re: Why no attempt to trade for the Marine in Mexico?

Yeah. It's funny now. I was pretty scared when it happened. That's when all those stories were circulating about American women being kidnapped for ransom or being robbed in Matamoros and here I was driving through a very seedy part of Mexico in a rented minivan wearing my best suit and jewelry.

The office laughed about that for years.

And it's crazy but mapquest did just end at the border. I pulled it up when I got to an office to make sure my mother wasn't a total idiot.