Summer 2007 Car Trip - 19

Saturday, May 19, 2007. Another travel day. I am getting so that I like them as much as actually reaching our destination. We are in a part of Mexico now that I have never seen before and I am exhilarated with each passing mile we travel.



Today finds us on our way from Taxco to Morelia, Michoacan. Today we headed north out of Taxco on the secondary route, MX 55. We were travelling through the same type of country that led us to Taxco. Beautiful, jaw dropping vistas when the mountains opened up to show us what they contained. Some of the valleys stretched outward below us for miles before being lost in another craggy turn of the mountains.



I would have really enjoyed this stretch of the drive but for two things: the scorching heat and the endless amount of delays for road construction. Lanes closed down to one with a flagman at each end. Waits so long that it was possible to shut off the motor, get out of the car, stretch my legs and have a cigarette or two. It was frustrating because this was just the first little leg of this day's trip. We finally made it to Ixtapan de la Sol where we were able to pick up the freeway system to and around Toluca.



Getting through Toluca, or rather the outskirts, was an adventure in patience and endurance. I failed the first part big time. I was hot. Very hot. Even with the windows open in the car there was little relief from the heat. Any breeze that was generated from driving was like the breeze that hits you when you open your oven door to check on the cookies you are baking. I was sitting at one interminably long stop light, about sixth back from the light (after having already sat through what seemed like 43,875 changes of this light) when this dude comes walking by the car. He was carrying a big stack of sales flyer booklets. As he approached the car, I leaned my head towards the open window and very politely said, "No Gracias". He paid no attention and tried to foist them on me. I repeated myself. At that he tossed the stupid things into the car onto my lap and sauntered away! To say this pissed me off is a vast, vast understatement. I picked them up off my lap and gave them a gigantic fling out the window onto the grass that came up to the curb.



What I didn't realize is that before the light changes again, this same guy comes along and collects them from you again. Only to give them out again to the next batch of cars that moves up in line. What's that all about???* So when he gets back to me, I angrily wave my hand at him and gesture to the pile of pamphlets now lying on the grass. He sputters a bunch of Spanish at me, I think including Puta Madre, and gathered them up. Then he came back to the open window and starting hollering at me! I rolled up the window and ignored him. Then he walked to the front of the car and made a big show about trying to write down my license plate number. Except he couldn't because when I saw what he was doing, I inched forward until he couldn't get between me and the next car. With that, the light changed and we were on our way.



During this whole process B from the backseat, and L in the navigator chair, never said a word. Not one. But as soon as we started moving again they sure opened their mouths! Mostly with how rude I had been to toss the stuff out in the first place and then the subsequent encounter. I thought it was rude beyond measure that this dude tossed the crap into the car onto my lap, even after I politely told him no! I finally told them to SHUT THE FUCK UP and just that loudly too. Silenced ruled for many miles after that. Except for navigational instructions.





* if you want these flyers and the coupons they contain, you are supposed to pay him. If not, you just hand them back.