The Journey Continues....

I was wrong. Due to Rockwall's proximity to a big reservoir east of Dallas, hotels in the area (yes, even La Quinta) were too expensive for our government per diem rate. So we ended up *closer* to Dallas, in "East Dallas." Again, we stayed in a La Quinta Inn. The Inn in Laredo is a bit of a dive, or nearly that, but the clientèle in Laredo was far superior. Yes, in Laredo we did have a group of ten or so guys hanging out in the parking lot, clustered around a flatbed truck and drinking beer for hours and hours. In East Dallas we apparently had... um, ladies of the night?

As we pulled in to the fine establishment, we were a bit puzzled by the number of women hanging around, many in shorts. Later in the evening I observed several minivan taxis picking up numerous women and taking them elsewhere. Hmm. We can't be sure, but it did seem a wee bit suspicious. I mean, how many women wear low-cut blouses and daisy dukes at a particular location. Draw your own conclusions; we did.

We had a tasty dinner of fish and hushpuppies from Captain D's. A couple hours later we enjoyed our two remaining Shiners. Apparently the alcohol ordinances vary by county in Texas. Laredo was much like Virginia: grocery stores and convenience stores sold beer and wine. In the Dallas area, only liquor stores sell alcohol. We arrived late and there were none in our immediate neighborhood anyway.

On the plus side, the room had Cartoon Network and Saturday is Toonami time! Cartoon Network in Mexico was a varying mix of English and Spanish audio cartoons, but no Toonami and few of the action/comic type cartoons I enjoyed in the US. Emily let me watch it for hours: Ben 10 (the new series), Inuyasha, Samurai Jack (an oldie but a goodie - "You can fly?" "No, me jump good!"), and others. She's a good wife. :-)

So, we left the Dallas area and headed east. As we headed homeward, the landscape grew greener, with more and more trees. I saw cattle egrets, red-winged blackbirds (something I grew up with and have missed immensely in Mexico), blooming mimosas and sumacs, and increasingly familiar trees: oaks, sycamores, maples, and cottonwoods. As expected, I also saw a lot of pecan trees, which also grew in Monterrey.

We left Texas and crossed Arkansas. Emily commented on the signs on each bridge we crossed: bridge may ice in cold weather. "Cold weather! Home!" she said. We headed into Tennessee at Memphis, admiring the cool pyramid building. Our next overnight stop: Brownsville. Never heard of it? I'm not surprised. We're staying at the Econo Lodge. Brownsville apparently doesn't rate a La Quinta. Gotta love this 440 miles per day rule. Under the old rules we wouldn't be stuck between major cities like this, struggling to find a pet-friendly hotel that is within per diem rates.

Dinner consisted of KFC's new chipotle crispy chicken washed down with Sprite. Walmart doesn't appear to sell alcohol in Tennessee, or at least this area. Tonight we split a small bottle of Chartreuse that we got with a Christmas gift pack in Virginia at least five years ago, moved to Mexico, and packed in the car for the trip back. It amounted to less than a shot each, I'd guess. Tasty, though.

Tomorrow we'll complete our drive across Tennessee and overnight in Bristol, Virginia, possibly in the same La Quinta we enjoyed on our drive to Mexico nearly two years ago. We hope to get an early start so as to arrive in Virginia early enough to get our car inspected Monday afternoon. If not, we'll shoot for first thing Tuesday morning and hope for the best. Our VA plates are good (our diplomatic plates took so long that we ended up renewing our regular plates while we were in Mexico) and our emissions inspection isn't due for another six or eight months, but the safety inspection is about 18 months out of date. We'd rather not have to cross all of VA with an expired sticker. We could probably talk our way out of a ticket easy enough, but it would be better to just get it over with. We're hoping for no major problems/repairs.

Well, if we're going to get an early start, we gotta go to bed, not to mention reclaiming the laundry from the nearly-antique equipment here and taking the dog out for her evening constitutional.

Gas update: regular unleaded has been under $4 for our entire trip thus far. Best price: $3.75 at a Pilot station in West Memphis, followed by $3.82 at Walmart near Texarkana.