Susana and the Magic Bag of Chips

I don't suppose you would believe me if I told you we arrived in Harringen, Texas, with a bag of chips on the roof? And a gallon of water. I can't explain to you how this could happen again, except while I was in a 1-hour stint of copying documents at the office supply store, my dad ran out to find the International Travel Certificates for the dogs in my Pink Bag in the back seat. In his search, he placed said (and same) bag of chips on the roof, as well as a gallon of water.

We arrived at Room 120 at the Harringen La Quinta and there, to my amazement, were the very same chips riding on the roof. Again.

It's like a dream, where the same meaningless and uncanny situation repeats itself and you wake up and try to make sense of it when there's no sense to be made.

Susana and her magical bag of chips.

Contrary to rumors and facebook musings we did Not cross over into Mexico today. My dad preferred to stay the night in Harringen and cross in the morning. It's the best plan. Especially after that hour of copying and organizing Papers.

Tonight I am updating our manifest - a list of Every Single Item in our possession as we cross the border from the spare tire in the car (and the flat boxes of Quinoa that I packed under the floor with the spare tire) to the half bag of cashews sitting in the front seat.

Then I need to translate it into Spanish. ! Let's just hope bablefish doesn't create an international incident by Mistranslating one of our items, because I will be none the wiser until the customs agent looks at me sideways and tells his cohort "Tenemos problema" (We have a problem.)

Our plan has always been to cross the border at 9 am. What is another day? The pups' international papers expire tomorrow (good for 14 days), but as long as we started on our trip in the 14 day window, we are good. Unless a customs agent or federale wants to invoke his right to split hairs.

Texas today was wonderful. My dad points out all of the relay towers along the way and counts the dishes on each. He marvels over technology and knows something about everything. He laughs now at the comparative ridiculousness of hundreds of miles of telephone poles and wires. How it used to be a marvel and now it's all outdated.

I point out to him all of the pear cactus in the brush on the side of the road, but they go by too quickly for him to see. He has grown the same cactus in pots in the house my whole life. He loves all tropical vegetation - which is one reason I wanted him to come to Belize - to see it all in its natural habitat, not just his plant pots! We saw only a few oil rigs - we thought we would see many more. And my dad saw two Texas "10 gallon" hats. He may have been disappointed that not every man in Texas wears a cowboy hat.
We had our first rain on the trip today - very slight. Texas is in a drought right now, having had no substantial rain in the last year. The rain we drove through probably didn't help much.

We found another great restaurant in Harringen - La Playa Mexican Cafe. Authentic Mex without the Tex, AAA said of them. More midday happiness for good edible food!

The pups are starting to acclimate. Eli is resigned to his lot. I took a great picture of my dad and I in the front seat and between us in the back seat, Eli is sitting forlorn (as though his name were Eyore) in an actual dog pout. But he is not whining so much anymore. He knows an intolerable amount of time in the backseat is to be expected and then there will be a glorious (to dogs) hotel room of nothing but comfort and beef bones.

TOMORROW, Lord willing, we will line up at the border at 9 am, be waved in to Mexico and have minimal interaction with Federales 21 km in. This is the checkpoint where they may ask us to dump the contents of the car like a purse when you can't find your keys: every item out. Or, they could have mercy on us and simply say Thank You for Visiting Mexico even though everyone you know must have told you Not To Come.

This week of travel has been eye opening about Best Laid Plans, and elderly parents who age before your eyes in the car as you are traveling, and how you can spend 20 years honing a principle of simple living and still end up hauling so many provisions in your little station wagon that the Mexicans and the Belizeans will be right to wonder if you are honest that these are All for Personal Use. I have a feeling it's only going to become more eye opening from here!

Goodnight United States of America, Good morning Estados Unidos de Mexico!

Love,
Susana