Read My Lips - the blog

I am home safe & sound

OK, I left here at approximately 11:00 am yesterday. Now after driving 813.0 miles over the last two days, I am safely home. Of course, you know I took a detour to stop by and see Denita, so it was about 10:00 pm last night when I hit Eagle Pass, Texas and stayed the night. It was a bit out of the way to go through Blanco, but I wanted to do so anyway, not only to have a chance to meet Denita, Eric and Zane, the cutey (and glad I came the day after the event Denita told on her blog), and when I looked at the map, I noticed Luckenbach, Texas for song fame was very near, that is why I decided also to go a bit out of my way going down to Mexico. Luckenbach is a hole in the road, actually you have to turn off of the road to see the town, as it is not on the main road anymore. Although it is a hole in the road town, it is really popular, or, at least, it was yesterday, because the town was filled with Cooper Minis. I thought Morris was the one that made them. Oh, well, who knows, maybe Cooper bought Morris out. Goes to show how much I was keeping up on that type of car. Anyway, I was really surprised how many were there. They seem to be pretty popular, and, I guess like everyone how own a Harley goes to Sturgis, SD, Luckenbach, TX on Labor Day Weekend must be the destination if you own a Cooper Mini. I just drove through, had a look at the crowd, most of whom seemed to have a longneck bottle of beer in their hand, then I headed to Fredricksburg, TX and had a nice German food dinner with a nice beer.

I walked up and down the street looking in the various shops, reading the menus of all the German food restaurants, and such for an hour or two, and as I watched everyone, I had an epiphany: Here I was, a single man, all by myself, and I went in and out of every shop and did not buy one single thing. In every couple I saw, the man would be standing outside a store holding several bags, usually, while the woman was inside the store looking around for something on which to spend money. I saw a couple of groups of women only and in such groups, every woman was carrying at least on item she had purchased. I am always having the women who own stores in this town always complaining that I never seem to come in and buy anything they have for sale, and I have always said it is because I already have too much stuff anyway. From now on, I am going to just tell them it is their fault because they have not found me a wife. I had forgotten that all of this crap I have too much of around here is because my wife loved to shop and buy crap for which we had no use. She died, of course, and now I have all this stuff for which I have no use. I just cannot see adding to it. Of course, if I had a new wife, I bet she would be eager to add more crap for which we would have no use to the existing crap we for which we have no use.

After I left Fredicksburg, I drove and drove through some beautiful country and finally ended up in Eagle Pass, as I mentioned. I passed several cheap motels, well not that many, as Eagle Pass didn't have a whole lot of motels, all of which either looked too scary to stay in overnight or had no vacancy signs flashing. I finally tried the Motel 6, which was not displaying any sign, and which was full, but at least the desk clerk told me the Holiday Inn Express still have some vacancies. $89 for f**king room. I watched a couple of hours of HBO (Mission Impossible) and went to sleep. I arose early this morning, ate a toasted and buttered English Muffin and had 6 ozs. of OJ in the breakfast room, then checked out and drove across the border to Peidra Niegras.

I saw about 20 Dentist Offices, but not much more. It was pouring down heavy rain and the streets were flooded. No one was out, so I just looped around the town, looked at it, and came right back across the border. I never know why they pick me, but the U.S. Border guards decided to have a look through my car. Maybe I looked too much like a Middle-Eastern terrorist or something, but no real problem except the time.

I left Eagle Pass and drove to Del Rio. I decided not to drive into Acuna, as was no use having my car searched for a second time in one day, so asked at the first place I stopped if they had a bus that would take you across. They have such in El Paso, which is the way I always go into Juarez. The person said they did and gave me directions. The bus was not running today, and I found out from the cab driver that took me over that the bus service had gone out of business about a month ago. So I paid an American cab $12 to drive me across the bridge. probably about 2 miles on the whole trip.

I got out of the cab, walked up and down the streets looking in all the shops, and really only saw one shop that had anything I really wanted, some really neat china cabinets. I have too little storage for all my kitchen crap, so that is something I could really use. However, even if I had had my car, I could not have fit that in the trunk. I ended up buying a belt with some silver conchos and gold plated longhorns in the middle of them, paid some guy $2 to shine my boots, and ate lunch in the restaurant of the hotel where the cab had dropped me off. I had 3 Tequila Sunrises, with nachos and cheese enchiladas. I had hit town about 10:30am and by 2:30pm, I had had all of Mexico I wanted for this trip. Acuna is famous for its Boys' Town and I had thought about going to check it out. I do like girls, but I am not really into those kind of girls, if you get my drift. I saw the cab driver who had brought me across letting some people out and tried to get him to take me back. He said he couldn't. I guess it is some rule that American cab drivers bring you over and Mexican cab drivers take you back. He asked this cabbie that had just put two passengers in the back of his cab if he could take me back, so I sat in the front with him for the trip back. We had to swing by the hotel where the couple had stayed to pick up their luggage, then sit in a long line going back across the bridge before we got to customs. They tagged us and we had to go at the tables and let them search through the couple's luggage. I just sat on the table, as I had nothing on me but the belt. The guard found one Cuban cigar in their luggage and made the young girl go in the building to fill out some paperwork so they could seize the contraband. She was scared, but came back out telling us about the two US Airmen who were inside and had been caught trying to bring drugs back across. My guess was that they scored some pot, but she didn't know any details, only that the two guys were really scared.

Finally, I was dropped off where my car was, and I headed north by northeast toward home. It rained heavily in parts, and I was fearing these two low water crossings on the road back, hoping I would be able to cross. Last time I had driven back from Del Rio, last summer when I went to Langtry just to see the Jersey Lilly, the South Llano River had been running over the road at both of those crossings. I was almost sure I was going to be stuck when I got there, what with the pelting rain and such. Surprisingly, when I did finally arrive, neither crossing had any water crossing the road. The remainder of the trip home was fairly uneventful.

If you want the Road Trip Roadkill Report, read the extended entry:

Road Trip Roadkill Report

Armadillos - 9

Skunks - 6

Turkey Vultures (or other bird) - 5

Cottontail/Jack Rabbit - 11

Racoon - 6

Dog/Coyote - 2

Possum - 4

Snake - 1

Unidentified - 17

Posted by Tiger at August 31, 2003 09:41 PM | TrackBack