Mexican adventure

I decided to explore a little bit of Baja California today. Drove from Tijuana to Mexicali. It was kind of surprising how good the road was... as with most major roads in Mexico, there are two that generally go the same direction. One is a "federal" highway, usually not so well maintained, two lanes, rather narrow. Then there's the toll road.

Those are nice. Damn right well better be for USD$8 from TJ to Mexicali. But it was a controlled access highway in every respect and oh baby you could go like a bat out of hell. The trucks are largely on the free road so there isn't much traffic.

My GPS was freaking out, this duality of highways was very confusing for it. I'd loaded map data for Baja and I'm not sure if I did it quite right. There was a manual or something but I ignored it. The battery on my PC was almost dead so it was better to do it fast than do it right. But it was close enough... there are not a hell of a lot of directional cues on Mexican roads. It definitely DID NOT provide turn by turn directions but it was a great reality check.

I knew I needed to re-enter the USA in Mexicali. To go any further would be too far out of the way. Next point of entry was Nogales. In TJ the border crossing points are well labeled on the road signs. Not so much in Mexicali!! I stopped and asked for directions like four times and eventually got where I needed to go. The express border crossing paperwork I did a few weeks ago paid off. ZIP into the commuter lane (after FINDING it). One car in front of me.

From the time I pulled into the commuter lane on the south side of the border to being back in the USA - less than three minutes. I estimate the wait in the regular lanes was 40 minutes to an hour. So, realistically given the 12 hours I spent doing the pre-clearance paperwork to get the ID card etc.... I just need to cross 14 or 15 more times to re-coup the time spent ;)

The border patrol has gotten creative with the location of their checkpoints. Obviously, no checkpoints on Mexican Highway 2d (or "second" as my GPS pronounced it... gotta love technology) naturally. But there's a pretty well established one east of Yuma, AZ. Nope, they moved it 50 miles further along. They look to see if you look remotely American and do the usual pass of the working dog around the car. Off you go...

So now I need to actually read the manuals that came with that GPS so that I can load the maps onto an SD card instead of into the device's memory... and definitely figure out how I can get files that show all the exact locations of the speed cameras on the roads. Once you have the coordinates for all the speed cameras the unit will alert you if you're traveling too fast ;)