RGVP Trip - Day 1 - McAllen to San Luis Potosi

Actually, I'll start with Wednesday evening... The group was meeting in McAllen for dinner at Joel's house. We were planning to do the dinner and then return to Reynosa to catch the bus Thursday morning, but with the unrest on Monday, we decided it probably made more sense to just catch the bus with the rest of the group in McAllen. (It also meant we would not be looking for a cab at 630 in the morning.)

Most of the group was there, plus some more folks that were not making the trip coming to wish us Bon Voyage. There was salad and lasagna for dinner, cheese cake and a Bon Boyage cake as well. After that we went to Target and Walmart to buy junk food provisions for the trip. Mario went out and I watched a bad movie and went to bed. We woke up at 600 so we could shower and get out of the room to get back to catch the bus.

The bus was running about 15 minutes late, but we made good time crossing the border. Juan (our tour guide from Viva Mexico Tours) claims he told them we were all missionaires - who knows if that is true or not - but we only spent about 5 minutes crossing and then another 10 at the aduana and we were on our way south. Once we left the aduana, the group served us fresh fruit and pastries for breakfast. We traveled via road #2 to Victoria and had lunch there. We actually went into Sorianna, where the group spread out a nice feast of croissants, ham, turkey, beef, cheeses and salad. We all bought our drinks from the local vendors (who I guess were happy to get THAT much business out of us). Before eating, Mario and I ran into Sorianna to the farmacia to buy me some Dramamine. I'm not sure how much of it is the steroid drops the eye doctor has me using right now - or if it's just that fun 2 week period I seem to experience every year (although usually in the summertime). For the past week or so I've been having problems (I was actually blaming them originally on Animal Crossing - who knows) - but for sure the bouncing bus was not doing me any favors either.

After lunch, the dramaine pretty much knocked me out ... We watched a movie (Ray) during the trip as well which helped to pass the time, and there were a number of door prize drawings along the way as well.

FINALLY, about 630 - some 11 hours later - we got to San Luis Potosi and the Hotel Panorama - really nice. There was a welcome cocktail party at Bob and Harvey's suite - and then Mario and I walked around a bit - had dinner at a little restaurant down the street from the hotel. We had the local speciality - Enchiladas Potosinas - bowls of Crema de Elote Sopa - and I tried Chocolate Atole (which tasted familiar who knows from where) - and went back to the room where we quickly crashed.