The trip that almost wasn't

I keep two calendars of appointments one for mother and one for myself.  Hers is obviously more important.  With the administration threating to shut down the border since last October 2018 and actually doing so in California for several hours last year I canceled my remaining appointments for 2018 so I could resume them in 2019.

This year did not start any better with the long lines at the border.  Have only managed a trip to the dentist thus far.  Scheduled a follow-up appointment but could not find my calendar so left the card in my purse and of course, forgot about it.

I was reading Barney's blog (OFM Adventures) when he mentioned his own trip to the dentist and something just kept nagging at me. Yesterday morning I found the appointment card only to realize it was today at noon and had less than two hours to get ready!  Thank you, Barney.

My dentist is a stickler for punctuality as one should be so was surprised that I had to wait for 30 minutes.  Listening to her son talking on his cell I understood why.  He had driven with his mother from San Angelo, Texas (a 3 hours drive) for her to have an emergency root canal.

Today I had the old filling removed from my two molars and replaced with a more natural color substance.  Fillings are $58.00 dollars each so today I spent $116.00 USD.

Tuesday's are Martes de Cosecha...Harvest Tuesday at Gutierrez.  They have really good specials on fruits and vegetables so much so that the other stores do not try to match their prices anymore and now offer their own version but on different days.

The shade canopies at Gutierrez give
it a leg up on the competition.

Drove by Gutierrez which has a much larger parking lot than this picture depicts, there is more on the side and the back...it was packed!  You know my rule...NO LINES...unless they are unavoidable like the lines to cross back to the USA.

Drove to the smaller Bodegas Aurrera (owned by Walmart) mostly so I could use their Wi-Fi as my cell phone does not work in Mexico and I wanted to check the Border Wait Times App.  It said there was a 35-minute wait which seemed incredible to believe.

Their limited shade canopies are no match
to those at Gutierrez.

Before I list the prices...here are the Exchange Rates...top number is the BUY rate for $1.00 US dollar you can buy $17.40 Mexican Pesos. The second number is the SELL rate, they will sell you one US dollar for $18.70 Mexican Pesos.

Exchange rates for 5-07-19

I wanted to buy some onions and tomatoes but I did not like the prices so I will buy those in Del Rio.

The last time I was in Bodegas Aurrera was at their larger store on the northwest part of town.  I remember mentioning then that there were stockers everywhere and empty shelves. The same took place today at this smaller location.

I was going to buy a bottle of Kahlua and save $3.75 (Texas liquor tax per bottle) by crossing at the Amistad Dam Port of Entry but the liquor shelves were barren.  Ended buying 3 bottles of hot sauce that were on sale for $20.00 pesos (20.00 divided by 17.40 equals $1.15 USD).

With the re-routing of traffic to the new Mexican Customs building
you have to pay attention to the signs or end up lost like what
happened to me the first couple of times.

With no reason to drive to the Amistad Dam Port of Entry headed back home the regular way still doubting the 35-minute wait quoted on the App. Tolls to cross to the USA are 28.00 Mexican Pesos the equivalent of $1.61 USD.

 

 When something sounds too good to be true it's because it is.  This was NOT a 35-minute line.

It was hot and humid around 88 degrees and it took 1 hour 20 minutes to cross the border because only two lanes were open to traffic.

When I got home I decided to make an early post because I had my NBA Semifinal games this evening only to find the cable, internet and home phone were not working.  The cable came back in time to watch my games but both the internet and telephone were out until 7:32 a.m. this morning.

Good night.  May you all have Terlingua Dreams.

Who says nobody goes to Mexico anymore?

We embarked on our monthly shopping trip to Mexico. As you might recall the last time we were there was on Valentine's Day.  After paying our toll on the American side ($3.00) we saw a LONG line of cars waiting in line to clear US Customs.  Definitively will drive to the Amistad Dam crossing station I commented to mother.

I know what you are thinking..the lines are long because of the cutback in personnel...true, but there is no denying ALL these people had been to Mexico.  I was happy to see a lot of American tourist everywhere we went, Ciudad Acuna could sure use the economic boost.

We first went to Gutierrez (a grocery store) they have two stores of this chain but I like the one in town better than the one in the suburbs as there is more parking and a lot less traffic.  We were only going to buy a few things that are normally cheaper here than in Bodegas Aurrera or Merco such as serranos, bananas, pastries and my medication.

However the prices were so economical that we ended up doing all our grocery shopping here and in the process saving ourselves some time but most importantly money.  We could not believe the number of people at the store specially since it was only Tuesday.

We stopped to visit a friend of ours that owns a photography studio.  He was delighted that his Del Rio clients were once again making their way back to Ciudad Acuna.  Speaking of traffic there is a Mexican channel that you can see the security cameras all over the city and he zoomed in on the main International bridge and we could tell that only two of the five lanes were open...that did it...would definitively cross at the Dam!

So off we went to cross back to Del Rio at the Amistad Dam Crossing.  Could not help but notice that a lot of other people had the same thing in mind but I was NOT prepared for what I saw when we got there.  I am not good at judging distance but here it clearly states we were 1/2 mile from Customs when we joined the long line :-(

It did not take long for more cars to arrive and the line to grow even longer.  I got out and started taking pictures and soon other people joined me, lol, including the lady and two girls in back of us who took out their tablet and cell phone and began snapping pictures of the line and what is left of the lake.

Looking toward the back of the line

We even had a chance to chat as we waited for the line to move :D

Looking to the front of the line

Happy to see we almost made it 

Not a good picture snapped as we were about to clear Customs

Even though we had to wait in line for one hour and 21 minutes I am glad we decided to cross at the Amistad Dam Border Station.  It sits high up on the dam and we had a constant breeze.  It was very warm yesterday and mom's van does not have air conditioning.

I took a lot of other pictures but I do not want to make this post too long and will save them for a future post.  So if you are wondering if it is safe to cross into Ciudad Acuna...judge for yourself.

Thank you for dropping by.