Tomorrow is one of those days.....up early and heading south. Nowadays, I just put the old Dynasty in drive and go back to sleep, because it knows where we are going. Actually my grandfather had a pair of plow mules who would return on their own after being unhitched from almost anywhere on or off of the farm. Their names were Ulysses and William....so named because he wanted to restore those good names by thus naming two noble animals, to make up for the mis-use of the names by two Union generals of note.
This morning I went through the routine of pre-qualifying the auto for what is called in Mexican legalese "temporary importation"....One needs to present a valid driver's license, a valid title and/or registration, a valid passport, a valid immigration permit from the Secretaria de Gobernaci'on, and a credit card to pay for the permit. Beforehand, I had to cancel my Mexican Passport, and the previous "importacio'n temporal", whose time was coming to an end to-day.
It being Sunday morning...the slowest time in the week....the whole process took about 9 minutes. Everyone was very efficient, very courteous. "We thought you were leaving Mexico because you were turning in your Mexican Passport"....
"No...I am a coward, but I am not going to let a bunch of cockroaches determine whether I turn left or right in life", I respond and then question,"Are you having a lot of people turn in their permits ahead of schedule?"
"Three or four weeks ago, but things are more or less normal now. As many coming in as going out and the ones turning in their Mexican visas are turning them in at the end of their term and most are re-newing like you."
There were two young men processing their personal and vehicular documents for their trip to Oaxaca.....about three days drive to the south....who followed me in the procedure. They were pleased to learn that Sunday morning is always the time to do any final and/or necessary paperwork at the Mexican side of the bridge...when possible.
In any regard, the whole process, leaving Mission, going to the Reynosa - McAllen Bridge, turning in the old and taking out the new documentation, driving back into Texas and returning home to Mission took an hour and five minutes. Perhaps a record for the past 20 years. Much of this is because of the very advanced and funcional computer processing that is done now. Interestingly, they have a record now of all my paperwork for the past 12 years, including each of my entries and exits from the country. A little spooky....but I am sure the Americans have the same.
These next couple of weeks will be devoted to a couple of minor repair jobs for the house and a full scale assault on the growies on the property. We have people arriving during the second week of May and they have asked if they could extend their stay another four or five days.....Luckily, the other folks who had expressed an interest in coming down around the same time have decided to cancel....so everything has worked out well.
Tonight will be time to make a last trip to the HEB and to load up on goodies for the dogs and cats....as well as a few goodies for the Old Gringo. I'll try to do a bit of a summary before departure tomorrow.
