Dec 26, 2019
We had originally planned to go to Mexico by Dec 1 and here we were almost a month late. We really, really needed to get a move on but first we had to finish a few final chores and go to our border crossing at McAllen, about an hour’s drive away. We wanted immediately get away from the border and go straight to Monterrey, Mexico, about three and a half hours south of the border. We could have crossed the border at Brownsville but then we would have still have had to go nearby McAllen to get to Monterrey so we might as well just go to McAllen on the US side. This meant that we really had to leave first thing in the morning as we would need time to do paperwork at the border and then find a place to stay once we got to Monterrey. This all meant that we would spend the night in McAllen and the cross the border first thing the next morning.
First though we had to do some chores the first of which was laundry. We found a laundromat right around the corner and did laundry until lunch. Next, we had noticed that our Texas registration paperwork was actually labeled “application for title transfer” so we went to the county tax office to double check and they gave us another documented labeled “receipt for registration”. Oh well. Then it was off to Chase to deposit all of our US coins as they would be pretty useless in other countries. That took a surprisingly long time as they had to roll up all the coins before they could be deposited for a grand total of $16. After that Staples to buy an extra toner for our printer $93. Ouch. Bed Bath and Beyond to find another cup that Holly liked, couldn’t find it. A quick dinner then we thought we would just try the Bed Bath and Beyond in McAllen but there was highway construction and we didn’t get to McAllen until almost 9 and the store closed at 8. Oh well. We went to the local Walmart where I got some extra RV sewage treatment and I tested my ATM card to make sure it could withdraw money. We were concerned that Mexico customs might not like some of our Chinese food such as sausage so I repacked our storage to hide the meats and called my bank to make sure I had a travelling notation on my account before going to bed.