Thursday we got up, prepared ourselves for another gloriously sunny windy Texas day by going to the Las Vegas restaurant for breakfast. I had 2 eggs over easy on toast, thick bacon sizzled so crispy that I could hardly chew it, and a hash brown patty that I could not refuse! There went my vigil of counting calories from the past three weeks!
We arrived at the Texas Mexico border to a few changes. The international bridge to cross the Rio Grande is long and it breezy, and there are now blinds on where used to be windows to look out, I wondered why, to prevent us from seeing out, or others from seeing in? There are now Mexican military in great numbers on the border, more barriers between, longer lines crossing, and on the return, a showing of passports! It has been a few years since I last crossed the border at that point and in light of recent tragedies in Mexico, I was prepared for it all. What had not changed was the cacophony of “lady, lady do you want to buy...........“ People selling cactus leaves, bracelets, hats, shopping bags, candy coated peanuts, and much much more. Children hawking straw doll, shoe shines, toys, and chicle (gum) We walked down the street of Progresso looking at knock off Coach purses, “Silver” jewelry, sunglasses, and vanilla. To my delight I found vanilla beans five for 2 dollars, a steal when you compare it to the $16.00 I had recently paid for eight beans on line. We stopped for Nachos at my parents favorite breakfast place, I was wishing I had saved myself as the pastries on the shelves looked delicious, but it was lunch time, and well beyond those kinds of pleasures! The nachos were loaded with cheese, and came with pico de gallo, salsa, and the ubiquitous jalepenos. They were very good, though a little of the salsa went a LONG way! Daddy wanted his last haircut of the season, while he was being shorn Mother and I took Courtney to the local school. Our kids here take what they have so very much for granted, often complaining about what they do have. I wanted her have a correlation between what she has, and what these kids have. We walked right in the school, to a room with five little girls, all in fifth grads, giggling and smiling. Mother took a bag of pens and pencils out of her purse and I asked one of them if they would like them, the took them and put them right in the teachers desk drawer, that drawer had precious little else in it. I remembered an unopened roll of Mentos in my purse and asked if they would like them, they said yes, but did not put those in the teachers desk! I guess sharing only goes so far! I did have to wonder what kind of education these kids are getting, here we are slashing budgets, laying off teachers and going computerized to save money. DO our kids really get that much better education?
After the hair cut at Gloria’s it was time to make our way back. There is a tiny hole in the wall place my parents always stop in for drinks and I was needing a pina colada, so we stopped, it was as creamy and yummy and I remembered and well worth the alcoholic indulgence mid day! This place used to have dollar bills all over the walls, ceiling, bar etc, but the money is all gone now and when I asked the owner he said that they had spent them all! Crossing back over the border was uneventful, unless you want to include the vista of one of the most perfectly gorgeous men I have ever seen in the person of a border guard, a guard whose line my father did not lead us into!
That evening we played cards again and mother beat the pants off of all of us!
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