January 28, 2006

January 28, 2006

La Feria, Mission, & Harlingen, Texas

YEAR 2 DAY 225

 

Feliz 52nd Cumpleaños to Joanne

 

Today was partially cloudy, very warm, and humid.

Joanne's birthday wish was to spend the day at the Texas Citrus Fiesta being held in Mission, about 35 miles west of here. After regular morning chores, we headed off for Mission, west on Hwy. 83. At Mission we got off the freeway and followed the slow moving traffic, assuming it was all heading for the TCF. We found a place to park, then followed the walking crowd. We came to Conway, Mission's main street, where thousands of people were lining both sides of the street waiting for the big parade. Almost everybody had brought lawn chairs to sit in. We walked for quite a ways down Conway, looking for a good place to watch the parade, somewhere behind the front row of people in lawn chairs. After walking for many blocks, we came to a restaurant that had placed all its dining room chairs out on the curb, and was renting them for people to watch the parade. Best 2 bucks I've spent in a long time ! We had arrived about half an hour before the parade was to begin, and it started an hour late. At least we were sitting for the hour and a half wait. We chatted with the people sitting around us, a couple from Minnesota, and a farming couple from near Morden, Manitoba.

The parade was lengthy, for such a small town parade. It took about an hour and a half to pass by. We were surprised by some of what we saw. There was an astounding military presence, particularly among high school groups, where every local high school had a large contingent of ROTC and JROTC marching cadets. Some high schools still had large marching bands, and large sports teams, and cheerleading squads, but they were all outnumbered by the pimply faced squads of military wannabes. The U.S. has cranked up its "war machine", and it seems like every kid in high school that isn't headed for further education in university is headed for the military. And ( sorry ! ) the kids headed for the military look more like the losers than the winners, if you know what I mean. There was also a large number of Texas Citrus Fiesta Princesses and Duchesses. Each type and sub-type of citrus had a crowned "Princess" or "Duchess". As in ... presenting ... the Duchess of Ruby Red Grapefruit, Melinda Rodriguez ! All these young beautyqueens, each wearing an elaborate gown in the colour of her citrus, and with a sample of her citrus attached to her dress ( I kid you not ), each with a 6 year old male "attendant" dressed in a tuxedo, riding on the back decks of convertibles. Sure were a lot of them ! Only one blonde in the entire bunch. Not too many blue eyed blondes down here at the Mexican border !

When the parade was finally over, we walked about a mile down to where we saw there was a carnival. We thought that was the main venue for the festivities. We were wrong, but didn't realize it until too late. We walked around the little carnival, weren't impressed, then started walking back to where the truck was parked, a couple of miles away. On the way back to the truck, we found a Mexican bakery. How fortuitous ! We bought a dozen assorted large Mexican cookies. As we were driving back to La Feria, Joanne was reading the newspaper article about the TCF, and we realized that the little carnival we were at was not the main venue. We missed the main event, so to speak. Darn !

Back at the trailer, I took Bo for an obedience training session, then rested for about half an hour while Joanne chatted with her sister. I told Joanne I was taking her out for a birthday dinner, and asked her where she wanted to go ? She wanted to go to a barbecue. Barbecue is a noun down here, like Wal-Mart'n is a verb. "Do chew want to go for some barbecue after we're finished Wal-Mart'n ?" I knew of a barbecue restaurant near Harlingen on Business 83, so off we went to Big John's Bar*B*Que. We had a great barbecue dinner, Texas Honky Tonk style. Chew no, some of these places down here seem like caricatures. I expect Clint Eastwood to walk in any minute, wearing a Mexican blanket around his shoulders, chomping on a cigar stub, eerie High Plains Drifter music playing in the background.

After dinner was “the big surprise”. Instead of driving back to La Feria, I drove us into Harlingen, and found the Harlingen Performing Arts Theatre, where my birthday surprise for Joanne was a live theatre performance. I thought tonight’s presentation of Sex, Lies, and The I.R.S. was the worst play, with the worst acting, I have ever seen. With good natured laughter, Joanne disagreed. She reminded me that we once walked out of a performance at the National Arts Centre in Ottawa during the intermission. It was too awful to remain until the end of the play. Fortunately, Joanne enjoyed all of her birthday today, and attending a bad play didn’t dampen that. It was the first time we’ve attended a play in almost 2 years. I miss attending live theatre.

We got back to the trailer in La Feria quite late in the evening. We walked the dog. I did the accounting, then this journal entry.

Happy Birthday, my love !

DSK