12/11/11 Tampico, Mexico to Brownsville, TX 357 miles

Kris got up early this morning and created a contraption with our air mattress pump and some tubing to siphon more fluid out of the transmission. He was like McGyver but a mechanic! It worked beautifully and before long he thought he’d pulled enough out to keep the transmission from slipping. The weather was much cooler and for the first time in about 3 months we put pants on! Aaron said, “Mommy I think these shorts are too long.” I said, “These aren’t shorts buddy, these are pants!” We stopped and grabbed a loaf of bread and an energy drink for Kris for $4.62US and were on the road by 9:20am. After driving about 30 min Kris stopped to check the fluid (since I guess you’re supposed to check it when it is hot) and it was a bit too high, so he pulled out his awesome pump and pulled more out. For the next 2-3 hours we’d drive for a while, then pull over and then have to add a bit more or remove some, hoping that the car would start to run better. Thankfully we were only having problems with the overdrive gear, drive was working fine but it meant that we could only go about 50mph. Towards the end of the afternoon overdrive started working better. Kris still took it easy, but it seemed to be holding pretty well and not slipping. We’re hoping that tomorrow after sitting all night (and the excess fluid draining back into the pan) the car will run better.

Wax stick mosquito- the only good kind of mosquito!

Another Jonathan creation: a monkey riding a motorcycle

Only in Mexico: tourist bus passing a pickup truck, in the rain!

 We passed the Tropic of Cancer which was the first thing we recognized from our trip down. We arrived at the border town of Matamoros at 6pm and after a few wrong turns got in line for the border crossing at 6:25pm. There were people standing in between the lines of traffic (and there were a lot of cars waiting in line for the border crossing), selling stuff. We were starving so we bought 4 tacos for 20 pesos or $1.57US and chowed down, calling that dinner #1. We had to pay 30 pesos to cross the bridge into the US. We asked one of the border patrol agents where we could go into the Mexican office to get our vehicle permit cancelled (and our $200 deposit refunded) and he said that we couldn’t do it at this crossing we’d have to go do it at Puente Nuevo (New bridge), so that was frustrating! We decided just to head into the US and that Kris would go back tomorrow morning and take care of it. Jonathan heard us talking to the US agent and he said, “Mommy that man is speaking English!!” We explained that we were back in the US and that most of the people would be speaking English now. 

Carnival going on in Matamoros

Waiting in line to cross the border

Our hotel room in Brownsville

 It was after 7:30pm when we got into Brownsville. We grabbed McDonald’s Happy Meals for the boys for dinner and then got Kris and I some grub at Wendy’s. We headed down a main road in Brownsville and found a great and economical hotel on the first try! We paid $60 and the room is big, nice, and clean- with no funky smells!! Oh and it has a toilet seat!! The boys were so excited to see a bathtub! It’s the little things in life people, I tell ya! Now we are all clean and settled into very comfortable beds with no springs poking us!! We are so happy to be in the United States again! Thank you Lord for bringing us safely this far!