Texas

Tuesday, April 9, 2013

Heading to Donna Texas tonight!

This morning we woke up early in preparation for getting an early start tomorrow. We arrived at the new mall Zacatecus Gallerias to check prices on good quality pots and flatware.  Very expensive was the price verdict, much more than Canada.  I also checked Liverpool, same price line.  We also discovered that two for one buffets at Liverpool are not all created equal.  All our needs for particular worldly goods were not satisfied, so we moved on to Walmart and La Playa.  Satisfaction at last.

At the hotel I rested, still recouping from the nasty cold.  Ken worked on the blog.  Near 6:30 we walked to the Cantina Musica to meet Hildana.  We arrived there to find it closed.  Once Hildana and Monica arrived we hugged in greeting.  Hildana showed us the wonderfully artistic leather bound travel logs she was hand binding.  We were happy.  She was happy, but had to leave to catch a bus.  We took pictures and bid each other well.  I wish we could communicate with each other better.  We again, for the third night in a row, ate supper at Teponeives – ice cream – yum!  Good for the spirits, not the waistline!

Wednesday, April 10, 2013

We were up and at ‘em early today, wanting to get all the way to the border and on into Texas.








I am not anxious to leave Mexico, as per usual, but we must head back.  Zacatecus is such a wonderful city, making it harder to want to leave and the weather is refreshingly cool compared to the past weeks.

We drove through desert like area with forests of Joshua trees.  They now have seed pod attachments.  There were many young and old Joshua trees.  We saw herds of goats and a few donkeys along the way.  Once close to Salteo we came to the Sierra Madres Oriente. They are almost as grand as the Canadian Rockies.  I thought at one point they must be mist filled at certain elevations, but came to the realization of dust, not mist.  The ground was very rocky, with a green or rose/rusty colour.  It is the dirt (likely iron filed) that majestic house tiles are made from.

Monterrey found us taking several wrong turns.  With Google Maps and our own ingenuity, we maneuvered out of the third largest city in Mexico.  It had skyscrapers, plus colonial architecture.  It appeared to be built along a dry river bed (likely full in the rainy season).  A very huge city.  We crossed into the USA at Reynosa at the Kika de la Garza United States Border Station.  We paid Texas state tax on our liquor, about $90.00.



Thursday, April 11, 2013

We woke up in the morning to sunny weather, even though it rained much of the night.

It is noisy in the van when it rains and hard to sleep.  Our sleeping arrangements are cheap so we treated ourselves to a breakfast out.  It seemed we didn’t drive out like we did yesterday, but we made our destination of Houston.  We seemed to be stopping more frequently.  Major stops were to purchase an AT&T sim card.  Once you have had an IPad with Google Maps you don’t want to be without it, especially for going through cities.  When we had that little item we found a Toyota dealer.  They fixed our windshield wipers for free and it must have taken an hour.  Can’t beat the price point.

Houston is huge. We arrived just as it was turning dark.  I wanted to see where the big quilt festival was held each year in the fall.  We have sent my quilts to be there, but I had not been.  Now I need to picture one of my quilts going to the World of Beauty contest held here.

Friday, April 12, 2013

We started the day in a close to new rest area in Texas.









Brand new buildings and garden area.  The building was built up over the low ground with pathways that are bridges.  The landscape is still flat, but is becoming more green and lush.  More trees.

We were told by an elderly avid traveler to eat Creole food in La Fayette, Louisiana.  We found a highly rated place and went.  They even served alligator.  We had seafood with wonderful sauces with crawdads – yum!  We took a short walk in the university district with a little lake.  Trees were growing out of the water.  These trees had shoots or roots growing out of the ground.  They had many ferns growing or hanging out of the branches.  It is a type of Cypress tree.  We saw squirrels and we drove for miles on four-lane highways raised above swamps.  We even drove over a causeway 24 miles long that went over a lake here in New Orleans – Pontchartrain Lake.  I saw some of the houses that were absolutely devastated by Hurricane Katrina or the flooding aftermath.  I can’t imagine being in such a catastrophe.

Once at our reserved hotel…well let me tell you. 


 





First we went to the wrong hotel – glad because that one was scary.  Next we got here and there were fire trucks – the hotel was flooded from a fire alarm having gone off.  Thankfully, our room was behind and not affected.