Nuevo Laredo to San Miguel de Allende "All the Federales say they could have had them any day..."

The moment we crossed the border into Mexico we were completely on our own. All of the cars in the Coyote Convoy were waved through except for ourselves and one other group because we had closed trailers. Once they had searched our truck and trailer throughly we made our way to the highway. Within our first 15 minutes of being on the highway we were pulled over twice by Federalies. Luckily it only cost us $50 dollars and nobody said a word about the 150 gallons of bio-diesel that we had in the back of the truck... That is until we made it to the Mexican customs stop 30 miles into Mexico and they told us that we had to return to the border and dump our bio-diesel. But wait, it gets better! Smooth talking Moncrief put his spanish skills to the test and conviced the customs officals that the bio-diesel was actually vegetable oil and that we were using it for educational purposes. After exchanging some t-shirts and a stern warning that we could never do this a again we were allowed to pass.
The 550 mile drive to San Miguel de Allende was definately not what we expected. The barren deserts littered with cacti that we had imagined, were replaced with stunning mountain views and random small communities along the highway containing extremely crafty people managing to survive in the middle of nowhere.
We arrived in San Miguel about an hour and a half after the rest of the convoy, and suddenly no longer felt like we were in Mexico. San Miguel is a place rich with culture and wonderful people. Our original impression was that a large percentage of the population were ex-pats. However, we have recently been informed by a San Miguel local that the population is actually around "85 thousand, (and larger if you include the entire "municipio" of outlying ranchos. The foreign population is roughly 10-12K, or only about 12-15% of the total. This is still very much a Mexico town. And we love it that way." We very much appreciate this knowledge, and would also have it no other way. San Miguel is a truly wonderful place and we hope to make it back one day soon. To learn more about San Miguel and view photos of this place visit, http://www.experience-san-miguel-de-allende.com/
The race hasn't even started yet and we have traveled more than 3 thousand miles. It has been an amazing trip so far. We are educating people every day. The Mexicans that we speak to come away with the knowledge that a diesel
motor can run on vegetable oil. We explain that the fuel is "alternativeo" and that we are using only vegtable oil or "acite de vegtebale". The car show today in San Miguel gave us a great opportunity to reach a broad range of people. One very cool part of this race is that we give back in every community we stop in. Last night there was a galla fundraiser to support to local charities that helped in feeding and clothing local individulas that have fallen on hard times. Unfortunetlty our grass roots budget has limited our ablity to give back financially. However, we were able to hook up with one of the town fathers and provide him with roughy 150 gallons of biodiesel. He will be distributing it to the local farmers to offset the price of their diesel, and will hopefully be able to help educate them on waste vegtable oil and other sustainable alternative sources of energy.
Tomorrow we will depart at 6 am to make the push to Coatzacoalcos, which is city is only 150 miles from the start of the race and we will hopefully get there before the stores close to get the rear motor seal for our truck, which is leaking at the momnet. So far this has been a truly meaningful experience and we are looking forward for the re-enforcenetms to our team with the likes of James Moncrief and Willet Hossfeld in a few days. The challenges have been non-stop but we wouldnt have it any other way. Stay tuned...