[AFTERWORD- It turned out that there is not much dialogue nor many pictures associated with this trip. Bill Bryson wrote, “To my mind, the greatest reward and luxury of travel is to be able to experience everyday things as if for the first time, to be in a position in which almost nothing is so familiar it is taken for granted.” It may be that this has to do with my not finding this trip as interesting as others – a little to familiar. I did pretty good at staying off the freeways but not so good at getting it on with the locals.]

I drove to LA to visit a friend. We had dinner and I stayed overnight. The next morning I drove to Phoenix and visited with Mom for an hour or so. She still recognizes me but probably forgot that I was there five minutes after I left. I drove on to Nogales AZ, stayed the night and crossed into Mexico the next morning. This was the least time consuming crossing through this entry ever. Mexico is getting it together. I also noticed the highways were cleaner, fewer pot-holes, clean Pemex bathrooms, and less hassle.

I drove to Los Ayala, just north of Puerto Vallarta and visited with my brother and his family for a few days before heading out to San Miguel de Allende to visit a friend.

While there we took a short day trip over to Dolores Hidalgo. This town was originally named Dolores but renamed in honor of Fr. Miguel Hidalgo, a force in gaining independence from Spain. It was his church that we went to visit. Pretty impressive. I found it particularly so since the gold leaf was in the process of being restored. Most gold leaf we see is very, very old. When new it appears almost back-lit. Check out the pics. I fudged and included them in with the East Texas pics.

After a couple of days I headed out for the border. I drove north and then east to the Matamoras/Brownsville Texas crossing which was the only one open at the late hour I reached the border. Near Rio Bravo I got stopped by a cop on a Harley wanting a payoff. In Spanish the dialogue was pretty much as follows:  "You have infraction. Do you understand "infraction"?" "Yes, I understand infraction. I don't understand for what." (Repeat variations of previous a number of times) He said, "Give me piece of paper" I did, and he wrote "2500" on it. I shot back, "No. No way. Where is your boss? Let's go to the police station. Now." He said something that I didn’t understand and went back to his scooter. I waited. He came back to the window and I made motions that I would follow him. He said something else and went back to his scooter again. I waited. He came back. Waving his arms he said something else and I understood.  "We’re finished, go away." I did. I continued to the border and spent the night just outside of Brownsville.

The next day I drove to South Padre Island and just loafed around. I had heard of South Padre and pictured it populated by second-homes and old timers. Wrong. Beautiful but one hell of a lot of condos and people on a long and narrow piece of sand and the only way on or off is the single causeway. I imagined that hollering “Hurricane!!” there would be akin to shouting “Fire!!” in a crowded theater.

I started poking my way up northwest along the Rio Grande, checking out the smaller towns and on gravel about half the time. I ran across a border crossing, Los Ebanos near Sullivan City that I was not aware of. Neat. The pictures speak for themselves. Writing this in Rio Grande City on 2/28.

I'm considering just poking around Texas for a while. It's a big state and there's lots to see. A great guide book to the state can be had for free.

I camped for a night at Garner State Park which is on the banks of the Frio River and just south of Leakey TX (where there resides an old pirate of my acquaintance). I camped in a pecan grove and was able to pick up and shuck pecans off the ground. Quite tasty. The park was also muy frio, not freezing but close. I changed my plans to cover Texas, most of which was further north, and, rather, stay south for a while longer. I can handle the cold but when cooking food other than soup it is always cold after it hits the plate.

I drove east, bypassing Austin and the Dallas-Fort Worth area through Plano and into Louisiana.

Photos are here.

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