Mexico

I spent the morning making phone calls, paying bills, mailing the cell phone, and packing up. i have a few things to think about but the temptation is strong to say fuck it b/c most of it doesn't matter. After packing, and eating some miso soup with rice and a boiled egg i get going - kinda late pero no importa. Curt and Franks house is only 8 miles from the Pharr crossing and i change some dollars into pesos along the way. At the bridge i am directed onto a sidewalk that is a narrow slot of gargbage and broken glass. Then their is a barrier that says no walking across . . . so i carry my bike around and over. The sidewalk gets really messy standing water, deep mud, more garbage and lots more glass that makes riding difficult and crashes me into the concrete barrier a couple times. I am amazed that i didn't flat. Then Mexico! of course the automatic
gates do not respond so i carry my bike over another concrete barrier and around the gate - this time i have an audience and we all laugh at the mild absurdity of the situation. I just pass thru . . . no one stops me for identification, i am in Mexico, and have not showed my identification yet.
I immediately notice the roads are a lot more exciting - pot holes and curb drop offs that would stop a car . . . never mind a bike. Pretty quickly i get onto a local highway heading south that is narrow but cars are friendly and give plenty of room. A passing truck loses a half dozen metal saw horses that go skittering all over the road but i am far enough back by 5 seconds that it is not a real concern. The landscape is wide open ranchland with sparse traffic. I see a dead horse, hit by a truck, frozen in mid effort to stand with one leg cocked to lever itself up. Along the border the military presence of the federales is everywhere. Fifty kilometers in i decline a turn because of federales blocking the road, no smiles, and lots of machine guns, including two about my size mounted on jeeps. I may have been able to weave thru the 8 stopped vehicles and federal jeeps scattered across the road but does not seem prudent. By 4 in the afternoon drunk drivers become noticeable on the road - i'll have to keep that in mind. I settle in for the night in Valle Hermoso after a roasted chicken ready to get up and head south into Mexico.