Driving to Belize on may 12

Good Morning! We also drove down to Belize. Make sure you stop and get Mexican insurance in the US before you enter Mexico. We got the insurance in Brownsville, Texas and were given maps, etc. we even bought a garmin - which did us no good in Mexico. Best border crossing is Mission, Texas, you get on the pay highways and they are great - - take you almost all the way through Mexico - - very safe. We travelled with two large dogs, and we had no problems at all. they seem to be afraid of dogs - especially big ones - ours at the time were 124 and 164 lbs. we were waved through many check stops once they saw the dogs. it was hard to find a place to stay with the dogs however. got to sneaking them in. only took us 3 1/2 days to get through Mexico!!!!!
when we got to the Mexican border, the guards were nice enough to get us an american who does business in Mexico every day, so they asked hi if he could take us to a bank and then show us how to get to the toll road, his advise to us was "get as far away from the border before you stop tonight." Also we were told to stay away from Tampico area along the coast.
The insurance place was called Sanborne Insurance. the only thing we found was not quite accurate was the little map they give you to get you through the Arc of the North (Arc de Notre). You come out of I believe Hermosa or something like that and they say the turn off is real soon after the town. BEWARE!!! it is quite a ways out of the town the turn is on the right hand side and very very very hard to see. we had to go to the next town, turn around and try again, missed it the second time, and had to go all the way back to the town before we could turn around.
Learn a little spanish if you don't know any or buy a english to spanish book. will be helpful. Many of the Mexicans I am sure could understand english, but loved to screw with the tourists, could hear them laughing after we were trying our best to find an operator.......calls, computer, do not work in Mexico. and really how hard is it to translate operator to operatador???????
Good luck in your travels. You will love Belize

Thank you so very much for the good advice, I was starting to worry because I have gotten very little help so far.
Thank you and God bless you....Dave