border, when we were heading back to the States. My Fella and I were northbound on the highway when traffic in front of us suddenly came to a complete stop. We had no idea what was going on because big semi trucks were blocking both lanes ahead of our little car.
Out of nowhere, this camo-military vehicle zoomed up beside us with one of the soldiers training his automatic rifle directly at highway traffic. After hovering and staring in our general direction just long enough to spook us, they rolled up to the trucker that had stopped in front of us.
Our view was partially blocked but there were several angry words and pointed gestures (with guns) being tossed around for a few minutes. Then as quickly as they appeared, the guys with guns hopped back into their military vehicle and zoomed off.
Long story short, we were coming up to a military drug/weapons check stop and the big trucks in front of us were traveling in the wrong lane. They should have been in the right lane so they didn't block auto traffic, but these clowns thought they could shoot past all the other truckers and just cut in again at the front of the line. The military guys gave the truckers hell for slowing down the check stop, which was still 2 miles in front of us. And now vehicles were backed up for several miles behind us too.
Finally the truckers in front of us were dealt with and we were free to pass all the semis and head up to the check point.
This check stop was different than any I've seen.
The soldier at the front of the check point had about 7 or 8 cars line up in a row, then we all got out and watched a big black x-ray truck circle our vehicles, looking for weapons.
After the x-ray inspection, a couple of cars were pulled out of the line-up and physically searched. We just happened to be one of those vehicles, but the military fella that went through our car was really sweet and made the search a quick one. Within minutes we were back in the car, heading north to the USA border.
The rest of the story will be posted in the next few days, including our total cost for gas and tolls. And I applaud you if ya stuck around to the end... this was a looooooong one. Even I fell asleep a few times while downloading the many pics.
Course I'm usually snoring waaay before most of the seniors here at Dodge City Snowbird park. Since it's Saturday night, the folks are probably all out carousing at the clubhouse, smokin' cigars, drinking wine and blasting the Rat Pack classics 'til all hours.
I love Dean Martin, but My Fella and I just can't compete. Give us fifteen minutes and the only sound you'll hear coming from JohnnyDisco will be "zzzz zzzzzz zzzzzzzz zzz ZZZZ..."
Buenas noches... nitey nite.
Glad you had a good trip.
The stop where you got stopped is a normal one and the truckers quite often will try and pull off this stunt lol.
They are checking for drugs going North. The weapons come from the north and go south lol.
It is no big deal and is much faster now that they have built the bigger new checkpoint.
"World famous" lol tooooo funny.
Awaiting your next post so quit snoozing like an old timer and get blogging lol.
Posted by: Brenda | January 16, 2011 at 10:48 AM
A simple question - did you have a gun on board? Or something similar in shape to a weapon? Just curious...
Posted by: wil | January 16, 2011 at 02:16 PM
Hola Brenda - yes, we remember seeing the major line up of semis on the highway when we were heading southbound towards Guaymas, but then we forgot all about it. Luckily, our search was super quick, but the military fellas did a much more thorough search on the semis. I bet some of those truckers are there for hours.
Thanks again for all the good info (dentist, flood plains, etc).
AND congrats on the new addition to your family :)
Posted by: kelsi | January 16, 2011 at 02:48 PM
Wil - Nope, no gun. Although we did have a small kitchen knife (for peeling veggies) and a manual can opener packed in a bag in the trunk. I suppose both could be considered weapons, especially the can opener :)
By the way, your Flying Pig looks so lonely and sad sitting in that huge snow drift.
Posted by: kelsi | January 16, 2011 at 02:57 PM
Yes, new grand daughter is a cutie. Thanks.
Cars usually,(note I said, "usually" lol) go pretty quick and yes, I would hate to be a truck driver down here. Impossible to meet any type of deadline.
Hope the info. was helpful.
Posted by: Brenda | January 16, 2011 at 03:09 PM
Very helpful - gracias!
Posted by: kelsi | January 17, 2011 at 09:32 AM
Very nice pics! I would be very hesitant to take pics of anything official like police, military checkpoints, customs, etc, because years ago I got into a bit of trouble innocently doing it.
Posted by: Don | January 17, 2011 at 07:09 PM
Welcome back Mr P! How was your sunny getaway?
I know what you're saying about the picture taking... I'm always very respectful, and hopefully discreet, when I yank out my camera. If I'm close enough I usually ask if I can take a pic before shooting. If I ever got called on it, I can speak enough Spanish to apologize and let the concerned party know that I'll delete the photos but I've never been confronted about my camera.
Except once at the Canadian border when I took a pic of a drug sniffing dog. Maybe the flash interfered with his sniffing ability. ???
Posted by: kelsi | January 17, 2011 at 09:12 PM