Saturday, October 2, 2010
made it over!!!
Well gang...tonight is going to be very minimal as i am really, really wiped out. First let me say the crossing was effortless. Because we had the permit already and I was able to hand the guy a list of evrything we had that I had written out the night before, it was a snap. He even walked with me to show me where the bano was. Cool! We happily drove out only to realize we were actually in Matamoros...one of the most dangerous places you can possibly be....ohhh and here we have somwewhere around 15 police and federales cars...something is going on....we move on past.....befor long we are out of the city and into a beautiful countryside..Greta drive. It was supposed to be three hours toTtampico and we had a recommendation for a hotel...cool. Cruisin along...listning to music..oh, discovered the i-pod adapter does not work...oh well...hour 4,.....hour 5.....HOUR 6...7!!! poor john is tired, we are both exhausted. we were so keyed up from the stress the night before we got about 4 hrs of sleep and because we had been driving all day we hadn't eaten since breakfast . It was a desolate though beautiful countryside. there really were no stors or hotels or anything so our only option was to keep going. Finally, we near tampico. Just before that, about 6 Federales came flying up behind us a pulled into a gas station. a few miles later they flew by us again. we stopped at a best western but they didn't have wi-fi so we decided to find the one that had been recommended. BAD CHOICE. No sooner do we pull out , we get pulled over. The cop tells John he was speeding- which he was- he has him pull over further,,,to where?? we are on a super busy crazy road.. we do. Bugs are flying in the window and biting us. he has John get out and takes him to the front of the car. This is where it starts to feel like a scary movie... they talk and i can only hear bits and pieces because of the cars and trucks roaring bybut i already know the drill....usually its about giving them money but this feels a little different. After a while they come around to my side and john says if we don't pay the ticket he will be taken to jail. The cop wants $1000.00 american dollars. Can everyone imagine how that felt? Dark, busy mexican roadside, exhausted, hungry, driving for 7 hrs straight...Oh ny god...I was expecting $20.00 or so- I've never heard of this much of a bite. I think if it would have been light and he had gotten a good look at the truck he would never have asked for that. anyway after what seemed like an eternity of talking and dickering- at one point he actually kind of put his hand on Johns arm and said he would spend the night in jail- we ended up giving him $95.00.John got back in and we set out. By now we were pretty sure we would never find the hotel. it was too dark and we were way to rattled so a few miles down the road we saw a Holiday Inn. John went in while I waited, and waited. finally he came out and said he didn't want to stay here because it wasn't secured parking. i told him I didn't think we should go on and he went back in to see if we could park in an area behind a gate we saw. I waited, and waited, chewing my nails and getting really anxious about the thought of us going back out on the road. Finally John came back and said we would just have to park out front, that he had paid for the room. A bell hop came out to help me while John parked. I was so relieved to be going in, it all kind of hit me and as we walked to the room I told the bellhop "policia es mal!" the cop is bad...and explained what happened. " We don't have a lot of money" as he helped me unload our "luggage" which included a cardboard box of touletries, a plastic bag, a plaid plastic market bag and our two suitcases. Then the tears came...damn! Ihate when that happens....well, that's what happens when I get right to the edge of exhaustion! I took a long, hot shower while John went out and got us a sanwich. After I ate, I checked e-mails, facebook and then posted this. We are both wiped out and we have a very long drive tomorrow and the next day. Our little house in Santa Clara will be a welcome sight... On the positive side, we didn't get shot in Matamoros, we didn't get in a wreck and we still love each other and it was a pretty drive . So, tomorrow we will get up and start over again...you may not hear from me for a couple of days now. Unless of course I need some money......
Friday, October 1, 2010
a few more
a few last shots before the border..oops..the first one is actually a shot of birds that didn't turn out, the car is the very same car I took my first roadtrip in 19 years ago, the "risen lord" is pretty typical of Texas and the cactus, well, it's just a really big cactus...and the fellas are from the museum in Pecos
Last day in the states...
One door closes and another one opens.....we are about 130 miles from Brownsville, Texas which is where we are crossing. That means we will get up and in 2 hrs time be entering Mexico. We will be stopping in Tampico the first night where I anticipate having wi-fi ( we got the hotel name and info off a blog from some people who just drove down in May) so the plan is to chat with you all tomorrow night. After that...I don't know...it could be two days until we arrive in Merida where I can most likely update you. I am telling you all of this as a way of saying if you hear nothing for a week please let someone know! We are going from tampico to Vera Cruz to Villahermosa to Merida. Climbers, hikers and other wilderness folk always let someone know their plan and we are sort of heading into a type of wilderness so...
Today was pretty uneventful. lots of driving!! we really didn't see anything too interesting. I drove a lot today to so that means the cameraman (or in this case woman) was incapacitated ( not to be confused with decapitated or emaciated...). The landscape was much greener . It actually looked a lot like the drive down I-5 to Corvallis. We got to Corpus Cristi and had to decide how much farther to push it. My concern was that we still needed to get mexican insurance which required a copying machine. You know, we picked some sage that was growing at newspaper rock and John has been smudging us and the truck as we start each day. Just to cover all the bases we have also been using the magic wand. Some of you know what this is...some don't...my friend Carol had one that she used when we played Yahtzee and I coveted it. Luckily I found one at the dollar store. You push a button and it makes a magical sound. Well, we've been "wanding" the truck too. Now, you may think we've lost it..but this hotel we found in the middle of nowhere...Kingsville Texas...has it all and for less than we've been paying for the motel 6. The people are super nice and helpful, made copies of some documents for us, helped us with internet and a copying machine so we could get our Mexican insurance, gave us beverages AND the room is huge and lovely. Who knows if it's the sage and the wand or just good Karma. Whatever it is I thank the powers that be for bringing us here.
On this trip we've seen lots of empty spaces, blue sky, cactus, blast sites, longhorns a roadrunner! crazy signs ,giant crosses, petroglyphs, arches, small towns, poverty, excess, historical artifacts and lots of really sweet people.
So, tomorrow morning we cross...isn't it amazing?? It is to us. We regularly ask each other " 20 years ago would you ever have thought we'd be doing this?' No way. Life is so interesting and amazing if you simply choose to live it. It's like the song lyric says-" if you're bored than you're boring". Read a book, take a class, get to know someone new, try something you've never done,wear something totally different, take a trip, take a risk, don't take yourself so seriously. THIS IS YOUR LIFE. We aren't incredibly gifted, special, affluent people. we just had an idea, made a plan and saw it through. Simple . So, I will post a few pictures that you haven't seen and get ready for bed. We have a very big day tomorrow.Love to you all.
No Phone!!
Well guys....we knew it was coming but didn't expect it yet...we woke up this morning to find the phone has been cut off. It feels weird. This whole experience has been like much of life- taken in increments. First it was leaving work, then it was leaving our house, leaving our town, our state, now our communication and in another day or so our country. It really started when we had to go through and get rid of our belongings. I'm not saying I dislike it, it's kind of like deciding you want to go swimming and the waters cold. Sometimes you just dive in to get it over with and sometimes you move in slowly taking a few tentative, bracing steps as you go deeper...So, no more voices only words. Mail doesn't have a sound.. It's Ok..I just took a couple more steps and the water has surrounded my heart. Soon I'll be used to it and I'll push off and swim. Stay in touch y'all!
Thursday, September 30, 2010
Roswell to Ozona
Hello my friends! I am sure you've been on pins and needles wondering about how the ant situation played out. Well, the cab of the truck was littered with little teeny, tiny ant corpses this morning. There were two incredible specimens that managed to survive the "blast" and I blew them out the window into the Texas desert. They will most likely begin breeding a new super race of ants...sorry....
So we departed from Roswell at around 10:00 after stopping at Starbucks for beverages and oatmeal ( and the new Robert plant C.D...who knows when I'll get new music?!). The drive was pretty much the same as it's been for the last five days. The scenery is interchangeable other then some is a bit greener but it's all a lot of nothing. We missed our turn at one point and were headed west to El Paso instead of south so we had to take a "ranch road"to get back on track. It's a nice two lane paved road with a 65 mph speed limit and it was really cool. We got out at one point to stretch our legs and it was absolutely silent . I took a minute to take it all in..the smell; grasses,sage and dust, the sounds; crickets, rustling of the brush and the stirring of the wind. How long must it have been like this? How many others have experienced theses same sensations? I marveled at the paradox of a wide open space filling me up. Rather then a sense of desolation, I felt overwhelmingly connected and a part of something huge. Time and space,past, present, hopefully future all connected. Then I thought about how all of this must have been exactly the same in 1890 and that in 2090 my grandson could end up standing here at 86 years old wondering the same thing. We will all have long sinced moved on yet so much would , and does, remained unchanged. I took a couple of pictures, one using the timer so we could both be in it and we set off again. For the next several miles I listened to Tom Waits while John captained us through the vastness. I couldn't shake the feeling of being filled, touched, that I fit, albeit fleetingly, on this plane.
Eventually we came to a crossroad that had once been a community. All that remained were empty buildings, a small cafe and a post office. We had some postcards to mail, so we turned around. As we pulled up next to the mail truck, John asked the driver if the post office was open. "No, it closes at 2:00. I'm just waiting to pick up some mail." He told us about his route. Lots of driving long distances and usually dealing with very little mail. I was surprised that there was a post office here at all.
Eventually we pulled into Pecos. We went to the Pecos museum which had 50 rooms. Back in the day,it had been a salloon and boarding house. Next door was Judge Beans office. There was an animated salloon keeper who told the story of two people getting shot in there. Upstairs there were lots of great photos, saddles, some of the rooms were set up just like they had been then. It was fun and we were really glad we stopped even though it ate up part of our day. After that we found the post office among streets of closed up store fronts and an empty movie theatre. We sent off our postcards and found a Dairy Queen. Once we finished, I took over the driving and about 3 hrs later as the sun was setting in the rear view mirror, we pulled into a small town called Ozona. Our hotel is lovely. We went to a nearby store and bought Michaelina's frozen dinners and a gallon of water. Back at the hotel, as I "cooked" dinner, John got a load of laundry going. Once I'm done with this, I'll call the kids, shower and go to sleep. Another full day...
once again the pictures are being difficult so...more will be revealed...
So we departed from Roswell at around 10:00 after stopping at Starbucks for beverages and oatmeal ( and the new Robert plant C.D...who knows when I'll get new music?!). The drive was pretty much the same as it's been for the last five days. The scenery is interchangeable other then some is a bit greener but it's all a lot of nothing. We missed our turn at one point and were headed west to El Paso instead of south so we had to take a "ranch road"to get back on track. It's a nice two lane paved road with a 65 mph speed limit and it was really cool. We got out at one point to stretch our legs and it was absolutely silent . I took a minute to take it all in..the smell; grasses,sage and dust, the sounds; crickets, rustling of the brush and the stirring of the wind. How long must it have been like this? How many others have experienced theses same sensations? I marveled at the paradox of a wide open space filling me up. Rather then a sense of desolation, I felt overwhelmingly connected and a part of something huge. Time and space,past, present, hopefully future all connected. Then I thought about how all of this must have been exactly the same in 1890 and that in 2090 my grandson could end up standing here at 86 years old wondering the same thing. We will all have long sinced moved on yet so much would , and does, remained unchanged. I took a couple of pictures, one using the timer so we could both be in it and we set off again. For the next several miles I listened to Tom Waits while John captained us through the vastness. I couldn't shake the feeling of being filled, touched, that I fit, albeit fleetingly, on this plane.
Eventually we came to a crossroad that had once been a community. All that remained were empty buildings, a small cafe and a post office. We had some postcards to mail, so we turned around. As we pulled up next to the mail truck, John asked the driver if the post office was open. "No, it closes at 2:00. I'm just waiting to pick up some mail." He told us about his route. Lots of driving long distances and usually dealing with very little mail. I was surprised that there was a post office here at all.
Eventually we pulled into Pecos. We went to the Pecos museum which had 50 rooms. Back in the day,it had been a salloon and boarding house. Next door was Judge Beans office. There was an animated salloon keeper who told the story of two people getting shot in there. Upstairs there were lots of great photos, saddles, some of the rooms were set up just like they had been then. It was fun and we were really glad we stopped even though it ate up part of our day. After that we found the post office among streets of closed up store fronts and an empty movie theatre. We sent off our postcards and found a Dairy Queen. Once we finished, I took over the driving and about 3 hrs later as the sun was setting in the rear view mirror, we pulled into a small town called Ozona. Our hotel is lovely. We went to a nearby store and bought Michaelina's frozen dinners and a gallon of water. Back at the hotel, as I "cooked" dinner, John got a load of laundry going. Once I'm done with this, I'll call the kids, shower and go to sleep. Another full day...
once again the pictures are being difficult so...more will be revealed...
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)