Sunday ; Sunny, hot, windy.
Still sick, but … have stopped taking all “new” medications, and hope/expect to feel better soon as a result.
Did a bit of routine maintenance on the camper. Created/made a large pasta salad for lunches ; regular and whole wheat pastas, many seasonings, frozen vegetables, a bit of leftover mashed potatoes, crema Mexicana, a couple of chopped up hard boiled eggs. Posted my blog entry. Financial and investment work. Couple of long walks.
Monday ; Sunny, hot, humid.
Feeling quite a bit better now that my body is purging itself of all the “new” medications. Clostridium difficile intestinal infection seems to be almost resolved. WOO-HOO … the probiotic “good bacteria” are winning the battle for supremacy of my colon. HA HA HA !
Slow day, puttering around with truck and camper preventive maintenance, preparation for departure at the end of this week.
Our plan for the evening was to drive to Harlingen, have supper at Mr. Gatti’s, then do Wal-Mart replenishment shopping. Mr. Gatti’s is (was) a pizza buffet restaurant, near to, and competing with Cici’s Pizza. We had to been to both previously. Tonight we found that Mr. Gatti’s is no more, another victim of the pandemic. Odd that of two similar restaurants, in the same vicinity, one would survive and thrive, and the other would fail.
Joanne had been looking forward to another pizza dinner, so … we went to Cici’s again. Now that I am no longer consuming so many pharmaceuticals that my palate is “impaired”, Cici’s dinner tonight was excellent ! Two weeks ago I found it to be … just “so-so”.
After dinner we shopped at Wal-Mart, arriving back home around 9:30 PM. As I turned into the dark driveway entrance to our RV park I had to stop to allow an armadillo to waddle quickly across the driveway. Here’s our conversation ;
J ; Why did you stop?
D ; To allow the armadillo to cross the road.
J ; What armadillo ? ? ?
D ; <rolling my eyes> Night vision is getting worse, eh ?
P.S. to my Canadian readers ; an armadillo is the size of a fat cat, with a long tail.
Tuesday ; Cloudy, hot, humid, a few drops of rain, a bit of thunder and lightning.
Feeling much healthier. Did preventive maintenance and an inspection on the truck in preparation for the long trip home. Worked on medication inventory records keeping, in preparation for seeing doctor as soon as we are back home in Canada. Cooked an excellent onion, mushroom, asparagus, cheese, crema Mexicana, baked omelette/fritatta for supper.
Wednesday ; Sunny, brutally hot and humid, 106°F / 41°C.
Feel like we’re between a rock and a hard place ! Temperatures here in triple digits. Too hot and humid to stay here ! News reports “momentous blizzard” for next three days in Manitoba. Sure as hell don’t want to go back to that ! ! !
Feeling healthy ! Finally ! After about four weeks of misery !
Washed the truck again today. HMPH ! Shouldn’t have driven it through saltwater surf of Gulf of Mexico. Sanitized masks and changed filters. Finished taking inventory of medications. Minor repair to kitchen faucets.
Two long exercise walks. Without Joanne ! Poor little wifey is melting ! Told her to not eat so much chocolate. BCI (body chocolate index) now too high. HA HA HA HA !
Thursday ; Cloudy, hot, humid.
Feeling healthy and strong ! WOO-HOO ! Just in time for the long (1800 miles/2900 km.) journey home.
Put the camper back onto the truck today. I cleaned the barbecue … YUCK ! Disinfected the freshwater tank. Joanne did laundry. We’re getting ready to leave Saturday.
Good Friday ; Overcast, hot, humid.
Joanne just came in from outside, after having a brief conversation with a neighbour walking by, complaining that it’s been so many years since we’ve been this far southeast that she has lost the ability to understand and converse with people speaking “Luzeeanne”
neighbour walking by … noticing that camper is back on truck ; “Y’all leen ?"
J ; “uhhhh … yeah … tomorrow”
neighbour ; “where y’all lih ?”
J ; “uhhhh … Canada … about 2000 miles straight north of here”
neighbour ; “dry say”
Slow day, puttering around with departure preparations. Went to office and paid electricity bill. Called it hydro bill, they didn’t know what I was talking about. Electricity here not generated by “water”. Back flushed waste holding tanks using special back flush attachment on waste tanks’ outlet. Today was final opportunity to have easy access to sewer inlet and water spigot nearby.
Saturday ; La Feria to San Antonio, Texas
Overcast, very hot, humid. South Texas is one big sauna !
F*** … that was good ! ! ! (Just finished eating supper !)
This morning we finished our departure preparations and were pulling out of Breezewood Cove RV Park around 11 AM. Before leaving the town of La Feria we refilled our five gallon water jug (buck and a quarter for a five gallon refill here !) and replenished pan dulce at Panaderia Reyes. Might be the last time I will ever be in a panaderia … <sniffle>.
We headed east on Interstate 2 for about ten miles to Harlingen, then turned north on Interstate 69E to Corpus Christi. Before reaching Corpus Christi we stopped at a rest area to have an exercise walk, lunch, and a nap. AND … take photos of the Texas wildflowers in bloom !
For about an hour of driving north of Harlingen, there was a State Trooper patrol car every five miles or so, always “aimed” at the northbound lines, most of the time they had a vehicle stopped on the shoulder and were “searching” it. Read that as “harassing” it. All the stopped vehicles had Mexico license plates. What ? ! ? More systemic racism by Governor Greg Abbott’s minions ? ? ?
Finally, after about an hour of driving north (at 70 MPH) we reached ANOTHER Customs & Border Patrol checkpoint. As we approached the two agents, one with a German Shepherd dog sniffing around each vehicle, the dog handler agent abruptly pulled his dog back and walked away, suggesting to me yet again that CBP has been instructed to “leave the Canadians alone”. I expected the smarmy looking agent to simply wave us through, but … NOOOOO ! He motioned for me to roll my window down and with a smirk on his face asked “are you American citizens ?”
Are you truly too stupid to look at a vehicle with license plates that read MANITOBA and realize that we are NOT American citizens ? ? ? ! ! ! I think not, even though you don’t really seem that bright ! Just more obnoxious CBP games playing !
CBP : Are you American citizens ?
Me ; NO !
CBP ; Where are you from ?
ME <with side stinkeye and hostility/contempt in my voice> ; CANADA !
CBP <waving me through and with a smarmy smirk> ; Don’t you like Americans ?
ME & JOANNE <as I begin to drive forward> ; NO !
Given that we were Canadians about 2000 miles south of the Canadian border, and about 70 miles north of the Mexican border, and headed north … in a large truck with camper, bearing Canadian license plates, it seemed to me that a reasonable assumption might have been that at some point we had entered the United States legally ! ! ! Punch the license plate into your computer … you passive aggressive games playing moron !
From Corpus Christi we continued north, now on Interstate 37. Before reaching San Antonio we stopped at another rest area for another exercise walk and an afternoon snack and drink. When we reached San Antonio we bypassed the south side of the city by heading east on Interstate 410, then bypassed the east side of the city by heading north on Interstate 35. I-410 and I-35 form a sort of ring road around San Antonio.
We reached our boondock destination for tonight, a Wal-Mart, around 6 PM. I refilled the truck with diesel, figured out where to park overnight, then drove a very short distance to our dinner destination for tonight … and “Easter dinner” tomorrow night ; Pollos Asados Los Norteños. We ordered beef fajitas with all the Mexican fixin’s for dinner tonight, and pollo asado (Mexican style barbecued chicken) with all the Mexican fixin’s for Easter dinner tomorrow night. We returned to the Wal-Mart parking lot, and have just finished the superb grilled beef fajitas dinner with grilled onions, grilled red peppers, grilled green peppers, grilled Jalapeno peppers, grilled Serano peppers, red chili salsa sauce, green chili salsa sauce, pico de gallo, guacamole, seasoned Mexican style rice, baked Charro beans, and tortillas, of course.
The restaurant’s tagline ; “¡ mas green sauce, por favor !” HA HA HA !
After supper, while I worked on the computer in the camper Joanne went into the Wal-Mart to do some shopping. I don’t do Wal-Martin’ on Saturday nights, especially after a day of driving !
DSK
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