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Travel route to Brownsville Texas


IMBurnen

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Thanks Angus. Love the kilt! I did look at that route but don't want to go through Tamaulipas for a variety of reasons. I do intend to try S. Padre Island and thanks for the suggestion. I'm looking to find a person who has driven the road and can comment on the state of the East bound roads from Monterrey. My friend used to live in the Brownsville area and so I will try to accommodate that since it's not a huge difference in miles to drive. Go raibh maith agat agus oíche mhaith

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Tamaulipas is getting a bad rap, but you would not pass through Cd. Victoria, the hot spot. There are so many Federales and Army, you would feel secure. Monterrey is a real bad route to take because of the time, distance, traffic, and exorbitant tolls.

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The east side of Monterrey is a mess to get through if trying to go from Saltillo over to Reynosa.  The problem is a lot of construction in the area of the East Periferico junction with the 40D toll road (south of Apodaca).  Last week I went that way and took Hwy 54 up to the border (exit off the East Periferico just before the airport). The border crossing is at Roma,TX and quite small but there was little traffic.  From there a nice drive along the northeast side of the river down to McAllen. It is a little out of your way if going down to Brownsville but to me I would say a safer route than going up Hwy 101 from Cd. Victoria or driving through or around Reynosa. I have experienced problems with travelling along 101 and 97 in Tamaulipas and no longer use those roads as a result. Used to be my preferred way to get to east Texas but no more.  A Federal Policeman I spoke to on 54 even questioned why I was taking that road and not going up through Laredo.  He seemed to infer that anything east of Laredo was an area that foreigners should not be travelling through. 

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I would suggest that the safest, cheapest, and fastest route up that way is the way Mainecoons travels, exiting at Pharr, Texas. Then, turn right and continue on to Brownsville, while in Texas. If you sent him a PM, he will get you a copy of his detailed directions. Definitely worth the consideration !

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On 7/22/2017 at 8:02 AM, Ezzie said:

..... but to me I would say a safer route than going up Hwy 101 from Cd. Victoria or driving through or around Reynosa. I have experienced problems with travelling along 101 and 97 in Tamaulipas and no longer use those roads as a result. Used to be my preferred way to get to east Texas but no more. 

Ezzie, could you speak to the background of this statement, if not in detail maybe generalities? 

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On 7/22/2017 at 9:32 AM, Hud said:

I would suggest that the safest, cheapest, and fastest route up that way is the way Mainecoons travels, exiting at Pharr, Texas. Then, turn right and continue on to Brownsville, while in Texas. If you sent him a PM, he will get you a copy of his detailed directions. Definitely worth the consideration !

Could you speak to the reasons why you suggest that it is the 'safest' route?  Cheapest and fastest I understand, but......

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On ‎7‎/‎29‎/‎2017 at 10:36 AM, RickS said:

Could you speak to the reasons why you suggest that it is the 'safest' route?  Cheapest and fastest I understand, but......

Although we have only used that route maybe 5 times, we have never seen or encountered anything that remotely suggested possible security problems. Many use and have used that route for a long time and Ezzie is the ONLY one who has suggested that they encountered any type of problem. No matter which route you select, anything is a possibility, as there can never be a guarantee that your trip will be uneventful. We just feel that, for us, that route provides the least stress. YMMD. MC has done that route a lot, so his observations we find very helpful. Tamaulipas deservedly has a bad rap (Nuevo Laredo just had 10 bodies found in town), but we still go through there at times. COMMON SENSE will be your best friend, no matter which route you select. Sadly, that flower does not grow in some people's garden.

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We generally arrange to traverse Tamps on Sundays and have made the trip through Pharr probably 16 times at this point.  We drive a nondescript Honda CRV with Mexican plates and we don't stop for anything from the bridge until the first gas stop on the east bypass of C. Victoria.  Coming north, that is the same gas stop and we do not pause until we reach the bridge from there.

When we bring things back, the rule of thumb we follow, which was suggested years ago by RV Gringo, is to keep the "stuff" below the level of the windows  That, too, I suspect helps to not attract attention.

We'll be coming back that way in early October, on an early Sunday morning as usual.

 

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I will be traveling from Houston to Monterrey tomorrow and am going to try a different route through SETexas/Tamaulipas/Neuvo Leon  so will report on what I experience.  As I mentioned before, I don't use Pharr anymore due to a brush with banditos on Hwy. 97.  I am exploring the lesser crossings over the river that are between Laredo and McAllen.  

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For some reason, on MapQuest it shows a route that at Lagos it goes over to Leon and back? Previously, our Garmin routed us thru Lagos and it was really easy with only a half dozen traffic lights.

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I took the Falcon Dam crossing this afternoon and although the view of the reservoir is very nice, not really a good crossing -the one at Roma, TX is much better and I think faster.  At 4PM Banjercito was already closed and nobody from INM was on duty. There were two ladies on duty in Aduana and I guess they wanted something to do so proceeded to unpack our SUV for us to check through everything.  Only thing they dinged me on was the 10 yr. old deep cycle battery I carry as a spare for the road and asked me to pay $228 pesos in tax to bring it across the border into Mexico - even though it was purchased originally in Mexico - go figure.  Another first by Aduana, they also checked the "tarjeta de circulation" for the SUV (it is Jalisco tagged) and verified the VIN# .  I have had the Federal Police do this before but never Aduana agents.

l really like Hwy. 54 Betweem the Monterrey airport and the border, too bad it is so inconvenient to get to from the US side of the Rio Grande.

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