Truckers, others warned of S. border dangers; violence at higher degree, official say

Personally, I would always be alert if I were in a Mexican border town. But that's just me.

 

I'm usually in one every week or two. I generally try to arrange it so that I am in-and-out on the same day, without an overnight stop. I usually haul beans, frozen fries or lumber (all in-bond) down, and produce back, so I don't think there is any greater risk of being hi-jacked than in, say, Salt Lake City (I wouldn't haul sugar in SLC ). I don't imagine there's too much to be concerned about during the day, and I'm not interested in frequenting trouble spots at night. I do lock my doors and just go point-to-point via the best route available.

 

As I often begin a post, "times have certainly changed". I was a second driver at Tri-State in 1969 when my lead driver suggested we visit Mexico. We were deadheading. I assume we were running from California to Indiana. By the time we reached Terre Haute, I had Montezuma'a Revenge.

My lead driver was an old hand at this. We parked the rig in a small U.S. town on the border. A taxi driver agreed to drive us to a small Mexican town if we gave him time to buy groceries for his family who lived on the Mexican side of the border. The taxi was a 1957 Chevy. As we were bouncing along the two-track, I asked where the border check-point was located. The taxi driver asked whether I noticed those men playing dominoes under a shade tree. That was the check-point. We met his family and proceeded to a bar. I remember that the bar had a dirt floor. I had a Coke. My lead driver spent a few minutes in a back room with the prettiest young woman I had ever seen. Amazingly, the Tri-State rig was still parked where we had left about four hours earlier. Don't ask me how we logged it.