Crossing the border: The line looks worse than it is. Mexico is not too picky who they let enter the country. You pretty much just drive across. We crossed at dawn approx 6:40.
Paperwork: After you cross the border you need to drive and park under the bridge to pickup your paperwork. There are very few signs how to get here. In fact I have no idea how you would even know you have to go get some paperwork "under the bridge". You pretty much go inside and wait in a series of lines to get your "tourist card". Most of the lines went fast, but we didn't leave the building until 8:45.
Guys with Guns: We passed dozens of trucks like this. They usually had three guys standing in the back with one manning a mounted machine gun. Sometimes they were parked on the side of the road and sometimes they had a security checkpoint setup. They always waved us through. I guess we didn't look like we were involved in a drug cartel. Allison and I debated if they made us feel safe or unsafe and decided they made us feel safer. 
Toll Roads: There were plenty of lines like this one to pay for the toll roads. We spent close to $70 on tolls to get there. There was always a line to get through. Only the one at Monterrey seemed like it was more than five minutes, but they all slowed us down.
No food: So the beauty of the toll roads is also a curse. They bypass pretty much every city along the way. The only places to eat besides gas stations are plywood "buildings" (I use the term loosely) with spray painted signs. We had also skipped breakfast (everyone was too nervous) so we didn't really eat until about 3:30.
GTO is our final destination. It was dusk, but we had about an hour of two lane roads to go once we get off the highway. There was no other options an this point. We just need to push through...Other thoughts without pictures...
So we were right to be nervous about this leg of the trip, but for all the wrong reasons. Besides the guys with machine guns and security checkpoints, we saw no other signs of drug cartels or violence. We also didn't experience any "shakedowns" from local police, and we amazingly didn't ever get lost.
We should instead have been worried about the condition of the Mexican highways. I think I experienced the best highway I've ever driven on as well as the worst. About half the trip was on toll roads which are wonderful. The problem is the another half. I did not ever see a weigh station the entire trip and it showed. Most of the toll roads were concrete and in good shape. The non-toll roads were asphalt and most had literally been crushed into softball sized pieces of asphalt. They lower the speed limit on these highways to 80-100 KPH, but they still will rattle your fillings loose. They are very tiring to drive on.
We also should have been worried about getting to SMA before dark. Everything we read so don't drive in Mexico at night. We were still an hour away from our destination when it got dark. It was only 550 miles, but by the time we made got our paperwork, paid our tolls, passed the military checkpoints, and drove around 50 mph on sections of bad highways our 8-9 hour trip had turned to closer to 13 very tiring hours. We left the hotel in Laredo at 6:30 and arrived at our house at 7:30. We will need to rethink things on the way back....
Wealth in Mexico: We drove Allison's 10 year old Dodge minivan because we didn't want to draw attention to ourselves in my black SUV. Apparently nobody else had the same worry. We were passed routinely by Cadillac Escalades, and special Harley Davidson edition brand new F-150's. At the same time we passed entire families sitting on the shoulder of the toll roads with makeshift shade structures begging for money. They might as well of been holding mile markers, they bordered the highway the entire way. I can't figure out who stops along a highway to give them 5 pesos.
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