Day 65 – Back to the USA
We were excited today. After two months south of the border, we were finally returning to the USA. With five hours of driving remaining, we planned to cross before sunset, as the city of Ciudad Juarez is often cited as the most dangerous border crossing in Mexico. Waking up at 6:30, we set off, first wishing ourselves a merry American Thanksgiving.
After a quick pitstop on the outskirts of Chihuahua for breakfast, we arrived in Ciudad Juarez in the early afternoon. We made another stop to pick up a last bottle of Tequila before leaving Mexico and then joined the long Thankgiving-lengthened queue to cross the border. The two-hour wait was interspersed with vendors selling us candied nuts and mariachis serenading us as they weaved between the cars. We also played a fun game spotting as many different US state licence plates as possible.
Finally, as the sun was setting, we crossed the Bridge of the Americas and made it through the El Paso. The difference was instantly obvious, with huge, well-paved roads and large shopping complexes.
The one item we had on the agenda this evening was to, in good Southern style, try Texan BBQ for supper. Unfortunately, as it was Thanksgiving, most restaurants were closed. After calling around, we found that Smokey’s BBQ, although closed, would let us in as their bar section was open.
We had a delicious, massive meal starting with an appetizer of chilli cheese and nachos. We then moved on to our meat pile of brisket, sausage and turkey. We interspersed this with our sides of corn, chilli beans, rice and sausage, and potato salad. Finally we moved on to our desert of bunuelo, a sweet crispy flatbread. We were positively stuffed and had leftovers for tomorrow’s lunch. The best part of the meal was that when we went to pay, the lovely attendant Hector told us that it was on him and free. It was a happy Thankgiving dinner indeed!
We fell asleep with our tummies full in the parking lot of Smokey’s.
Day 66 – Driving through the desert
The first order of business this morning was Black Friday. We drove up to a Walmart and gazed at all the deals and bought an electric toothbrush. Our second order of business was at the immigration centre, where Viki needed to have her biometrics done for her Canadian residency application. Fortunately this was done pretty quickly and we were off on our way by 10am.
The route today took us from Texas, through the whole length of New Mexico, to Colorado. The entire way was through relatively flat, arid desert. The most exciting part of the drive was when a ball of tumble-weed blew across the road in front of us. We had dollar menu McChickens from Mcdonalds for dinner before sleeping in a lay-by for a really cold night – it would get to -6 degrees.
