Day 36--June 2, 2013

Day 36—June 2, 2013

                I didn’t sleep very well last night.  Events of the day kept tumbling through my mind whether I was asleep or awake.  Asleep, I did what I always try to do in a bad situation—I made light of it and even chuckled out loud a few times.  But when I was awake, lying in the darkness, listening to rain falling on the roof of the bus, I realized just how terribly wrong things could have gone at the border yesterday.

                Some pretty dark and heavy words kept rolling around in my brain.  There was talk of seizure of the magazine clips, shotgun, and bus, weapons smuggling, ill-gotten gain cash, $25,000 fine and/or imprisonment.  In the end it was $500 fine and seizure of 2 magazine clips.  Somewhere in all that is a message.  I’ll let you know when I figure it out.

                While I’m on the subject of Border Dancing, our problems are not limited to Canada.  Nay, nay.  We have had our share of fun at the Mexican border, too.  Ole.

                My first story wasn’t so much about the border patrol, but it did happen as we were crossing the bridge on foot.  We had left our motor home on the American side and walked across the bridge.  My Mom and Dad and brother were with us.  While we were over there, my mom found an opal ring she wanted, but she didn’t want to dig in her purse and have the salesman see how much money she had.  I had money in my pocket so I gave it to her.

                On the way back, Mom stopped right in the middle of the bridge, turned her back to the traffic, and took out her wallet to pay me back.  At that very moment, a pick-up with about 5 day workers stopped right next to us.  All of the men jumped out of the back of the truck and started speaking Spanish, telling the truck driver thanks and they would see him the next morning.  Mom, bless her heart, thought they were going to rob her.  She let out a shriek and almost pitched her wallet into the Rio Grande.  A couple of the men looked back at her and started running to the border. I think she scared them to death.  I laughed and laughed.  Mom?  She didn’t speak to me for the rest of the day.

                Second story-Richard’s brother Art and his wife, Lucille have friends who live in Columbus, New Mexico.  While they were visiting, they found the Coca Cola machine we now have in our barn.  We made a trip by Columbus on our way back from Alaska to pick it up.    We spent one night at their home.  They wanted to take us into Chihuahua, Mexico to eat at a friend of theirs steak place.

Before we got to the border, we were tangled in a high speed chase involving two different US Border Patrol vehicles and a truck load of, I assume, illegals.  They disappeared before we actually got to the border, and we never saw if they caught them.  I kept thinking—they are headed to Mexico.  Why is the US trying to detain them.

We parked on the US side and walked a few feet into Mexico.  We ate and then shopped for a short time.  BTW, Sandy Bair that is where I bought the peach picture that now hangs on your dining room wall.  The shop owner transported our purchases across the border and loaded them in our vehicle, which they can do.  We, on the other hand, had to go through customs on a (are you ready for this?) golf cart.  Richard and I and Pat were on the cart with the restaurant owner.

Let me just add here that my steak was a little tough and loaded with garlic.  I wrestled with it for a while and had to take some of the gristle back out of my mouth, into my napkin, of course, like any Southern lady would do.  I kept the balled napkin in my hand until I was all done.  Just before we got on the golf cart, I realized my hand smelled of garlic and grease.

My border patrol friends flagged our cart to move forward just as if we were in a real vehicle.  They asked a couple of questions then CALLED OUT THE HOUND.  A gigantic German Shepard on a leash was lead to us.  We were told to sit perfectly still, which was not a problem for me since I was quite shaken by being sniffed and then re-sniffed by Bowser.  The officer hesitated next to me only a moment then he and the dog worked their around the rest of the cart.  I think he must have smelled the grease and garlic, too, and decided not to search my person for drugs.

I know I am a writer and have big imagination, but even I couldn’t make this stuff up.

Today was a travel day.  Picture us trying to get as far as possible away from that unmentionable place.  We had dark heavy clouds hanging over us all day.  Inside the bus and outside.  Once in a while a cloud would sneeze and spew rain all over us, but it was all very brief.  We are in a campground and it is about 37 degrees outside.

Until next time,

Dolores