To the Emerald Coast

Tues 17 March La Pesca to the Emerald Coast

We have not seen the sun since Louisiana and today started no different. Got underway at 0820. Fueled up (gas here is $2.09/gallon) and headed south on MX180. Nice drive to Tampico. Road pretty good and nice scenery. Fields were a mix of cattle and farming. Like on our West Coast trip, we are amazed at the number of folks that wave at us with a huge smile. Here we are blessed to be in a motor home and they are living on the edge yet they are glad to see us. Maybe there exceptions but we haven’t seen it yet. Also amusing is that all the intercity bus drivers wave at me. I guess I am a fellow driver!

Tampico is a big city and time consuming to get by. There is a circuitous by-pass and it went well. (RV’ers: there is a new bridge over the river. Church says turn left. You must exit to the right and take the fly over. The rest of the by pass is as marked. Just slow with lots of topes and trucks.

MX 180 south of Tampico is slow. Lots of trucks and small towns with millions of topes (Topes are speed bumps and Mexico has perfected them. You don’t find 1, you find them in groups. You WILL go slow!) I missed a turn, could not turn around and we ended up going via Tuxpan. Actually this was good. Scenery beautiful, no trucks, and few topes. There was a little congestion in going through Tuxpan, but not bad. We picked up a toll road there and later joined the Pozza Rico bypass. Excellent road. We lost time, but not too much. MX 180 is fine on into the Emerald Coast. It was a long day: 382 miles and 9 hours. We normally would not do this much but we were anxious to get on the beach, AND, the sun came out!!!

We are staying at Trailer Park de Alba. Nice but crowded for us. Pretty good Wi-Fi and we had an EXCELLENT meal last night of fish and shrimp for $15, cerveza included.