January 17, 2006

January 17, 2006

Laredo to Falcon State Park, Texas

YEAR 2 DAY 214

 

Happy 7th Birthday to Joanne's niece, Madeleine.

 

Today was sunny and warm. The desert storm wind was still blowing this morning.

We prepared for departure, hitched up, drove over to the trailer dump station, dumped the waste holding tanks, and headed out of Lake Casa Blanca State Park. We drove though Laredo, stopping at Wal-Mart's gas bar to fill up with diesel. We headed south out of Laredo on Hwy. 83, still following the Rio Grande River and Mexican border. Today we encountered lots of "Mexican passing". The vehicle being passed moves over halfway onto the shoulder. The passing vehicle straddles the centre line. The oncoming traffic is expected to also move over halfway onto the shoulder, or risk a head on collision. It's actually quite civilized and efficient, but it takes some getting used to.

We drove to Falcon State Park. It is where the Falcon Dam on the Rio Grande River creates a large man made lake known as Falcon Reservoir. Our WorkCamping friends from YMCA Of The Ozarks started a WorkCamping job here 3 days ago, and we wanted to visit them. We arrived at the park, registered, got settled into our assigned site, and had a late lunch. After lunch we unhitched, and drove over to the park's recreation hall, where Jack and Sharon Board are WorkCamping at the snack bar. They were just finishing up their day at the snack bar. We visited with them for awhile at their rig, parked behind the recreation hall with the other 3 WorkCamping couples that comprise the snack bar staff. It was getting late in the afternoon, and Jack and Sharon invited us to join them for dinner at a restaurant in the nearby small town of Roma. We took Bo back to the trailer, then rode with Jack and Sharon in their truck to Roma.

We had an excellent dinner in a small, very authentic Mexican restaurant. We ordered a fajitas platter for 4, and it came with far more food than 4 hungry gringos could possible eat. And the Dos Equis beer was ice cold, served in a frosted mug. It was necessary. I dipped my first tortilla chip in the salsa, ate it, and needed to guzzle beer. WHEW ... hot salsa ! My eyes actually watered. We ate slowly, and chatted. We drove back to Falcon State Park, and once back in our trailer, we phoned Madeleine to wish her a happy birthday. Our brief conversation with her was somewhat incomprehensible. Sometimes it's hard to have a meaningful conversation on the telephone with children that age. When we finished our conversation with her by asking to speak to her mother or father, she said "okay" and hung up.

I did today's accounting, and journal entry. We went to bed early, feeling exhausted and demoralized by our squabbling of the last few days.

DSK