Got to Veracruz and only stopped by each and every military checkpoint.

We got stopped by all but 2 military retenes but I was thankful for the 2 that they were actual military retenes and not fake retenes. Pike was rather bothered that we were constantly targeted by the military for revision and we had a good discussion about the drug trade and why it would make sense to pull us out of line for revision. I was a little apprehensive (to say the least) going through Cardenas, Tabasco but we had no problems going through. I won't say why but Google might give info. I was pretty sure I spotted spotters along the road into Cardenas though.

The road was quite familiar from our previous journeys through this area and looked forward to the pineapple plantations of Veracruz but by the time we got there we were too worried about finding a hotel in Veracruz to stop for the glorious cold juice. This is a usual stop for us and as pineapple is pressed fresh from the field and iced, it is quite a treat on a hot day. When we had left Frontera I had looked up the hotel we'd planned to stay at on Google Maps and found they located it nowhere near the beach (and thus the triathlon route) but way in the middle of the outside of the city. The hotel website, however, showed it much closer to the beach and specifically said it was on the street name of the malecon (Google locating it on the same street name in a radically different location) so we were not sure if we'd have to find a dog-friendly hotel once we got to town or not. Mexican sineage is challenging at a minimum and were it not for our "friends" in the black truck we might still be on the road. We were very happy to find that our hotel was, in fact, right on the malecon and the projected triathlon route. Well, except not really.

We quickly got rooms on the THIRD FLOOR and headed out to find something to eat. Jesse was hoping to revive an old (ridiculous) tradition of KFC on some traveling nights and off we headed for the worst the Coronel had to offer. It was truly The Worst Chicken in the world and even the coleslaw (what I had to eat) was only barely edible. Jamie and I then headed out for water and breakfast supplies and we were in bed by very late o'clock.