>From David Locklear dlocklea...@gmail.com hit delete button now
This post is very long-winded hotel review. I am only posting it here on CaveTex because cavers sometimes have to spend the night in Nuevo Laredo on their way to caves further south. Plus with all the negative attention about Nuevo Laredo in the news, I thought I would try to post something more accurate and more current. I needed to get out of Houston for psychological reasons on Tuesday. I had about a 24 hour window where I thought I could frolick and not miss work. Coincidentally, at almost the same time, my Mexican mother-in-law had an urgent need to return to Monterrey. But her timing and mine were off, so we did not get on the highway until Wednesday night at 9 pm. We arrived in downtown Nuevo Laredo at 3 a.m. Thursday just as the Federales were having a confrontation with some cartel sicario. But we missed that, as it was over by Boystown across the tracks, and we were in the nicer part of downtown Nuevo Laredo about 2 miles away. We checked into the Best Western at about 3:30 a.m. I had never stayed there before, and normally do not stay in such fancy motels. This was a first for me in Mexico. https://www.bestwestern.com/content/best-western/en_US/booking-path/hotel-details.70278.html?propertyCode=70278&group=&srcPage=SelectHotel&isMapOpen=false&selectedHotels= This cost $ 83 dollars, but with the exchange rate I gave the clerk 1,493 pesos Mexicanos. After, I got my elderly "suegra" settled into her room, I went to park my Sequoia. The desk clerk had sent me on a very scary route around the block to get to the parking garage. That was way way too risky, especially at 4 in the morning. Next time, I will just stick to my instinct and stay on the main boulevards and make two U-turns. There are a dozen hotels and motels that you could stay at in Nuevo Laredo, but I can at least vouch for this one, that the desk clerk was ready to assist me at 3:30 in the morning as was the parking-garage attendant. The hotel restaurant breakfast and the indoor pool looked nice, but we did not have time to try them. And one of the best restaurants in town is a half-block away. My mother-in-law and I had breakfast at a taqueria near the bus station, as she was super late for the bus. We almost missed the bus by just 1 minute. After sending her on her way, I then frolicked all over town, spending about 190 pesos on a delicious seafood lunch. I can not say that I learned anything on this trip, as I used to know Nuevo Laredo pretty good back in the late 80's. But I had forgotten a lot and had to re-orientate myself. I probably could have used the GPS and Internet on my phone, but I was afraid I would get some weird fee on my next bill, so I turned it off. My only real concern was that I really did not want to be in my luxurious Sequoia. I would have felt much more comfortable being in a car that someone might not want to kill me for. Plus if it got stolen, I would have been in an awful mess with the Tote-the-Note lot. I almost crossed back into Texas on the old bridge, but then thought to myself, what the heck, I have not crossed at Columbia in way over 15 years, maybe 20, so I headed that way. That was uneventful. I can not recommend Nuevo Laredo as a vacation spot. I certainly would advise not to drive there after dark, as it is a ghost town with just a few men wandering around the streets and no sign of police. I was back home by midnight Thursday, but I was wiped-out from having to do all the driving there and back. The amount of DPS Highway Patrol Troopers south of George West on Hwy. 59 is alarming. I can guess there was one trooper for every 10 cars, plus officers with TPWD and Immigration, plus the local police, and county sheriffs. It is amazing I did not get a traffic ticket. I have put 20,000 miles on my Sequoia since I bought it in June. I would definitely recommend it, and would be very glad to sell it to a caver for $ 13,000. David Locklear P.S. To see a few photos of this trip, click on link below at your own risk: https://goo.gl/photos/SGDKm4YhepTLeevP7 My mother-in-law went to about 3 TCR's back in the late 90's or around 2000. She cooked tacos at 2 of the East Texas Caver Cookouts. A few cavers remember her. She is super duper healthy, but can not walk down stairs or steps alone. I forget her age, but I think she is 83. In 20 years that I have known her, I have never heard her sneeze or cough or catch a cold or complain of a sore throat or a headache, or blow her nose or complain of any medical related ailment. She sticks to a very strict diet of mostly corn tortillas, hand-made salsa, jalapenos, avocados, chicken, jasmine rice and real beans and one cup of coffee per day. No cold drinks, no ice, no sweets, no processed food, no white flour foods, and no alcohol. Just sayin ....
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