We arrived in Beeville, Texas with a bag of chips on the roof of the car. It rode all the way from San Marcos (106.7 miles per my AAA trip tik app). You see, the vegguide.org does not have ideas for you in Texas. I guess there is just too much meat here. Every Texas location I asked about - including Fort Worth (surely a major city has vegetarian options even at a carnivorian place...) came up empty. "No Recommendations For Your Area." "No Recommendations For Your Area." So I defaulted to the AAA-approved restaurant choices and we happened upon Palmers of San Marcos. Hereafter known to me as the best restaurant in Texas.

We drove into Palmers, Elias yelping like the car was on fire, and Guthrie rising from his fetal position on the floor of the car, which is how he rides always, no matter where we are, now invading Eli's small amount of space on the seat. So I walked them briefly and then thought smartly, Hmm, I will put the new bag of tortilla chips on the roof, where I am sure to see it when I come back, so that while we are gone, the dogs are not feasting on them. So I put them on the roof, in plain view. I couldn't not see them when I came back to the car. Unless it was dark out.

It was dark out. So, there they rode, an open bag of chips in an Albertson's plastic bag with a large-numbered alarm clock Also purchased at Albertson's.

It's like carrying a pitcher of water on your head that you don't spill because you don't think about it. Ok, that's not possible, but neither is this. Surely if I had been driving with chips on the roof intentionally, the bag would have blown off and exploded against the windshield of a semi and caused some 7 car pile up."27 Injured in Rogue Tortilla Chip Incident" or "Let the Chips Fall Where They May..." the Bee Examiner would have read the next morning.

So Palmer's is the best restaurant in Texas. Not the heavy fried southern food you have heard about but a gourmet delight. Melvin made tableside guacamole for us as good as my own :-) and the vegetarian tortilla soup left me wishing I'd ordered a cup not a bowl. Then I had pecan-encrusted salmon with lime coulis and steamed vegetables. It was all I could have hoped for. Dad was happy too. His verdict: He would do it again. (This is my litmus test for whether he really enjoyed something or is just not complaining, because you can't always tell with him. Though last night, he was clear. "The sooner I forget this meal the better," he said of Applebees. (Where, you remember, he was so inclined to go.)

"Don't finish it if you don't like it," I had suggested.

"Well it's still food," he had said and finished every bit of his Applebee's bland chicken fettucini.

A generation that will eat bad food rather than waste it for palate considerations alone. That's something to consider...

We could have gotten to the border today but instead we went spelunking. Inner Space Caverns was right off the highway, or, technically, under the highway. It was found in 1963 when the state was test drilling through rock to check the stability of the land to build Hwy 35. In 10 places they drilled down and hit air pockets, and in one instance they lost their drill bit. Not wanting to lose the equipment, they lowered a guy named Jackson, I think, down a 2-foot Wide and 50-foot deep hole, tied to the end of a drill bit (?!) to retrieve the lost drill. It was probably not so good to be Jackson that day at first, until he dropped to the ground inside a chain of remarkable caves thousands of years old with stalactites and stalagmites, guano of a long-extinct variety of football-sized bats, and remains of other extinct animals who in their day fell through the sink hole on the surface and could not survive the tumble. Then I suppose Jackson was the man for the big discovery.

So we had a spelunking adventure and here we are now, some two hours from the border. I love Beeville, Texas, mostly because of the name, and that it is situated in Bee County, as is Bee River. It's all about bees. And, a small bee-sized town does not usually have an art museum, but Beeville does. Though I won't have a chance to see it. I am headed for Belize.

Our observation about Texas is about their highway ramps. They are elevated into the sky. My dad calls the interchanges Gordian Knots. They are loop upon loop of concrete on pillars two and three stories high circling in and around each other for some utilitarian purpose that could not have been met on the ground. They remind him of the Knot that Sir Galahad (or Alexander the Great?) confronted that could not be undone (except with a bold slash of his sword).

We did not drive in the sky on the Gordian knots, we mostly drove under them. We saw the skyline of Austin. I liked Austin (we did not stop). And having stopped in San Marcos for the best restaurant in Texas, we parted ways then with Interstate 35, which has seen us through most of the U.S. It has been all two-lane Texas highway from there - Highway 123 out of San Marcos, on to 181 to Beeville and tomorrow to unexplored places along Highway 77.

At last we will arrive in Brownsville and cross over into Mexico. We will probably not arrive in Belize til next weekend, since it seems that neither of us has a propensity for driving 9 hours a day. I don't know what our computer access will be in Mexico, but I'll check in as I am able with stories from The Tropics and you surely will know when we have made it to Belize.

God is blessing every turn of our trip. Tonight we have a hotel room with one door that goes to breakfast and another door that goes out to our car, where we can tie the dogs and keep an eye on our car top goods (besides the chips). We've had no car trouble at all and we both have had plenty of sleep and plenty of energy for the adventure. The melatonin has helped Eli not to whine, though he pants and paces like a regular dog, which he does not usually do. Guthrie keeps his feelings inside. There's no telling if he is upset; he has a forlorn hound disposition at all times.

It is morning now. We have had our Texas-shaped waffles (with butter and maple syrup I smuggled in) and are retying the car...heading for the border.

More soon from the other side!

love,
Susan