We did the zigging and zagging because I wanted to go through Tuxpan and meet up with a poster and his wife from a forum I'm on. Even online some people just come across as really interesting and people that you want to meet, Ed and Fran were two like that. We've been through and around Tuxpan before but this time I was determined to stop there and get a chance to meet them.

Tuxpan is a difficult city to negotiate even in a car. It is at the mouth of a large river as it flows into the Gulf of Mexico. There is only one bridge over the river and it takes off from the center of town. We'd gotten stuck there once years ago and had to have the police lead us to the bridge. This time we pulled into a Pemex on the outskirts of town. We needed someplace to spend the night and we needed someplace to park the rig so we could go into town, find an internet cafe and let them know we were in town. I did my blah blah blah in spanish with a couple of the pump jockeys and they said we could park in a dirt strip between the station and a soccer field for a couple of hours. We went to town, got in touch and arranged to meet for breakfast the next morning.

When we got back, there was an 18 wheeler blocking our exit from the dirt strip. It was a pretty good spot anyway so I went over to talk to a new shift at the gas station about spending the night. Lots of blah blah between me and various different people ending with a woman (!) coming over who seemed to be in charge and who said we could spend the night. Since the driver of the big rig was either gone or asleep, I thought that was a good solution and we went to bed.

At bloody 5am the original pump jockey from the day before came to work and started banging on the door of the rig. At first, I tried to ignore her and not answer but she wouldn't go away. I talked to her through the door and she said we were only supposed to stay for a few hours, she would lose her job, we had to leave immediately. I told her I wasn't going anywhere at 5am and I shut the window. At 6am she started banging again on the door. I told her that I had talked to the manager the night before after she left and that we did in fact have permission to spend the night. I don't think she believed me but eventually she went away again.

Mimi and I have stayed at a lot of Pemex in Mexico, we've stayed at toll booths and at restaurants and we've never had this kind of hassle. I am not a happy person when I get woken up in single digits, this pissed me off and I couldn't go back to sleep. So, we were up at 6:30 and we weren't meeting Ed and Fran until 10am. I went outside and had another round of talks with a couple of the pump jockeys and the guard. The guard was really difficult for me to understand, I mean I could only get one word out of every sentence. Finally another guy came over and he told me that the guard was from the country (in english, a bumpkin or a hick) and that no one could understand him. I felt better about that but we still had to make sure the rig would be ok there while we were off at breakfast. Finally, everyone except the original woman agreed that we were all good and about then Ed and Fran arrived.

We had a great time with them, they took us downtown and bought us breakfast and showed us around. I really enjoyed talking with them and it reinforced my belief that with enough time you really can tell a lot about people from virtual conversations online.

When we got back, the 18 wheeler was gone and we hooked up to leave. My original gas jockey girl then had the friggin gall to come over and ask me for money for spending the night. In my best colloquial spanish I told her I wasn't paying to be woken up at 5am. (you can insert a few swear words in there too) With that we quickly left and hoped she wasn't the niece of the police chief.

So, when people ask how it is to boondock in Pemex gas stations in Mexico I can no longer say we've never had a problem. It wasn't a big problem unless you are as grumpy as I am at dawn.