[JimmyMN]

The bulk of military checkpoints seem to occur when crossing from one Mexican state to another. My impression is that they're looking for guns or large shipments of drugs. I've never had them look in my ashtray or on my floorboard for ramnants of bud. Then again, not all the guys who look through your belongings are military... some are agriculture inspectors.

Besides the state lines, they seem to show up at major highway crossroads or right after crossing a key bridge. Places where you'd have to go way out of your way to circumvent them. Many times they're on key roads near a large city. I'll often see these closed adhoc temporary checkpoints, especially when driving between midnight and 5am. The ones that concern me though are the rare roadblocks... there were lots of them when we went through the states of Chiapas and Oaxaca during the unrest in the city of Oaxaca, a little over a year ago.

Have noticed that the military has a bigger interest in large trucks and especially buses... but not all buses. Certain bus lines are hassled more than others, so I'm guessing it's a territorial thing. When I know I have a standardized checkpoint coming up, I always sandwich in between the buses hoping to get lucky.

When I get stopped by local police or Federales, that's usually cause for concern. We got stopped once by the Federales for avoiding the checkpoints south of the US border near Matamoros. That was interesting...

I've clocked plenty of road miles in Mexico and would say that these checkpoints have been mostly a minimal inconvenience. Many times, they'll ask for donations for coffee... everyone needs their Starbuck fix, even in Mexico. The longest delay I've had was 35 minutes when a young soldier became fascinated with Jan...

As for the incident about the gun to the helmet... those stories seem to get larger each time they're told. Just my opinion.

Jimmy