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March 19 through March 25, 2004
Friday March 19:
Temperature is 69 degrees under the RV at 5:30 AM. This has been a QUIET night at this regular Walmart. Bay City is a farm support town, and farmers are not interested in being awake at all hours after working hard all day. There is no traffic on the street after 10:00 PM, and the store is closed. The parking lot is brightly lighted though; the best of both worlds! :-) We ask about a laundromat at Walmart and get two choices; the first one is found easily, and we park on the HEB supermarket lot across the street. The place does not look new or well kept, but there is staff on premises. The man in charge told me in answer to my question that Walmart takes used motor oil here ...oh my, I have never experienced them doing that. Too bad I did not ask this question at Walmart... :-( We decide to do our laundry here, and after helping carry it across the street, I start washing the bugs from the windshield and front of the RV. A while later Claire returns with news that both the washers she chose do not work....and she must essentially start over. She later reported she was able to get a refund for the money she paid, but of course not the time she wasted. A French Canadian couple parked behind us, and the man chatted with me while I worked. He recommended the beach in Port Aransas for parking overnight. You buy a $6 annual permit at the circle K just off the ferry, then you may park on the beach. We had not planned to go to Port Aransas, as one of our maps showed a toll ferry to that island, but he assured us the ferry was free. As it is on a state road, it made sense it was free....Texas' Dept of Transportation seems to provide free ferries where they do not build bridges on state roads. As Port Aransas was only 6 miles off our planned route, we decided to spend the weekend on the beach there instead of at Walmarts... :-) Claire finally got the laundry finished at about the same time as I got the bugs off the windshield and the simple directions to Port Aransas written down from the computer. Claire suggested we return to Walmart to get rid of the used oil. Used oil on board always bugs me, and I agreed readily. Customer service sent me to automotive service, where they directed me to a nice clean recycling tank, and invited me to sign the log later. I happily dumped the oil and cleaned the drain tank up, replacing all the oily plastic trash bags it was stored in too; this setup has been used too many times with the same old trash bags covering it. Now we start over clean! The drive to Port Aransas looked easy, so we stopped for lunch in a local park on the way out of town.
This park is full of friendly families enjoying the air. Purry enjoys a graze, then a wander. As he was about to hitch a ride in a strange truck, I pulled him up short, startling the lady getting into the drivers seat; she said she thought he was a dog. Well, he really IS a good dog....he'd be GREAT if he didn't walk kinda funny.... he never barks, even when left alone in the RV! :-) We continue south through a few towns with agricultural industry, crossing a few waterways, and passing through one town with numerous petrochemical plants. Fortunately (I guess) these seem to concentrate in one place, making an awful environment there, but at least sparing the rest of the coast. The bridges give us a view of another coastal industry.
This boat is turning tight circles while it's crew works on traps with nobody in the pilot house. There was a 15 minute wait in line for the Port Aransas ferry, but this is Friday night!
The crossing is uneventful. We drive off the ferry, finding a Circle K on a traffic circle, and pull in. The clerk knows what we ask about, and quickly provides a windshield sticker in return for $6. He also provides somewhat cryptic directions to the beach.....and indicates in answer to my question that if we do not want beach salt splash, we can park near the ship channel, and watch the boats come and go. He points out the street toward the beach leaving the Circle-K .... least we know where to start. :-) We find the road ending on a beach crowded with tents and RVs, so we pick an open spot along the jetty....this is NICE, 10 feet from the water, beautiful view of the beach and boats coming and going, yet no splash!!
I check and we have 5 bars digital cell service...from Verizon! This is as close to Nirvana as this RV gets, and on a weekend too! :-)) Dinner is Claire's chicken noodle soup with thin noodles, great as usual!! PBS TV is strong here....WHAT a place!! :-))))) Across the inlet a herd of cows enjoys this gulf coast playground, walking on the jetty in the deepening dusk.
In Texas the cows are folks too, and we'd better watch out; they outnumber people in some parts! :-) Bed comes shortly after dark tonight, as Internet time starts at midnight.... :-))
Saturday March 20:
This is the first day of spring I hear, and the overhead vents were appropriately open all night. I am too busy on the 'net to notice the temperature. There is lots to do today, as the webpage is far from ready. Claire intends to bike down town and shop. She volunteers to check out the dump station she heard about too, and look for alternate parking spaces if the wind comes up enough to splash us here. So far, even in the 15 knot E-SE breeze, there are no salt spots on the clean windshield, a wonderful sign! I work the net and webpage all day. There is interesting vessel traffic in the ship channel.
Navy vessels and small personal fishing boats must share.... Claire returns to report there is a dump station close by with a $2 fee. The ranger assured her it has good water too. :-) She also reports the image the tourist books are trying to promote of this place as a most popular yuppie tourist destination, with upscale shops is quite exaggerated in her opinion. She finds only a few souvenir shops..... Dinner is stir fried Tofu with broccoli and onions..yummy! We walk toward the jetty's end after dinner.
The fishing poles are lined up all the way out. This is spring break, and the most popular spot seems to be CLOSE to the surf breaking on the beach.
We continue out along the jetty into the gulf, dodging almost invisible fish lines and taking care not to step into deep crevices between the breakwater rocks in the deepening dusk.
Note the jetty stones' pinkish color; it appears that it's made using the same famous pink Texas granite that their state house is. Many here are content to just FISH, but......
Some do catch, and nice fish too!!. We return with much greater care in the dark than we used walked out in the dusk, but there are no miss-steps; where is the flashlight when you NEED it? It's that geezer mind again... :-( I'm in bed early while Claire watches a bit of TV.
Sunday March 21:
Today the webpage must be finished…one big day to insert the pictures into, then we can upload. There are some diversions; here the Texas Treasure casino boat sails for international waters.
It thought it interesting that this treasure is registered in Nassau... This tanker came in from the Gulf.
Claire was first to spot the porpoises playing in her bow wave, jumping clear of the bow just where the wave curled....it looks kinda dangerous to me...but then so does ski jumping. :-)) I'm lucky to get a shot of the porpoise out of water, but not so lucky with the quality. My apologies.... The computer task is finished before 1PM, so there is time for a bike ride around town. Claire takes me to the birding center, with a wood walkway out over the water, with a 20 foot high observation tower near the end. There are beautiful spring flowers in carefully tended beds, nice local trees, interesting birds, some turtles, but the advertised alligators are not visible today.
This moorhen feeds in the reeds along the boardwalk. We chat with an elderly couple who moved here from Michigan. The man has only 25% lung capacity, carries a liquid oxygen container and wears a tube under his nose to enrich the air he takes in. He has emphysema from his work in a dirty industry, and smoking. He retired at 50, and traveled in a trailer for 10 years before settling here permanently. They have not seen any hurricanes hit yet, but expect they might, and intend to leave when warned, as the back bay is reputed to fill with the storm surge, then empty across the town flooding the streets....I'd leave too! We find an advertised Native American Cultural Festival at a local church civic center after asking numerous times for directions. There are a number of persons looking Native American inside, just sitting down to what appears to be a pot luck dinner. We are very cordially invited to join in. The food looks interesting, and quite appetizing, but Claire has cooked beans for dinner and they are waiting back at the RV. I explain that we will not be able to eat our waiting dinner if we eat now....they understand that. We peruse the displays of furs, incense, and crafts. A fair skinned lady with black hair approached us as we are about to leave, explaining they were trying to get the state of Texas to recognize more than the two tribes it now does, saying she had collected much of the displayed material in the room, was 1/4 Cherokee, 1/4 French, and was married to a very red skinned man still eating at the table. Her 7 year old child was sleeping on a stage under a blanket. He did not feel well today, or he'd be drumming she said... :-) She indicated there was no place in Texas for Native Americans other than the tribes recognized to get health care, and they were working to change that. I'm not sure I understand the politics of this desire, but the lady and all others that spoke had perfect English, and were articulate and appeared educated. Very little separated them from others we might meet on the street here, other than their interest in their heritage and, in this room, some unique Native American ornaments and jewelry they wear. They seem to feel they are different, but I do not SEE much of that difference. The lady invites us back the third Sunday of every month, as this is a regular event. I do wish them happiness in their celebration of their heritage. They seem to be enjoying it a lot, and obviously someone put a lot of effort into organizing this event. We thank them for inviting us to join in so hospitably. We leave, and Claire wants to check out a shop we pass. She returns quickly, and we ride back to the jetty and "home". The GPS shows we've come over 6 miles, and it does not seem that far. It is QUITE flat here, and easy riding. Dinner is beans with pork. We may not see as much pork in Texas stores...this is beef country! :-) I am ready to turn in early, as it does not seem we will reach our kids on the phone this weekend...they're evidently having just too much fun! :-))
Monday March 22:
Temperature is 67 degrees under the RV at 5:30. I think it might be windier today by the sound of the surf. I write the log. Claire is up before 8AM. I guess we are eager to be moving again, even from this beautiful spot. The beach is far less populated today; I guess spring break is over.... Wave after wave of Pelicans fly by in close formation just off the jetty, moving past the windshield slowly and majestically against the strong wind.
Finally I step out to photograph them, but of course my presence seems to keep them a bit further away. :-( We shower, then move to the dump station. The clerk asks if we are staying with them; I say we have the beach parking sticker. She says that will not help, as it is county; we need to pay $2. I do not quibble, and I have a feeling the jetty area we parked in is supposed to be in a special fee area too, but it appeared to be where the man selling us the beach sticker sent us, and nobody asked for a fee or tried to move us.....in three days! A search of the numerous pamphlets we have produced NO specific information we could use to support ANY position regarding this, so at this point I'm not going to ask! If we were in a city fee area they would want $8 a day. We decide to take the state highway down Mustang Island to Corpus Christi, instead of the ferry and more inland route. The road turned out to be excellent, and we did find upscale resorts further down the island.
We never did find large malls though, just some shops along the road. In 13 miles we found the state park we'd spent a day in two years ago, and recognize it easily. The drive across the causeway to Corpus Christi is still beautiful, even though the causeway is under construction to raise the level about 5 feet.
I certainly see the need, as the road now is only a couple feet above the present water level. We drive to Sam's; it is close to our route and we need a few things. Gas is only a penny more than we paid in Lake Jackson, so we fuel here too. The parking lot has a large "No Overnight Parking" sign, but we do not intend to stay here. After lunch we have an hour's drive to Kingsville, and easily find the Walmart across from the baseball field; we'd stayed here two years ago. The gas price here is $1.59, so we won buying in Corpus Christi. Our last trip here had higher gas prices as we moved west, so we are prepared to drive to San Antonio after Laredo without further refueling. There are no other RVs in the lot when we park. I nap while Claire calls King Ranch to make reservations for tomorrow's tour; they do not take reservations, but recommend we be there by 9:15 to sign up for the 10AM tour. The security guard knocked an hour later, asking us to move to a different location, and we quickly complied. There are 3 other RVs in the lot now. We need to do major shopping, and when we return several more RVs are pulling in. I motion one of them to pull in next to us, he does. He's from Quebec, and moving toward home. I do wonder why so many Quebec folks seem to head home so early, then recall they cannot be out of Canada more than 6 months or their government health insurance gets cancelled. I guess I'd do whatever it takes to keep my health insurance in force too.... The Easter candy displays were in full "bloom" in Walmart. There are no bagged marshmallows, but there are crates of chocolate covered marshmallow eggs marketed in standard egg cartons; white cartons have semi-sweet chocolate covering, too. :-) The bagged marshmallows have been getting way too sticky in the spring heat, so the covered ones are definitely better.... :-)) We store the extra cartons we bought under the bed next to the cool water tank, against future famine.... :-))) Claire notices the fridge is defrosting when she packs in the new food. I notice the floor under the fridge is damp; a look at the freezer temperature and indicator lights shows the fridge is off. The high winds on the Corpus Christi causeway bridge must have blown the gas flame out too often, causing shutdown, and this must have been over three hours ago. I restart it, and mop up water from the rug with paper towels. The water catching tray must have shifted too far forward to drain into the tube leading outside; yep, it is. :-( Such is the price one pays for the bumps in the road. Dinner is burritos, with lots of freshly bought raw vegetables... :-)))). This Walmart is quite upscale compared to many we stop in; Kingsville has a campus of Texas A&M, and this store has excellent fresh vegetables, and even has the multi-grain whole wheat bread I favor. I am always surprised by the variations between stores only a few hours apart, but they stock what their customers want to buy. If you want to RAPIDLY size up an area, stop in the local Walmart.... :-) There are big differences. I am still annoyed by the dampness in the rug under my stocking feet. I start a muffin fan on the floor blowing over the wet spot while Claire computes and watches TV. It will go off when the inverter does, and only takes 20 watts. Freedom from mildew is worth recharging the battery! We are a bit disappointed there is no baseball game to watch this time, but maybe tomorrow night.... I sleep, and when I awake Claire is in bed, and my feet do not get wet walking on the rug. Happiness is a plan that works..... :-)))))
Tuesday March 23:
Temperature 66 under the RV at 6AM. I hear Claire's alarm clock beeping loudly at 7:30, but she does not respond; I shake her, she turns it off. She wants to be up for our planned 8:45 departure for King Ranch. I check, there is a Flying J in San Antonio on the southeast side, so we have a place to fuel and dump there! I expect we will need it by then! :-) We move out early for us, around 8:45. We want to be at King Ranch by 9:15. On the way I take a phone call from someone who MIGHT be interested in moving our 1964 Alberg 35 yawl needing much work from our yard and becoming it's new owner. I'm still talking as Claire signs us up for the King tour, and returns with tickets for it and half price museum admission. The boat price is as low as we can go and still call the transfer legal ($1.00), but there is considerable sweat equity and money to be put in to get her seaworthy again, and the terms are "as is, where is, buyer moves, we have no liability". This deal goes to the first to sign a bill of sale, so don't overwhelm us with the rush.... :-) It would be nice to have that bit of our life behind us..... This "land yacht" is much more our speed now; when this RV gets a'rockin', we do have SOME control over it... :-) I took some pictures in the visitors center. King Ranch raises a lot of cotton, and this cotton "module" display was of particular interest, as we had seen so many of them on the roads last fall, but never got a close look.
The modules are machine baled to a very highly compressed state, then held with a heavy steel wire (over 1/8 inch thick) before being covered over by a protective bag like covering. They hold twelve to fifteen 500 pound bales of cotton; clearly they are moved only by machine. The modularized cotton feels very solid, almost like wood, with no hint at all of softness. We started to watch the King Ranch video; either this is a new video from two years ago, or I do not recall much of what we watched then; it's quite interesting, but seems very unfamiliar! The tour interrupted our watching of the video, but we'll have another chance at that later. This tour is now sold out, so we best not be late getting on the bus. Our guide and driver Dottie pointed out this chuckwagon used to feed the cowboys working on the range years ago.
The "running W" King Ranch brand is featured on the side and front doors. Dottie knew where the wildlife was, and stopped for pictures of interesting spots. A number of horses in a pasture had just foaled, and the colts were cute.
One was lying motionless in the grass; Dottie indicated she would report that to management. The King Ranch was a major way station on the cotton road of the Confederacy during the civil war, and a supply agent to the Confederacy as well. The ranch business partnership was involved in running the Union blockade to ship goods to Europe through Mexico to pay for war needs too. This activity attracted bandits and union troops to attack the ranch, and confederate forces were assigned to defend it. It started sprinkling shortly after we started, making photography through the bus windows difficult. The cattle were wild enough that they preferred a bush between people and them when we left the bus, but would approach the fence when we were inside.
These Santa Gertrudis cows are not eager to pose.... they move away if we get off the bus. These large wild Rio Grande turkeys seem only a bit less shy...but we don't get off the bus for them either.
These cattle seem to always want something between you and them. They are curious, but suspicious; surely not pets.
I guess I would not have full trust in the guy who might be pulling the slaughterhouse trailer either.... :-)) The ranch still keeps long horn cattle to remember their heritage.
These guys do seem to need a lot more space to turn around... :-) The ranch now raises 30% Santa Gertrudis and 70% Santa Cruz breeds for beef. The newer Santa Cruz breed is said to meet modern consumers demand for leaner beef better than Santa Gertrudis. We were not allowed to stop at the main house for pictures; it is run like a hotel today, with staff, and only family members (well over 200 now) may use it with advance reservations. Stock in the King Corporation is closely held in the family, and some family members will buy stock from other members who wish to sell. The corporation owns the Texas cattle operation here, cotton further south in Texas, large citrus and sod operations in Florida....even the John Deere dealership in Kingsville. :-) The King family now hires professional managers to run its operations, controlled by the family board. Our tour today included a special treat; a stop at the weaver's cottage, where "Lolo" spoke to us. He is a retired King cowboy, around 72 years old, whose autograph on the King Ranch brochure he gave us reads "Alberto V. Treetino". His accent is heavy, but he's interesting, and Dottie has to move him to stop talking, as her time grows short for starting the next tour beginning at noon. He plays his harmonica for us... I remember seeing him in the ranch visitor's center two years ago.
As a boy he had hidden an injured young race horse who had been ordered destroyed by "Mr Bob" Kleberg, then ranch manager. That horse went on to win the ranch's only triple crown in 1946. Lolo is fifth generation of his family to live and work on the ranch. His family came here with much of a Mexican village to join Captain King when he started his ranching operations in 1853. These "Keninos", or King's men, did the work required to turn this desert into a ranch. Even today, frequent "de-brushing" is required to keep the mesquite from taking over the pastures. The desired mix on King Ranch is 65% grass for pasture and 35% brush and trees, to give wildlife its habitat, and the stock a place to escape summer heat exceeding 100 degrees. We saw the huge bulldozer pulled machines that uproot the brush today. I think what a job that must have been before heavy machinery... Dams on Santa Gertrudis creek provide a haven for water birds. This cormorant did not seem alarmed as we approached closely while it was drying it's wings on a post in a pond.
It sat motionless as we all gawked at it from the bus. Today's ranch hands, including descendents of the original "Keninos", have the option of renting ranch housing.
An elementary school is provided on the ranch for the children. High school is either in public school in Kingsville, or at the Texas A&M campus where the ranch has special arrangements for ranch children to attend high school classes. College scholarships are provided by the corporation for all the worker's children, and 95% are said to finish with a degree. As we returned, rain fell heavily. I was concerned that the overhead vents we had left open for Purry's comfort might have allowed rain into the RV, but apparently not. The electronic one with rain sensor had closed, but the wind must have blown in a direction keeping most of the rain from coming in the others, as no trace of moisture was evident. We ate lunch in the ranch parking lot before proceeding to the museum. I was disappointed that the museum did not allow photography. I do NOT understand why so many have this rule... :-(( There were interesting exhibits, including a special Buick convertible hunting car that "Mr Bob" Kleberg had built by General Motors for use on the ranch in the 1950's. It had gun racks on top of the front fenders, a refreshment bar, special storage compartments in the fenders for ammunition and incidentals, and attachments in front for shooting chairs. These folks did their hunting "Texas Style".... :-)) It was interesting that much earlier in the history of the ranch, a bounty had been offered on rattlesnake rattles; the price fell from 10 cents to 2 cents each, but rattles kept coming in, filling storage rooms. I guess there are a LOT of rattlesnakes in this area.... :-) I DID watch where I put my feet when I stepped off the bus on the ranch .....I'm sure there are SOME still there. We walked around the town of Kingsville looking at the shops. I was surprised at the number of boarded up buildings in this otherwise prosperous looking town. The "historic Kingsville" main street had antique and craft shops.
There was the usual Ford Model T monkey wrench..this one was $20. I would not part with my beat up one for $20, (I do use it in the RV, mainly for campground hose couplings that will not stop leaking) but I'm not buying another one either. :-)) We returned to the Walmart lot, and dinner of stir fried beef and green peppers. It was delicious, and the news was near finished, when it became apparent there was a game starting on the field across the street. We decided to dress against the wind and go. The local Kingsville Bramahs were playing the "Far Bluffs" Hornets, with the JV game being here, the varsity on the Far Bluffs field. We sat with the visitors, thinking they could use the extra support. It did not help as they went down to a 9-6 defeat, but the game was not dull; our visitors even went ahead once on an inside the park home run, before a really bad inning near the end. Some friendly grandparents sitting close by said their coach had no previous experience with baseball, either coaching or playing, and that some team parents were quite upset with him. I had wondered at some base running that appeared way too conservative for the situation, and I'd say they might have had some reason to be disappointed in the coaching.... :-( It was a different evening for us; we returned at 10PM QUITE ready for bed.
Wednesday March 24:
Temperature is 68 under the RV at 5:00 AM Today we leave Kingsville for the 120 mile drive to Laredo, across the "nothing" described by our advisor at the fuel pump in Lake Jackson. We have fuel a-plenty to reach San Antonio, so do not expect THAT to be a problem. :-) We are moving before 9AM; the plan is to shop today in Mexico, do one overnight in Laredo, and shop again in the morning before leaving for San Antonio. We do not remember fondly our last stay in Laredo.....the Walmart there was not a super, and we parked in the crowded lot amongst abandoned cars.....next to a well used urban bus stop. Police sirens were screaming close by all night long too. The cellphone had showed weak digital service UNTIL you tried to call, then it reverted to analog and the call failed. This is the closest approach to the border for us, but certainly not the most pleasant we remember. At least now there is a super Walmart there, even if our maps do not locate it. Evidently the city is growing to the east. The drive across "nothing" is interesting, but "nothing" is close to the truth if you do not count ranches and oil facilities as "something". We enjoy seeing the roads less travelled, and do find the blooming century plants pretty.
This is rural land, and the few towns are not "upscale" in appearance. There are some REALLY "upscale" ranch houses, but most are modest. Occasional oil wells dot the landscape. We are careful to observe the unreasonably low speed limits through some of the towns, but the towns are small and we have no trouble, other than making one turn when we confused the sign for route 339 with the route 359 we are following; nobody's fault but ours! It is not common to see vehicles on the roads between towns here.
Two at once is a traffic jam...and the power line maintenance bucket truck does not seem concerned that his boom overhangs the shoulder either. :-) Laredo neared, and we guessed correctly at the direction to turn for the new Walmart. Their uncharacteristically large sign is visible 1.5 miles away. We stopped there for lunch, and noticed their special parking place for RVs and trucks; at least we are welcome! :-) Gas here is the expected high $1.63/g, but we are barely below the full mark, and will easily make San Antonio. We move on to the city parking lot at the border, through narrow one way city streets. It seems less crowded than last time, and there are plenty of parking spaces...but we are later in the year too.
Perhaps most visitors know better than to come here when it is getting hot? :-) Laredo is a busy "land port" for commerce with Mexico, and the railroad bridge crossing the Rio Grande in the background is busy. Nuevo Laredo is as hectic as we remember it.
There are aggressive vendors of all kinds of merchandise. We decline "help" to find a pharmacy, and decline the horse drawn carriage rides too. We price our medicine at all the stores we find. Prices vary a lot, but finally we find one that appears OK; not as good as last year in Algodones, but close. We certainly are not driving to California to save 11 cents a box! We must wait to get as much as we want, as they gather stock from all their nearby stores, but finally we get 15 boxes....all they have available. They promise to get us another 18 boxes tomorrow by 11 AM. We find another three boxes in another store, and head back toward the border. The pills are good until 2006, so we can look forward to Purry using them all.... :-) We peruse a number of shops, some looking familiar from two years ago.
The colorful merchandise is attractive...but WHAT would we DO with it? I even find the store where I had bought pumpkin candy two years ago. They keep it in enclosed glass display cases away from the street, and use TONGS to handle it; I'm willing to pay a bit more for that, even though I'm believe it was produced in the same place as that sold from open air piles in front of shops on the street. I think we may not be able to return to the US with it, even though the shopkeeper assures me we can. I buy only enough to eat while here. We peruse the same upscale jewelry shop as last time; there are FAR fewer customers, but the merchandise is still inordinately expensive, although it LOOKS to be high quality....I would not want to spend thousands on jewelry here without a LOT of personal expertise, though; we would not have much legal recourse, so buyer beware! We consider Tequila, and the price looks good in the store, but after we add Texas state tax of $1.10 a liter, it is not such a saving. Then they must carry your purchase to the border, and the carrier expects a tip too.... :-( Perhaps tomorrow? The customs agents wave us through after inspecting our passports and purchases. The agent says I can bring the bite of pumpkin candy I show him back. Tomorrow we will bring a big bag back! There are no lines at the border here now, and the atmosphere seems a LOT less tense than at Tijuana last year or even here two years ago. Perhaps it is the season? We are later... We return and find all in order with the RV. We get ready to leave quickly, as we are still not beyond the three hour period, and they charge $2 an hour up to the maximum of $10 a day. Traffic is slow on the narrow streets, and driving the RV requires much care. Walmart's truck lot is strewn with broken glass, but we back into a place with the rear slightly high and glass behind us.... The sun is hot, and I nap for a while. The lot fills with trucks, some running their engines continuously, probably for air conditioning. Dinner is Italian soup, and TV tonight is commercial NBC news. Of more than 8 channels available, only two are English speaking, and neither of these are PBS. The local newscast is presented by a young lady with a pronounced Spanish accent. We shop the Walmart, and I note all the store announcements are in Spanish. This is a community where Spanish language fluency is assumed. The culture is closer to Mexican than most US border towns we've visited. Some of this is interesting, but I am not real pleased by the way everyone just abandons their shopping carts just where they empty them, some even pushing them behind the car NEXT to them...C'mon, folks! I adopt a cart rolling slowly across the lot ahead of the breeze BEFORE it impacts a car, and push it into the store.... I cannot find the brand and weight motor oil I seek for the generator, and notice the price for oil seems to have gone up a nickel too; is this the recent oil price jump, or just the added "tax" business puts on serving lower income areas? I do observe uncommonly frequent notices around this store about anti-shoplifting techniques that are employed, so perhaps the costs really ARE higher for business here. I'll check prices again in San Antonio.... On the way out, Claire asks the security lady if we might park in an area other than the truck lot, as there is now no more room there for trucks... She helpfully suggests a quiet corner of the car lot, parked lengthwise; OK!! We are next to the grass, and perhaps Purry will enjoy a walk in the morning too! The breeze is steady, and the air cools enough for light blankets; sleeping is good!
Thursday March 25:
Temperature is 71 at 5AM. When we finish our business in Mexico, we are headed NORTH! The weather forecast for Laredo this afternoon is 86….and yesterday's 79 felt oppressive! Driving to San Antonio in the air conditioned coach will be the place to be! Temperatures there are forecast 8 degrees lower today too. We have just squeaked by our comfortable weather window for this area; from now on it will be getting HOT here. That's really good; we'll have the opportunity to move toward home on routes further north than previously, with new areas for us to explore! :-) Claire walks Purry, and as we prepare to depart the Walmart lot we observe two ladies exit a car that stopped briefly to let them out, and move in on the heavily thorned cacti growing at the edge of the parking lot carrying empty bags.. They are obviously preparing to harvest wild edibles, and choose their target carefully before moving through the tall grass toward one. I'm not sure what characteristic makes a cactus good eating, but perhaps the choice included the least tall grass to walk through, too? I'd have tread quite carefully in those weeds myself. :-) They smiled as we drove off; I wish them well. We move to the Laredo parking lot before noon, and cross to Mexico; the farmacia we had expected to have the remainder of Purry's pills could not get them. The shoe shine boys kept insisting on shining my well worn hiking boots that Matt had warmed too close to the campfire while winter camping ...one even guaranteed they would shine.
Ha, I should have let them try, but really did not want to waste the time. I'm not sure spray on lacquer would have helped their life either. :-)) We walked around seeking pills, picking up a few boxes here and there, but not much stock was evident. One place offered to get more in 5 minutes, and they found 13 boxes. The prices are not as good as yesterday's, but still MUCH better than in the states. One small pharmacy pulled out a couple of unboxed cards of pills with no date, and asked an outrageous $10 each for them. We smell counterfeit pills here, and walk out fast..... I was in need of a restroom, but even my Spanish was adequate to know I'd better look elsewhere than in this small grassy park planted with flowers...
Across the street there was a paved public area with a large building.
Claire was able to ask for restrooms successfully and was told they were on the other side...all in SPANISH!!! :-)) We still needed one box of pills to make our supply, and finally stopped at a store near the border; he had LOADS of pills. We had asked here yesterday, he had little stock and high prices. He must have gone out and procured all the available stock in town, as now he had a HUGE bundle. Oh well, we had gotten ours cheaper....but at a cost in shoe leather. We bought a few dollars worth of candied pumpkin, checked the liquor store and decided that for the less than $1 savings it was not worth the hassle of bringing Tequila back, even though the sales guy said they would not charge federal tax on the 1.75 liter bottle despite our only being allowed 1 liter tax free...yeah, sure, why do I not believe? :-) It might break on the trip home too.... :-( We reach the bridge home and say goodbye to Mexico for another year.
For the first time ever, we were questioned by customs on our medicine; one agent thought we had way too much, saying a reasonable amount was 10 days supply, but he sent us to another agent, who asked what the medication was for (hyperthyroid, for Claire and my personal use, 90 days supply at our dose of two pills a day). He took a box to the back room, then returned saying it was OK, we could go through with it. (Whew!) This is a game with no rules, as technically you are not allowed to import ANY medicines, but they let you do it anyway for your own personal use up to some amount THEY decide is unreasonable. :-(( Oh well.....we're back! I'm glad we did not have excess liquor too.... We arrive in the warm RV and strip to shorts and T-shirts. I look at the parking ticket, we have 50 minutes before we must pay an extra $2; some time to relax and refresh before starting the 3 hour trip to San Antonio. The cellphone rings; it's an Internet friend from Texas who has been unreachable on the net for months. Their house on a Texas ranch had burned, and their email connection had stopped working when the family moved to temporary quarters....oh my, a net person with no way to send on the net...not full happiness right now, but at least nobody was injured in the fire, and repairs are well underway. -))))) We chat for a time, but need to get on toward San Antonio if we are to make it today. It's too bad we have already passed through east Texas where we could have said "hi" eyeball to eyeball, but it is nice we could talk on the phone. :-) I hang up, there is another message on the cellphone that came in while I was talking...HUH? This thing goes for weeks at a time and never rings..... Claire has a voicemail about TaeKwonDo waiting..... We start the drive in deepening clouds, taking the truck route out of Laredo this time...MISTAKE. There are "No Truck" signs every place we want to head for I-35; finally we decide we are legally NOT a truck, and just GO. Geeze.... I wonder what the trucks do? I have a clue from all of them passing us coming the other way on this road.... We find the traveling on I-35 fast and easy, and the wildflowers along the road are in full bloom. They are beautiful, and big areas of blue abound; are these the famed Texas blue bells?
One of these trips I'm just gonna STOP right on the highway for a close look and a decent picture of them....driving by at 60 mph and trusting to luck doesn't work we find....:-)) We arrive at Sam's Club before dark. There are "No unauthorized parking" signs posted, but we get management approval from a young lady who moved here from Corpus Christi, and is now slated to move on to another Sam's job in Baltimore....she's not looking forward to the move much, but it's Sam's upward mobility path for managers, with the same right of refusal that military personnel enjoy. :-) Sam's does not have the salsa we want, nor do they sell liquor here; just wine & beer. We order a pizza from Sam's, and after the new clerk finds out how to process a credit card, we take it back to the RV; it is good with a Corona and what is left of our yellow limes from Nadine & Gene. We find PBS news is an hour later here than along the coast, but it is here! After dinner it is time for sleep...this has been a BUSY day!! :-))
PLANS: We've finished our business in Mexico, and are headed north trying to stay out of the increasing heat in south Texas. The RV gets a bit uncomfortable above 80 degrees without shade, a nice cooling breeze, or air conditioning. The air conditioning requires an electrical connection for long term use; our friends providing free parking lots would soon tire of our generator running 24/7. Today we head to Austin, then on through Waco, Tyler, and Texarkana where we move into Arkansas. We hope to spend some time in Arkansas state parks which honor the federal golden age passport for half price camping. If it gets hot in these, most have electricity. We will then be moving through Kentucky, which we've never seen, as weather permits (or insists?), to be at Luray Caverns in Virginia in May. We have a very firm commitment be at Matt's graduation May 24th; we probably will be home at least a few days before that. :-)
Until next time, ENJOY!! We are!!