judging topes crossings

Topes are speedbumps and they are everywhere in Mexico. Because most vehicles come to almost a complete stop before crossing a tope, topes are good places for vendors selling everything from beans to parrots. You do not want to hit a tope at full speed - especially in an RV or towing an Airstream. So a diligent driver is always on the lookout and if there is a passenger in the car, they will usually shout out "tope" to the driver just in case she/he has missed the sign. Hell, I yell out "tope" even when it's just me in the car!

When I first got to this little town there were no topes. But then spring break started getting rowdier and rowdier and so the people down in the fancy strip where the "juniors" (aka diablos) hang out threw fits and thus were born four topes. This year the town put in temporary topes which are bumps nailed into the pavement. There are now 15 topes through town. It looks like they're going to be here all summer. Gosh, I hope not forever because the topes do what they're meant to do: slow traffic to a crawl. Usually.

My friend from one of the mountain states up north is here and so yesterday we took his sandrail down to the strip for french fries and margaritas at Taco Bar. I had no idea so many tourists were in town this weekend. We sat outside and just our luck there was a tope right in front of Taco Bar. Woohoo! This was going to be exciting.

And it was! We judged people on their tope crossings. Did they go at it full bore? Did they creep up and over the tope? Did they hit it at an angle? Did they even see it? Our winning speed crosser was a big 4x4 silver truck with a bedload of passengers. That truck sailed across the tope at a higher than posted speed limit and not one person bounced out of the truck. We gave him a ten. The beat-up pickup loaded with cucumbers crossed slowly, easily, and not one cucumber tumbled out. A woman in a little red Nissan was too busy talking on her phone. She drove over the tope as though it wasn't there. Two motor scooters went by at reasonable speeds and aimed at paths between the bumps. If they didn't hit it just right and a tire should rub against one of the tope bumps, the scooter would've gone done.

College-aged kids waved at us and waved their beers as they drove by. Families smiled shyly. It was as though we were a float in the parade - the queen and king - but we weren't the ones moving. We returned waves. We cheered. We gave thumbs downs or ups.

Next weekend we're going to park the sandrail at the first tope. We think it will be more fun to see the action where people may not be expecting a tope. Also, a lot of people take that tope at an angle so we'll add that to our judging criteria. We'll turn the sandrail into a mini bar, bring along folding chairs and score cards. It will be like the Olympics of tope-ing.