Austin
I am visiting my family. Unfortunately, that doesn't leave much time for playing with the laptop. There is just so much to do!
On the way up from San Antonio this morning, I composed a little traveling poem:
********************
The miles scream by on
Interstate Highway 35
all around are
propositions winking
from billboards and
digital signs and the
windowless walls of
hot pink buildings
saying come on
buy this religion buy
that pair of shoes buy
something else you
didn't even know you needed
and all my energy is wrapped up
in staying alive
all the way to Austin.
********************
...which I did. Tomorrow, I'll be going back to San Antonio, just for the day, and in a car, rather than the motor home, to meet an online acquaintance and a newborn grand-niece. On the way, my sister and I will indulge in a little Ikea time.
We've gone shopping for enough food to feed the entire neighbourhood, compiled a list of the movies we want to see together, made plans to go get our hair done, and generally filled the next few days with girl stuff. Our husbands will just have to cope. We will be going to the Alamo Drafthouse to see "Slumdog Millionaire". That's at the top of the list.
So if I disappear for a while, it's just because I'm having a wonderful time.
Thursday, February 26, 2009
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Elmendorf, Texas
Elmendorf? I thought I was in San Antonio until I read the header on our RV park receipt. Oh, well. It's been a long day. We spent one more night in Alamo, and I'm glad - because I got to watch about 50 people of a certain age crowded together in a smallish swimming pool, playing volleyball. It was hilarious. I worried at first that somebody would get trampled and drown - but then I realized there was no room for anybody to fall over, so there was nothing to worry about. While the volleyball game was going on outside, there were five games of pool and three card games in progress in the hall where I sat, trying to catch up on my favourite blogs amid the general uproar. I turned happily from one entertainment to the next, until the party animals finally went off to their various RVs and left me to my websurfing.
We headed for Three Rivers this morning. That's an hour and a half or so back down the road. I had found an RV park listed online, and it looked pretty good, so we tracked it down. It wasn't as pretty in person as it was online - a not uncommon problem with internet relationships, I understand - but the manager was very pleasant and understanding. The problem was that the park didn't have much in the way of amenities. To soften the blow of our rejection, I used an age-old tactic - passing the buck. "It's my husband, you see," I said. "We've been in Mexico for a couple of months, and he really, really wants to settle down and 'veg' in front of a television tonight. You understand, don't you?" She did, and she kindly told us about the park where we are now. But this is what happened. We turned on the tv and watched what was left of "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire". Then we found a remnant of "Jeopardy". The news came on, and we watched that for a bit - but then we pretty well lost interest in the tv, and eventually I just turned it off. Now, if "House" had come on, or some show that I used to watch regularly, I'm sure I would have been sucked in, but as it was - ehhh.
So we ended up spending the evening the way we've been spending all our evenings for the last couple of months - reading, websurfing, and finally - blogging.
Tomorrow - Austin.
EDIT: I just noticed that this is post #200. That calls for a celebration, or at least a little Ta-da! ...and maybe a song. "Ta-dum, ta-dum, ta-dum...You're getting to be a habit with me."
Elmendorf? I thought I was in San Antonio until I read the header on our RV park receipt. Oh, well. It's been a long day. We spent one more night in Alamo, and I'm glad - because I got to watch about 50 people of a certain age crowded together in a smallish swimming pool, playing volleyball. It was hilarious. I worried at first that somebody would get trampled and drown - but then I realized there was no room for anybody to fall over, so there was nothing to worry about. While the volleyball game was going on outside, there were five games of pool and three card games in progress in the hall where I sat, trying to catch up on my favourite blogs amid the general uproar. I turned happily from one entertainment to the next, until the party animals finally went off to their various RVs and left me to my websurfing.
We headed for Three Rivers this morning. That's an hour and a half or so back down the road. I had found an RV park listed online, and it looked pretty good, so we tracked it down. It wasn't as pretty in person as it was online - a not uncommon problem with internet relationships, I understand - but the manager was very pleasant and understanding. The problem was that the park didn't have much in the way of amenities. To soften the blow of our rejection, I used an age-old tactic - passing the buck. "It's my husband, you see," I said. "We've been in Mexico for a couple of months, and he really, really wants to settle down and 'veg' in front of a television tonight. You understand, don't you?" She did, and she kindly told us about the park where we are now. But this is what happened. We turned on the tv and watched what was left of "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire". Then we found a remnant of "Jeopardy". The news came on, and we watched that for a bit - but then we pretty well lost interest in the tv, and eventually I just turned it off. Now, if "House" had come on, or some show that I used to watch regularly, I'm sure I would have been sucked in, but as it was - ehhh.
So we ended up spending the evening the way we've been spending all our evenings for the last couple of months - reading, websurfing, and finally - blogging.
Tomorrow - Austin.
EDIT: I just noticed that this is post #200. That calls for a celebration, or at least a little Ta-da! ...and maybe a song. "Ta-dum, ta-dum, ta-dum...You're getting to be a habit with me."
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
Here they are, as promised, twenty-five random facts (and random impressions) about Mexico, and about my love affair with Mexico - with a bow to the meme and with the intention of exorcising the ghost of Tampico:
1.Mexico has cowboys – real ones, on horses, wearing boots and five-gallon hats, twirling lassoes, herding cattle near - or on - the highway.
2.From the northwestern corner to the southeastern tip, Mexico is approximately 4,000 kilometers long.
3.In Sayulita, there is a sanctuary for the protection of sea turtles. I am told that if you kill a sea turtle, you can be sent to prison for seven years. I don't know if it's true.
4.Stray dogs starve in the streets of Mexico. People are reluctant to have their pets spayed or neutered. Male puppies are preferred; females are often abandoned or killed.
5.A very popular snack in Mexico is the taco de cabeza, which means head taco, but I'm told it is a brain taco. I ate one, in a village near Veracruz. It was very tasty. So far, I have suffered no ill effects. It was beef brain, by the way.
6.As you drive along the highway, you see donkeys tethered nearby, sometimes wearing saddles, grazing the long grass. Sometimes there are horses or goats, though with goats, there is more likely to be a herd, untethered, perhaps tended by a child.
7.The traditional Mexican work outfit is made of white cotton. It is still worn in parts of Mexico, and I have never figured out how Mexicans manage to keep those brilliantly white pants and shirts clean in such a dusty country.
8.Speed limit signs are common and apparently whimsical. An 80 kilometer zone will suddenly become a 60 zone, or 40, or even 20, for no discernible reason. Sometimes there will be two signs within a car's length of one another. Or there will be a long, long time between signs, so that you're not entirely sure how fast you are allowed to go. Watching the cars around you will not help, because of #18.
9.According to a Mexican friend, Mexicans are not actually required to have licences in order to drive. They can get them, if they desire, but a licence is not required, and getting one involves filling out forms and paying a fee. There is no driving test. This rule (or lack thereof) does not apply to foreigners.
10.Most of the water in Mexico is now potable. We nevertheless buy purified drinking water there (and everywhere we travel) in carboys, just because you never know.
11.There are thirty-one (31) states in Mexico.
12.Most of the Mexicans I have encountered in six years of visits (so far) were kind, friendly, honest people, but
13.There are still corrupt policemen and politicians in Mexico. I met one of the former, just a couple of days ago.
14.A cactus in bloom is a beacon of hope and a cry of victory. I suppose that applies to cactus everywhere, but I thought of it while gazing at a Mexican cactus, so it counts.
15.In Zihuatanejo, there are houses painted truly beautiful and extraordinary colours.
16.Mexicans eat their breakfast (el desayuno) fairly late in the morning; they have their main meal (la comida) at around two or two-thirty in the afternoon. The evening meal (la cena) is lighter, like our lunch.
17.Almost everything happens slowly in Mexico: check-out at the supermarket, arrival of the electrician you're waiting for, real estate deals – pretty well everything, except #18.
18.Normally easy-going Mexicans become monsters when they get behind the wheel. They drive at breakneck speed, overtake on either side, even on curves and street corners, turn two-lane roads into four, five, or six-lane gridlocks, and lean almost constantly on their horns. Hence,
19.Mexico is a very noisy place. If it isn't the horns, it's the radios, or the mariachi bands, or the cars equipped with huge loudspeakers on their roofs roaming the streets, drivers with microphones in hand shouting out the price of shrimp or the virtues of a presidential candidate.
20.In San Carlos, Sonora, at the Totonaka RV Park, Silvano, the office manager, greets me after nearly a year with “Sandra! It's so good to see you!” which is a large part of why I regard San Carlos as my second home.
21.Not all Mexican tacos are tacos de cabeza. There are tacos made with ground beef, hunks of achiote-seasoned pork, hunks of pork fat (truly disgusting. I tasted one once, by mistake), chicken, fish (yum), and no doubt other fillings. What they have in common is that they are made with corn tortillas, and the tortillas are not fried. They are always served warm and soft. Tortillas are fried crisp when they're too stale to use any other way, and then they are totopos – tortilla chips.
22.Many Mexicans are ingenious people, no doubt out of necessity. I'm sure there's somebody in Mexico who really could make a silk purse out of a sow's ear.
23.There are signs all along the highways advising motorists to respect the signs, not to damage the signs, not to destroy the signs. In fact, most of the signs appear to be in good shape, unless they've been run into by bad drivers.
24.Some of the signs admonish people not to litter. Those signs are generally surrounded by mountains of garbage. When you do find a litter barrel along the road, it is usually full to overflowing and sitting in the middle of a sea of garbage. This is despite the many signs pointing out that a clean highway is a safe highway.
25.Contrary to rumour, and notwithstanding #s 4, 13, 18, 19,and 24, traveling in Mexico is generally safe and enjoyable, as long as you follow Robin and Sandra's rule: Expect the unexpected.
1.Mexico has cowboys – real ones, on horses, wearing boots and five-gallon hats, twirling lassoes, herding cattle near - or on - the highway.
2.From the northwestern corner to the southeastern tip, Mexico is approximately 4,000 kilometers long.
3.In Sayulita, there is a sanctuary for the protection of sea turtles. I am told that if you kill a sea turtle, you can be sent to prison for seven years. I don't know if it's true.
4.Stray dogs starve in the streets of Mexico. People are reluctant to have their pets spayed or neutered. Male puppies are preferred; females are often abandoned or killed.
5.A very popular snack in Mexico is the taco de cabeza, which means head taco, but I'm told it is a brain taco. I ate one, in a village near Veracruz. It was very tasty. So far, I have suffered no ill effects. It was beef brain, by the way.
6.As you drive along the highway, you see donkeys tethered nearby, sometimes wearing saddles, grazing the long grass. Sometimes there are horses or goats, though with goats, there is more likely to be a herd, untethered, perhaps tended by a child.
7.The traditional Mexican work outfit is made of white cotton. It is still worn in parts of Mexico, and I have never figured out how Mexicans manage to keep those brilliantly white pants and shirts clean in such a dusty country.
8.Speed limit signs are common and apparently whimsical. An 80 kilometer zone will suddenly become a 60 zone, or 40, or even 20, for no discernible reason. Sometimes there will be two signs within a car's length of one another. Or there will be a long, long time between signs, so that you're not entirely sure how fast you are allowed to go. Watching the cars around you will not help, because of #18.
9.According to a Mexican friend, Mexicans are not actually required to have licences in order to drive. They can get them, if they desire, but a licence is not required, and getting one involves filling out forms and paying a fee. There is no driving test. This rule (or lack thereof) does not apply to foreigners.
10.Most of the water in Mexico is now potable. We nevertheless buy purified drinking water there (and everywhere we travel) in carboys, just because you never know.
11.There are thirty-one (31) states in Mexico.
12.Most of the Mexicans I have encountered in six years of visits (so far) were kind, friendly, honest people, but
13.There are still corrupt policemen and politicians in Mexico. I met one of the former, just a couple of days ago.
14.A cactus in bloom is a beacon of hope and a cry of victory. I suppose that applies to cactus everywhere, but I thought of it while gazing at a Mexican cactus, so it counts.
15.In Zihuatanejo, there are houses painted truly beautiful and extraordinary colours.
16.Mexicans eat their breakfast (el desayuno) fairly late in the morning; they have their main meal (la comida) at around two or two-thirty in the afternoon. The evening meal (la cena) is lighter, like our lunch.
17.Almost everything happens slowly in Mexico: check-out at the supermarket, arrival of the electrician you're waiting for, real estate deals – pretty well everything, except #18.
18.Normally easy-going Mexicans become monsters when they get behind the wheel. They drive at breakneck speed, overtake on either side, even on curves and street corners, turn two-lane roads into four, five, or six-lane gridlocks, and lean almost constantly on their horns. Hence,
19.Mexico is a very noisy place. If it isn't the horns, it's the radios, or the mariachi bands, or the cars equipped with huge loudspeakers on their roofs roaming the streets, drivers with microphones in hand shouting out the price of shrimp or the virtues of a presidential candidate.
20.In San Carlos, Sonora, at the Totonaka RV Park, Silvano, the office manager, greets me after nearly a year with “Sandra! It's so good to see you!” which is a large part of why I regard San Carlos as my second home.
21.Not all Mexican tacos are tacos de cabeza. There are tacos made with ground beef, hunks of achiote-seasoned pork, hunks of pork fat (truly disgusting. I tasted one once, by mistake), chicken, fish (yum), and no doubt other fillings. What they have in common is that they are made with corn tortillas, and the tortillas are not fried. They are always served warm and soft. Tortillas are fried crisp when they're too stale to use any other way, and then they are totopos – tortilla chips.
22.Many Mexicans are ingenious people, no doubt out of necessity. I'm sure there's somebody in Mexico who really could make a silk purse out of a sow's ear.
23.There are signs all along the highways advising motorists to respect the signs, not to damage the signs, not to destroy the signs. In fact, most of the signs appear to be in good shape, unless they've been run into by bad drivers.
24.Some of the signs admonish people not to litter. Those signs are generally surrounded by mountains of garbage. When you do find a litter barrel along the road, it is usually full to overflowing and sitting in the middle of a sea of garbage. This is despite the many signs pointing out that a clean highway is a safe highway.
25.Contrary to rumour, and notwithstanding #s 4, 13, 18, 19,and 24, traveling in Mexico is generally safe and enjoyable, as long as you follow Robin and Sandra's rule: Expect the unexpected.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)