I thought that instead of going through detail minutiae, I'd share my diary notes that I took down while I was down there with some filler to explain and describe.
Saturday, January 14: arrive Harlingen 22:30. Drive to Weslaco. Because of construction (and M & D's unfamiliarity with the lay of the land), we end up looping around the same service road exits, trying to get onto Express 83 to Weslaco. Hilarity ensures (not really). Lots of cursing is more like it. The service roads all the way from Harlingen to McAllen are a massive mess in various stages of construction - and apparently they've been this way for a few years already. Probably will be for a few more yet too.
Mom and Dad's southern home
The pool where I spent a lot of pensive time...
Sunday, January 15: to South Padre Island w/ M & D, Raymond and Laura (family friends). Lots of fun. Search for shells at north part of civilization on the island, laugh at people bogged down in the sand with vehicles.
SPI truckin'. This guy was stuck there for quite a long time.
I figured the dunes in the uninhabited north end of the island would make a great locale for some great porn shoots, but alas, I never got to scope out any prime locations.
Shell hunting on SPI beach
The sand on SPI is so fine that on windy days it apparently acts as a super-abrasive on buildings, everything. It also drifts across the roads like snow - and they use grader patrols to remove it from the roads too!
Drifting sand on the main SPI highway
View of SPI
SPI beach at Isla Blanca
I bought some board shorts downtown on sale, and we headed to the beach at Isla Blanca. Nice day, but windy. Went for a jog down the beach, built a sand castle, BBQed with the folks at the Pavilion. Headed back to Weslaco in the evening.
Me in my new vibrant shorts!
My sand creation. The tidal surge didn't take long to work it back to nature
M & D on the beach
Monday, January 16: Lazy day, breezy 25C. Finished "Twilight In the Desert"", laid on pool deck for 4.5 hours in afternoon. Nicely burned. Ran in a.m. on crappy knee. Checked out Weslaco Fitness Center. Will go later in the week - they even have a weightlifting platform.
Mini-bananas. Cute and tasty!
Tuesday, January 17: super windy, high of 20C. Ran to Dad's ball game in a.m. This geriatric league of trailer park vs. trailer park is super-competitive. My dad hates it. Too much pressure. Funny. A bunch of hyper-competitive old men. The super-complicated rules were discussed at dad's b-day party. Their irrationality made me think of the rules of Blurnsball on Futurama.
Mom and I went to get party crap for his b-day, then picked up dad and headed to Nuevo Progreso, MX for some shopping while dad got his teeth worked on. Came back and b-day party started. Happy 60th dad!
Dad's 60th
Nuevo Progreso is weird. It is totally a service town catering to the Winter Texans that cross the bridge to get cheap dental work done and cheap drugs at the pharmacias. I have a picture here of an entire 'dental mall'. The streets are narrow and you spend an inordinate amount of time navigating around the geriatric crowd there.
Downtown Nuevo Progreso
the Dentist Mall. How bizarre....
Wednesday, January 18: I was supposed to meet Sara & Eliot in San Antonio today, but they caught the flu so the plans were kiboshed. What to do today? Got to the city library, did some emailing.
Random scribe: "Winter Texans" - funny. An entire sub-industry is devoted to them and their money here in the Rio Grande Valley. All I see are old silver-haired and overweight people everywhere. Where are all the young and beautiful people here? Have they all flocked to the metroplexes further north?
Did you know there is are teams in Texas belonging to the Central Hockey League? The Rio Grande Valley Killer Bees play out of the Dodge Arena in Hidalgo. Ricky Martin opened the festivities of the All-Star Hockey Game. Do you think Ricky has ever seen a hockey game? Austin's team are called the Ice Bats. Odessa Jackalopes. Amarillo Gorillas. Lubbock Cotton Kings. Bossier-Shreveport Mudbugs? Freakin' hilarious. I guess most of the players are Canadian imports anyways.
Random scribe: There are NO sidewalks here. I'm walking to the gym every morning and jogging on the roads facing traffic. People are truly amazed to see someone walking as they drive by.
America Heart Wal-Mart.
Americans love their cars. Even the poorest of the poor strive for identity and status with pimped out cars. Probably worth more than anything else they own.
Gym workout went okay today. Upper body workout tomorrow - run early in am.m Thinking about doing a run after dark tonight - uhm, maybe not. Got home, spent one hour on pool deck. Dinner. Started reading main part of 'The End of Faith' by Sam Harris. I MUST RECOMMEND THIS BOOK TO JEFF AND NATASHA. samharris.org. I must send the guy a thank-you email. I am so outraged now about religion. I'm really glad that I bought these last two books I've read.
Did another late night excursion to Wal-Mart with Mom and Dad. In the late evening, the store is chock full of evolutionary lapses. Bought Paulina Rubio's 'Pau-Latina', and RBD's 'Nuestro Amor'.
Thursday, January 19: gym workout and run. "Aloe King" Aloe Vera farm tour at 1:30pm. Actually very interesting. On the farm they grow Aloe Vera, Avocados, Papaya, Pecan trees, Valencia and Navel oranges, Texas coconuts (little ones, apparently Texans aren't too proud of them since they're so small - don't fit the mould of big Texan things). I learned a lot of things, like the fact avocados actually grow on trees. Really big trees.
Genuine Aloe Vera gel. Amazing!
Aloe Vera field
Orange grove
After the tour, headed to the Texas tourist bureau in Harlingen to scam a bunch of free maps, etc. for the next time I visit. I think next time, Joe and I will come down and land in Dallas or Houston, rent a car, check out the sights, San Antonio, Corpus Christi and spend a few days in the Valley.
Went for dinner in the evening to Wild Bill's in Mercedes. Absolutely humungous portions. Ordered brisket and ribs, got double order of ribs from Bill himself because apparently the first rack were too dry....
My Texas-sized meal at Wild Bills. Yes, that's a regulation fork!
Random scribe: People here sure love dogs, especially free-range ones. I got chased five times on my run this morning. I was ready to crush some little doggie heads by the end of it all.
What is it with people at the gym here? No one returns weights or plates back on the racks when they're done, they just leave them where they used them. No one. Why?
Friday, January 20: Upper and lower body workout in the morning (same as the Peak Power Monday hypertrophy workout). Very exhausting. Spent afternoon on pool deck after zipping down to Nuevo Progreso to pick up my future duty-free booze and cigarettes. The temp today is nearly 30C.
Bought 750ml (26oz.) Sauza Tres Generationes tequila - $36, 750ml Bombay Sapphire Gin - $14, 200 Winston lights - $15.
Paid $2.03 Federal tax on liquor over one litre crossing over to Texas, and $7.25 State tax, mostly on the cigs. Should only have to pay duty on 360ml coming back into Canada.
Decided to go to Pepe's on the River in Mission tomorrow. Had pork and shrimp dinner at Uncle Irwin and Aunt Marys.
Saturday, January 21: cold, rainy. Went to Don Wes flea market with folks. Definitely not my type of place. Just lots of white trash Winter Texans buying crap and junk. It's busy here on a cold day - I can only imagine what it's like on a nice weekend day. There is a huge flea market in Brownsville that we drove over en route to SPI on Sunday as well - thousands upon thousands of people, cars. Apparently it is quite the experience, if you're into those types of things.
People are just out buying crap for the sake of buying crap.
Went to Pepe's on the River for lunch. Interesting locale, very country. Entire complex would probably be pretty fun and rocking on a hot weekend day. Oh wait, there are so many retired freakin' Winter Texans here, weekend doesn't mean anything to them. These places could be busy on any given day, I guess.
Took a drive through McAllen on the way back to Weslaco. It is a pretty ugly town too. Looks the same as all the rest of them in the Valley. Main drags are all full of new car and used car dealerships, Burger Kings and Whattaburgers. Even in this small city of 100K, traffic is snarled and congested. Weslaco is much nicer than McAllen, I'll even admit.
Downtown Weslaco, TX
On the way out of McAllen, saw this billboard way up in the air on the Express 83 heading east:
"Vaginal Rejuvenation" at the Cosmetic Gynecology Center. Yeesh. Meat curtains! Eep!
Needless to say, I'll be glad to be hanging out with young people again. I saw FIVE hot guys all week. Everyone else was either really ancient, fat, ugly, or a combination of the three.
Two of the guys were kayaking on SPI, and really weren't quite as hot as they thought they were, however they won the booby prize due to lack of entries. One was a surfer on SPI in a wetsuit. Didn't see much skin, but appeared to have a good body and a great face. Another hottie was a young guy at the Weslaco Gym I saw on Wednesday, but never saw again. He was the yummiest. And the final one was a decent looking guy at the Don Wes flea market being dragged around by his wife. He was a Navy guy, not the most good looking face, but had a decent body, ie., didn't have a freaking gut like everyone else around here).
Hottie kayakers
Random scribe: They sell individual dill pickles here, either in plastic bags with the brine (which I saw on SPI), or deli-style. Laura thought I got a big kick out of this, so on the last day, she bought me a dill pickle. I had already told her I was giving here my Aloe Vera plant since I wouldn't be able to take it into Canada, so we had a commodity exchange! Very funny!
The historic Aloe Vera - Pickle exchange of 2006!
Sunday, January 22: Time to go home. M & D got me at the Valley International in Harlingen at 06:30. Had a coffee with them and then headed through Customs to my flight. Still cold and stormy outside. Flight between Harlingen and Houston wasn't too rough, but flying out of Houston was the most turbulent flight I've been on to date. Got into Calgary at 14:40. By the time I got through Customs and baggage, it was nearly 16:00.
For future reference, the Duty Free prices in Houston IAH were $17.50 for Gin, $24 for American cigs, plus taxes, and there was no tequila on the shelves! Would recommend buying the duty-free items in Mexico, paying the tax to bring them into Texas, then flying with that. It's still cheaper. Of course, I didn't realize there was a $15 Health Tax upon entering into Canada with American Cigs. Weird eh? Because I honestly didn't know about this, the Customs Officer let me away with it this time. I guess that's why the DuMaurier cigs in Houston were like $36. Still cheap.
That's the end of this story.
4 comments:
Glad you had a good trip Reid. Very glad you're back. See you at PP on Wednesday.
That texas meal is incredible. I had my ideas about what they ate down there, but seeing it first hand blows me away. Is this a fairly standard means of nourishment in those parts?
Well, considering the girth of the folks down there, I'd say it's a pretty good bet. It was very difficult to find healthy food (or what we would consider healthy food) in the supermarkets and the good ol' Wal-Mart SuperCenter. This was in a restaurant where meat is the forte though, too, mind you.
Great report!
When I'm by a pool, I'm pensive too.
And who knew you had such a talent with sand?
Glad you had a safe trip.
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