Texas: Galveston County: Pasadena: We luckily found our way out of Houston, picked up U.S. 90A W until we got on U.S. 59 S. It's raining in Sugarland. They sky's clearing about 20 mi. S of Sugarland on U.S. 59. We arrived in Laredo about 1400 hrs. We dropped by Sanborn's Mexico Insurance. We managed to get across the border finally, but we had some trouble. We picked up Mex. 85 S and attempted to get out of Nuevo Laredo. We stopped by the side of the road to eat, and continued on, arriving in Monterrey about 2200 hrs. [CDT]
Tamaulipas. We entered the state of Tamaulipas [from San Luis Potosí] on Mex. 85 at 17,661.9 mi. We pulled off of Mex. 85 on the road to Las Flores to eat and collect. It is warming up. We're in a tropical thorn forest. The camp is at 17,662.1 mi. We got one Eumeces, one Sceloporus, and seven Cnemidophorus. We leave at about 1415 hrs. The mileage as we turn back on Mex. 85 is 17,662.3 mi. We head N toward Mante. 17,668.8 mi -- We reach the junction of Mex. 80W and Mex. 85 in Antiquo Morelos. At 17,686.0 mi we reach the junction of Mex. 85 and Mex 80E.
Tamaulipas: Mante. 17,704.8 mi -- We head N on Mex. 85. We pass thru Mexicali at 17,704.8 mi. A[t] 17,711.8 -- we passed over the Rio Sabinas. We passed through El Encino at 17,719.8 mi. We pulled off Mex. 85 onto some unidentified raod that ran into a sugar feild [sic]. We collected some. We got one Sceloporus variabilis. We saw some chachalacas. The area was a transition zone between tropical deciduous and tropical thorn forest, with a sugar cane feild [sic] thrown in the middle. We left heading N on Mex. 85 toward Victoria. 17,747.5 mi -- We spotted a caracara. We have also seen white wing doves and black vultures. At 17,750.7 mi we crossed the Tropic of Cancer. It was a crested caracara that we saw earlier. We stopped in Ciudad Victoria and visited the market. We got some Coca frias, and left.
Tamaulipas: Junctino of Mex. 85 and Mex. 101, vicinity of Ciudada Victoria. The mileage at the junciton was 17,778.2 mi. We took Mex. 101 N toward Matamoros. At 17,779.4 mi, we pulled off the road to eat. We got through chowing down and left at 2048 hrs. We headed for Matamoros. 17,814.5 mi we found a Rhinocheilus lecontei DOR [Dead on Road] at 2145 hrs. Tonight is partly cloudy, windy, cool.
17,817.9 mi -- Crotalus, DOR
17,856.9 mi -- Hypsiglena DOR
17,825.5 mi -- La Barreta turnoff 2353 hrs.
17,859.9 mi -- Jct Mex 101 and MEx. 180 S (to Tampico)
17,871.2 mi -- Thamophis proximus DOR
17,872.4 -- Ficimia strekeri 2358 hrs DOR, some twitching though
17,878.3 mi -- Leptodeira septentrionalis DOR 0012 hrs
17,908.1 mi -- Jct. (Mex 101 and Mex 97) @ 0015 hrs.
17,928.3 mi -- San Teresa
17,945.8 mi -- El Moquetito
17,963.2 mi -- Valle Hermosa
17,980.2 mi -- Main Plaza in Matamoros
17,982.0 mi -- U.S. Customs in Brownsville, Tex.
0420 hrs. We have to come back to Matamoros to get some piece of paper signed.
Tamaulipas: Matamoros. We somehow got the wrong address for the office where we have to go to get that piece of paper signed. We went to the U.S. Consulate and the found the address for us. We find the office, but it isn't open yet. We wait for it. We find out about 3 stops later that all we had to do was to go to the Mexican Customs Office (at the border). I wish we'd have known that earlier. The knowledge could have saved us a lot of time, gas, and money.
Guess what?? We have to go to Reynosa because some poor, dumb Mexican S.O.B might get embarrassed if we don't show up. I'll skip the details. We leave the U.S. Customs at 17,799.7 mi and take U.S. 83 N. We arrived in Reynosa at 1510 hrs. The official showed up 40 minutes late, but he signed the papers, but we still had to wait until his brilliant secretary brouth the official stamp back from his {secretary's) house to the office. We left at 1815 hrs.
Texas: Hidalgo County: MacAllan [sic]: U.S. Customs Office. We fortunately got a breif [sic] inspection here.
NOTE: The peice [sic] of paper that we needed to get signed was an exportation certificate. We went to the Subsecretaria Forestal Y Fauna, Direcion General de Fauna Silvestre, Subdirection Tecnica, or the Officina de etc., etc., in C.D. Reymosa [sic], Tamaulipas.
We picked up U.S. 83 E in Macallan [sic], and headed for Brownsville. We finally had everything that we needed when we arrived at the U.S. Customs in Brownsville. We got to leave (with specimens) at 2040 hrs at 18,140.2 mi. We took U.S. 77 N out of Brownsville. At about 2320 hrs we pulled off of U.S. 77 and camped at what we think is Dick Kleberg Park, by the J.K. Northway Exposition Center.
RETROSPECTIVE COMMENT
We drove pretty hard to get back home, stopping at Larry Dye's apartment in Pasadena, Texas, that night for a shower and dinner, at which Dye was guest of honor. We camped at a rest area near Seven Oaks, Texas, then dashed back to Shreveport, Louisiana, arriving back at LSU-S at 0930 hrs on June 1.
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