After leaving Chihuahua, staying at the ultra cool Encore Ramada Hotel, it was a long, long drive to Tucson. Just after sunrise, we headed north on Mexican 45D (the D designating a toll highway), passing through Sacramento and Nuevo Delicias before turning off onto State Highway 10, the "highway" designation being very generous. For much of the drive, through Nuevo Casa Grande and eventually into Agua Prieta, 10 is a narrow (very narrow) winding road that traverses two mountain ranges.
Along the way, we saw everything from vast expanses of desert to Monument Valley type rock formations. A crummy road it was, but really a beautiful drive.
As we got closer to the U.S. border, we were stopped twice at roadblocks, once by the Mexican military and once by the Federales. They are looking for drug runners, and while there was a delay as they searched other cars and trucks, when they got to us, there was no problem. They asked where we were the night before and where we were heading. When we told them, them smiled and sent us on our way. That was not the case when we reached the U.S. border.A ponchy U.S. INS agent, who exhibited more attitude than his estimated 30 years of age should have allowed him harassed us to the point that we question why we even want to come back to the U.S. (we had heard of similar treatment to others, but until now we had not experienced it). We have U.S. Passports (which his computer would show we use frequently to go to Puerto Vallarta), we were driving a car with California license plates. And we had only two small suitcases. The way he treated us, you would have thought we were the long sought after kingpins of Mexico's drug cartel trying to pull a fast one by disguising ourselves as two middle age Americans on a car trip to Tucson (maybe it is the equality sticker in our back window he didn't like).
Anyway, after asking where we lived (and then questioning why we would want to live in Puerto Vallarta ... duh), he basically accused us of trying to hide something by going out of our way to enter the U.S. at Douglas, AZ as compared to the more logical entry point of Nogales. We explained we had taken a car trip to see parts of Mexico we had not yet explored including Zacatecas and Chihuahua; and considering that, Douglas WAS the logical point to enter. Still not good enough, he asked me to get out of the car and open the trunk. Then, he rifled through all of our stuff in a manner that makes the airport screeners look like packing experts. This jerk pretty much emptied our suitcases, threw stuff around, and just left it there. Apparently upset because he realized that he would not be the employee of the month for discovering even one bit of contraband let alone solve the mysteries of Mexico's drug dealers, he strutted back to the driver's side like an agitated rooster (oh, I forget, after I opened the trunk, he ordered me back into the car and to sit there), wrapping his knuckles on the side of my car, and eventually returning the passports, told us to move on. More than an hour and a half after we got to the border, we were finally into the U.S. And as we left Mr. Friendly behind, I waved and said to him with a smile on my face "Have a nice day." We were off to Tucson, he was off to find his next victim (I hope for his sake that someday Osama Bin Laden pulls up in his SUV to the frustrated little grunt at Douglas, AZ, because then, finally, he might be the employee of the month).
In Tucson, we got to the Radisson Suites in time for the last three quarters of the Super Bowl .... great game. The hotel was like a small apartment with living room, bedroom, big bathroom, and kitchenette ... very cool. After two full days of shopping in Tucson, getting the car services, some good dinners, we headed back south on Wednesday. Through heavy rain (though no snow as was forecast), we made it to the border crossing at Nogales at 9:30. Dealing with Mexican immigration is vastly different than the experience we had returning to our own country. Because by 9:31, with our visas stamped, we were on our way ... the car totally packed with tons of things we had bought in the U.S. and no one worried about that we were bring back. Ah, Mexico.
With a great toll road system from the border, we traveled on 4 lane divided highways through hundreds of miles of farmland. That night, we were going to stay in Ciudad Obragon, a fairly good size city in the state of Sonora, but we decided to continue on to the smaller town of Navajoa. Aside from a few gas stations, a small downtown, and a half dozen motels (and I think there was a Wal*Mart there), we ended up in the Best Western Hotel Del Rio. Not a 5 star, or 4 star, or even 3 star, at least they Internet, a clean room, TV, and a really good restaurant.
Thursday, off early again, same type of road, and into Mazatlan. It was Carnival when we were there, comparable to Mardi Gras, and very festive and fun. Dinner at the famous Shrimp Bucket was followed by a stroll along their Malecon where we got into the Carnival spirit. We bought ourselves a couple of masks, listened to the bands, and soaked up the local color. It is also in Mazatlan where a cabbie tried to rip us off by charging us double for his cab ride. He soon got an earful from u
s that we weren't tourists, but locals who live in Mexico, and that jerks like him will make people not want to come back to Mazatlan. He went away, but you know he will gouge others who aren't used to it. Likewise, our hotel there, The Inn at Mazatlan was less than stellar, the "ocean view room" providing a peak of water off in the distance over rooftops and air conditioning units, no free internet (despite their listing saying it was provided), and just in general kind of run down.Friday morning, the final stretch home taking a detour through San
Blas, a small resort town on the Pacific that we had heard a lot about. They've got a huge beach but otherwise we weren't too impressed with it when we got there (though there was a parade by some school kids 
all in costume that was cool). We made it back to PV mid-afternoon, in time to make a quick stop at the store, unload the car, and catch the opening ceremonies of the Olympics. All total, 2530 miles from start to finish, and another Mexican adventure comes to a close.
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