Miller got up at five a.m. He quickly gave his wife Jane a last embrace and drove off to have breakfast at his favorite pancake place. Miller wanted to get through Dallas before rush hour traffic peaked. He told Professor Gomez and the two students to meet him on the east side of the parking lot near the geology building. The students had received permission from the TISR campus police to park their cars in the parking lot for three weeks. Professor Gomez’s wife, Blanca, had just dropped him off as Miller drove up with the TISR van. Felipe was standing by his car. There was no sign of Gary. As usual, he was late. Miller had factored Gary’s late arrival into his departure plans. Finally, a red Corvette convertible appeared, driven by a stunning brunette with Gary in tow. Gary briefly introduced everyone to his latest girlfriend and tossed his duffle bag into the van. By now it was six o'clock.
By seven o'clock, Miller and his field party were in West, Texas on Interstate 35 south of Dallas. Miller had the habit of always stopping at West on his field trips. It was a good time to let people go to the bathroom and grab some coffee and something to eat. West was a small town in North Central Texas settled by Czechs. It was famous for its Czech pastries. Miller always enjoyed having a couple of apple Kolaches with his coffee. He purchased a dozen Kolaches to take along with him on the trip to the border. The geologists planned to reach Brownsville by four o'clock. This was about an eight-hour drive from the DFW Metroplex. Although they could cross the border into Mexico at this point in time, Miller decided it would be better to cross the border early in the morning on the following day.
Crossing the border into Mexico was always a hectic experience—although it was not as bad as it used to be. Formerly, it often took three hours to clear Mexican immigration and customs. To make matters worse, Miller usually had to agree to give the Mexican customs officer a bribe of seventy dollars or more just to get through. The rules changed every time you crossed the border. You never knew what to expect.
One time, Miller had problems with all the canned goods and frozen food in the van. Although he had had no problem the year before, the customs people stated that it now was illegal to bring food into Mexico from the United States. Arturo Gomez had argued with the Mexican customs officials for over an hour.
Arturo held a dual American–Mexican citizenship. He was disgusted with the corruption in Mexico that occurred in all levels of government, which was largely controlled by the socialist PRI party. Arturo had refused to bribe the corrupt Mexican officials, who were threatening to confiscate all of the food. Finally, Miller persuaded him to pay off the officials. After a great deal of bargaining on the amount of the bribe, the transaction took place. Since it was necessary to account for all of his expenses to the accounting department at TISR and to the National Science Foundation, Miller had taken great glee in putting down the bribe in his expenses. This drove the state and federal officials bananas. The people in the accounting department could never quite grasp some of the problems that geologists dealt with when traveling to Mexico, or even to remote localities in the United States. They insisted on knowing where Miller went each day and were confounded that they couldn’t find these places on their maps.
The van finally arrived in Brownsville around four o'clock. The trip to Brownsville was uneventful after traveling mile after mile through high chaparral country from San Antonio to Brownsville. Every piece of vegetation had thorns. The brush was so thick that it paid to wear high boots, chaps, and a long-sleeved shirt if you had to do fieldwork in such areas. Miller marveled how cowboys on the King Ranch could work under such conditions.
The field party finally checked into a motel at a truck stop in Brownsville. Truck stop motels were always reasonably priced and had good meat-and-potato-type restaurants attached to them. After having dinner, Miller said, “We’ll meet at the restaurant at six o'clock tomorrow for breakfast and then take off for the border. Don’t be late.”