Goodbye Cracker Barrel, thanks for the memories! If we had known that the last night was our last Cracker Barrel overnight stay, perhaps we would have done more to celebrate and commemorate this occasion. But we didn't know, and we were on a mission to make it as far west as possible. The morning was surprisingly foggy--during this trip we have experienced the occasional foggy mornings, but we haven't really craved them after getting what's probably a lifetime's worth already from when we lived in San Francisco.
The fog burned off by midmorning, and we drove steadily along the highway, with not much in the way of sights besides lots of road, lots of trucks and cars, and lots of trees! We crossed into the part of Florida that's on Central Time Zone, and then the state signs whizzed past us: we drove into Alabama, Mississippi, and then Louisiana! That afternoon we found a rest stop at a Louisiana Welcome Center to stay the night, also taking advantage of a grey/black water dump area to unload.
Bye Bye Bikes
We crossed into Texas around 1.30pm the following day, and we had listed our e-bikes and Sheila's dog trailer on Facebook Marketplace the day before, in anticipation of us arriving in Houston. We weren't sure if there would be much interest, but by the time we got to the outskirts of Houston, we had someone who wanted to buy the trailer! There were a few people interested in the e-bikes, but seemed to be (no pun intended) tire kickers--you know, folks that express interest but drop off in communication and don't seem truly interested.
So we went to the gas station (which turned out to be the wrong one--Lisette had said one address but there was another one with the same brand about 15 minutes away). Fortunately, the seller was a good sport about it and headed to where we were parked. As he was doing that, Lisette received a message from someone interested in the e-bikes, who was a mere 15 minutes away. So we sold the dog trailer promptly, and not long after, another man arrived to check out the e-bikes, and we hadn't had time to even give them a full clean and check (we cleaned them a bit in Tampa, but had them strapped to the front of our RV again as we drove across all 4 states). But after giving them a test drive with Michael, the man got both e-bikes and the bike rack, yay! Everyone was happy. We left the gas station while he was still there, but as we got onto the highway he zoomed past in his pickup truck, giving us one last view of our bikes. Thank you bikes and trailer for the wonderful experiences and memories!
While Michael was sorting out all the e-bike stuff with the man who was going to buy it, Lisette was on the phone to vets in Houston, trying to arrange an appointment so that Sheila could get her international health certificate, rabies certificate and all her paperwork for Mexico and Central America. But it was the Monday of Thanksgiving week (Thanksgiving is on a Thursday), and the vets either had no appointments until next week, said that our goal of driving south this week wouldn't work in time to get all the paperwork ready (they ask for 10 days in advance), or they were quoting what seemed like exorbitant amounts for the paperwork. But the first vet that we called, Garden Oaks, seemed the most helpful promising, and at the end of the day, we'd been slotted into an 8am appointment with the vet, and they'd be working overnight to fill out as many of the forms as possible. Fingers crossed!
As we arrived into Houston, it turned out we had come just in time for a major thunderstorm! While we were driving along the highways, we could see constant flashes of lightning, and booming sounds of thunder immediately after it. Uh oh! We parked at a Walmart, trying to avoid being right next to a tree overnight. While it rained heavily for a while, fortunately we avoided the worst of the storm.
Sheila Still Hates the Vet
We arrived at the vet just in time for our appointment parking under a big tree next to a restaurant as the vet was located among a small number of other shops with limited parking. Even though Sheila hadn't been here before, she pretty quickly cottoned on that we were at the vet--it's most likely due to smelling all the other dogs that had been there before, and maybe recognizing some of the layout that's common to a clinic.
We had her weighed and then talked to the vet, who was very friendly and overcommunicative (in the best way), and clearly had processed international health certificates for pets before. While apparently there's a specific certificate needed for Guatemala and Nicaragua, we opted to just get the international health certificate for Guatemala rather than paying extra for a particular one. With Nicaragua, however, there is a more stringent requirement for the original to have a wet seal, so this would need to be sent by the USDA to the vet. But as today was the Tuesday before Thanksgiving day on Thursday when everything would be closed, we were battling against the clock, hoping that since we were doing the appointment first thing today, the USDA would overnight the paperwork and we'd get it by tomorrow. If so, we'd be able to cross over into Mexico on Thursday or Friday, and cross 5 country borders: Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras and Nicaragua. (At this point we weren't 100% sure if we'd cross into El Salvador or drive into Honduras from Guatemala instead, but a lot of folks had said El Salvador was a good country to cross into, had great roads to drive in, etc, so we'd likely do this).
Then we spent time doing errands: getting a new spare tire, getting an oil change, going to H-Mart to stock up on our favorite Asian groceries and snacks (Lisette will miss the omnipresence of Asian--particularly Japanese, Korean and Thai--groceries, as well as Trader Joe's!). We did this on Tuesday and Wednesday, and parked on both nights at the good old reliable Walmart. Unfortunately, Wednesday came and went and we didn't get Sheila's original certificate from the USDA before the vet closed... bummer! So, we had no choice but to spend Thanksgiving in Houston. We spent it at the virtually empty Walmart parking lot--there were a sprinkling of other vehicles parked in the huge lot, including one RV on the other end in the distance. There was a security guard that did the rounds, circling the block over Thanksgiving, and it seemed the gas station nearby was open, but otherwise it was one of the quietest Thanksgivings we've had in many years!
Finally Friday
We'd arrived in Houston on Monday evening, getting our errands done on Tuesday and Wednesday and twiddling our thumbs on Thanksgiving Thursday. Now, waking up on Friday morning, we were crossing our fingers and toes that the vet would receive Sheila's paperwork as soon as possible, so we could make the still long (~8 hours) to the border with Mexico, and get to the other side on Saturday.
Morning came and went, and we called the vet and still nothing. It was out for delivery apparently, but no idea when it would come--it could be late in the afternoon. Michael, getting exasperated, at one point exclaimed, "We'll never leave Houston!" But after 2pm, we finally got the call from the vet, and Lisette ran around the corner from where we were parked to get all the paperwork. Sheila's rabies certificate, international health certificate, specific certificate for El Salvador, and the specific one for Nicaragua. Plus multiple photocopies of each. Cue sigh of relief!
We drove for about 8 hours after that, stopping only briefly for a rest stop to have dinner and stretch our legs, and one other stop to do a final grey/black water tank dump and refill on our potable water. We had a shower where we dumped our tanks that night, because why not make the most of it? We'd heard it was best to do a tank dump/refill in the US, and we didn't know what our options would be once we left and across Mexico and Central America.
We didn't have our e-bikes anymore so we didn't need to worry about bringing them in as they were obstructing our headlights, so this helped us in powering through in the dark. As we were on the highway, and getting closer to the border, there weren't as many cars on the road but quite a few big trucks, likely also making their way south.
That evening, we stopped at the Laredo Travel Information Center, a rest stop with a building that certainly looked more Hispanic than US in design, but there was still an outline of the state of Texas out the front. Tomorrow morning, we'll be making our way across the border into Mexico!