“Get your motor
running
Head out on the highway
Looking for adventure
And whatever comes our way”
Head out on the highway
Looking for adventure
And whatever comes our way”
I don’t think Steppenwolf were thinking of an
air-conditioned Chevy Malibu, but the sentiment’s the same. I know I’ve said
this before, but put me in a car in Texas,
find a good country radio station and a highway out of Dallas, and I’m a happy man. I have pictures
of the landscape, but I’m not including them here, because my meagre
photographic skills cannot possibly do justice to the awe-inspiring,
indescribable, vastness. It is alternately ranch, arable, scrub and desert, but
I never tire of it, even after hundreds of miles.
 |
| Black vultures |
This weekend, I headed
south-west to Mexico, but
not to see Mexico
– rather to see a border town (actually two border towns – one on the American
side, the other Mexican).
So I headed south through Waco,
Austin and San Antonio,
and then west through Uvalde to Del
Rio in Val Verde county. Apparently, in south Texas, they don’t have
to bother collecting road-kill – the black vultures take care of it. This far
south, there are few cattle ranches; they mostly breed deer and goats, which is
interesting, because you rarely see either on the menu.
The trip is over 400 miles, but took about 7 hours. Since
I’d hit the road at 7:30am, I arrived in plenty of time to cross the border
(having first checked that I’d be able to get back ok – more on that later …)
and spend a few hours in Acuna , Coahuila. You can’t take a rental car into Mexico without
special arrangement, so I parked at a convenience store close to the border ($2
for the day!), and crossed the “International Bridge” on foot – it’s not that
I’m too mean to pay for a taxi, but rather that I prefer to walk (for the same
reasons that I prefer to drive rather than fly). It’s interesting that the toll
to go to Mexico was 75c, and nobody bothered to check my passport, whereas the
return toll was 30c, and US Immigration grilled me for 25 minutes (again – more
on that later).
The bridge was about 1km long, but the temperature was in
the mid-90s, so I was glad to have taken a bottle of water with me. Acuna was,
I’m sure, not representative of Mexico,
but more representative of a Mexican border town. I’d expected lots of cantinas
where I could get something to eat – in fact, it was more tacky gift shops and
“Ladies Bars”. Now, I’m not naïve, but I really thought that “Ladies Bars”,
because it’s not an expression I’ve come across before, might be some cultural
thing where women could go to have a drink without being bothered by unwelcome
attention. Again, more on that later.
 |
| Fruit stand on Acuna Street |
 |
| Acuna Street |
But I found a
restaurant, and ordered the “Mexican Plate” – a sampler dish, not because I’m
not familiar with Mexican food, but because I wanted to see how it compared
with the Dallas
versions. Later, I found a juice stand that had my favourite Mexican rice/fruit
drink, horchata.
I was expecting to encounter much more begging
than I did – in fact there was very little, though the outlying areas are
obviously very poor. As it got towards early evening, and bouncers started
appearing outside the “Ladies Bars”, I realized what they were. And as guys
started following me and asking: “Senor, are you looking for anything in particular?
Perhaps a woman?”, I though it was time to head back Stateside.
On the US side, Immigration kept me in a waiting area (where
I was the only white face) for close to half an hour (asking me how long I was
going to be in the US, how often I came, who I worked for, the address of my
hotel in Dallas, etc.) before they let me through. I think they’re getting a
little out of control – especially since, after being on the road north the
following day for about half an hour, there was a compulsory stop at a
“Homeland Security” checkpoint where they once again checked my passport (and
this is within the US – goodness knows what would have happened if I’d just
been driving round the area without credentials) and check out the contents of
the car.
 |
| Me on the border |
 |
| The Rio Grande |
Back at the hotel, the following morning, at breakfast, I
asked one of the staff, Gabriella, if there were any local sights I should see
before leaving. The hotel has only been open a couple of months (it’s part of
the Hilton chain) but they evidently aren’t inundated with tourists, because,
not only did she have to think a lot about this, but, after she was done, and I
suggested they might consider providing a leaflet for visitors, she rushed off
to share the idea with the manager. Anyway, she came up with quite a few,
including the fact that the movie “Desperado”, starring Antonio Banderas (ok –
I have female readers attention!) and Salma Hayek (oh – now the guys too!) was
filmed downtown.
 |
| San Angelo |
My journey back took me through Sonora and San Angelo,
which has one of the most attractive Visitor Information Centers I’ve ever
seen, with wonderful statues of the city’s founder’s wife, and her patron
saint, Santa Angela, overlooking the Honcho
River.
 |
| Beer and Feed! |
Just after Sonora I stopped at the Sutton County
Steakhouse, which, according to Eric, does the best Chicken Fried Steak he’s
ever tasted. I should perhaps explain Chicken Fried Steak, since it’s a bit of
a Texan thing – it’s steak, pounded to within an inch of its life, hand-rolled
in breadcrumbs and batter, fried (like fried chicken) and served on a bed of
gravy (that’s the white southern gravy, like you’d get for breakfast with
“biscuits and gravy” – Texas has a bit of an identity crisis, in not being able
to decide whether it’s really “south” or “west”). Confusingly, there is also
Chicken Fried Chicken, which would elsewhere be simply Fried Chicken, were it
not for Chicken Fried Steak. In any case, Eric was right – it was very good.
Oh, and I’ve included references to drive-in
“beer barns” before, but this is the first one I’ve seen like this. Texans
clearly take their farming and their drinking equally seriously! You gotta love
it.
