Sirloin Stockade / Volkswagen Beetle Convertible

Yesterday I ran a lot of errands and then realized that the Golden State Warriors vs Toronto Raptors Game 5 was going to be played Thursday and not Friday as I erroneously thought so I raced home to watch it.  I was so hungry but there is something wrong with the cable box or my TV ( I do not know which or perhaps both) so I am unable to watch television in the kitchen and had to do so from my room.

Had to make another trip to town today so decided to stop at Sirloin Stockade as it has been years since I had been there and though it was lunchtime, I had not eaten since yesterday.  I had never been to their lunch buffet before. Was told Friday was seafood day. My first plate was more breakfast like as I enjoy that meal but not being a morning person I do not get to delight in it very often.

 My second plate was baked tilapia, rice, and broccoli. Ok, no food shaming me!

Headed to Walmart to walk off my meal and pick up a couple of items before the Memorial Day masses descend on Del Rio.  I saw this nice Volkswagen Beetle Convertible in the parking lot...for some reason, I thought they had quit building them or perhaps they just quit building them in Puebla, Mexico?

Car was bought in San Antonio

Murphy Oil at Walmart had the cheapest gasoline in town at $2.389 per gallon. This is the gasoline station that reader Andy V. gave us a heads up that gives a  .05 cent discount if you use their credit card.

I was lucky because as soon as I finished gassing up all these vehicles came out of nowhere and invaded the station.

Good night.  May you all have Terlingua Dreams.

Cats / Crows / Leilani / Popular Places / Whataburger

Even though I went to bed early (for me) I was wide awake by 4:30 a.m. Managed to go back to sleep until the cats running on the roof woke me up again.  I ignored them until I heard the crows going crazy and I knew one of the cats had once again gotten a hold of another bird. One of these days those mean crows are going to peck one of the boys to death!

Needed to mail a card and make some more copies so headed to the library. Today was not as humid as yesterday and only reached 89 degrees.

I was sure I had brought the card I was going to mail with me but seems I somehow left it at home...darn CRS!!!  Now I will have to make a return trip tomorrow...oh well :-(

Only when I go to the library do I actually get to read the Del Rio News Herald.  Leilani, if you are reading me you are in luck.  I had mentioned on a prior post that the local newspaper holds an annual survey of the best of a long list of things in our town...such as:

Breakfast Tacos
Regular Tacos
Bar-b-q
Barbacoa (it is different from bar-b-q)
Fajitas
Hamburgers
Menudo
Pizza
Seafood
Soups
Steaks...everything food
Doctors
Nurses
Bartenders
Mechanics...you get the point

Leilani wanted to see if I could recommend a local place that made good tacos but apart from Stripes I had no idea as I seldom frequent restaurants other than fast food joints.  Here are three recommendations of recent winners courtesy of the Del Rio News Herald.

Speaking of Fast Food joints I was famished as I only had eaten cereal for breakfast so decided to head to Wendy's to cool off with one of their .50 cents Frosty.  On the way there I saw a practically empty parking lot at Whataburger something odd at 6:00 p.m.  Decided to forgo my Frosty and indulge in a Monterey Melt instead.

Since I have no idea how to insert a watermark in my pictures...what better way to personalize my photo than with my Betty Boop purse in the background :D

Good night.  May you all have Terlingua Dreams.

Heavy thunderstorm / Mason-Foster House

Once again the weather forecasters were wrong.  I even turned to the news at 10:00 p.m. even though I was watching a very boring NBA semi-finals game.  No chance for severe weather they said only 10 percent chance of rain.

How wrong they were!!!  A little after 4:17 a.m. the thunder and lightning began and the skies opened up...followed by a loss of power.  Good thing I had charged my solar lights yesterday.

Without electricity, I did not know the City of Del Rio Emergency Management system had sent a robocall message at 5:43 a.m. saying that the city and surrounding communities were under an Area Flood Advisory. Since 4:43 a.m. heavy rains had fallen and we had received 2 inches in the past hour.  So much for ten percent chance of rain!

Today we had a high of 91 with a heat index of 98 degrees. We are going to be experiencing temperatures in the mid to high 90's into next week with storms.

Going to make an early post because tonight I have to watch one of my NBA games.  I sure hope it is not as boring as the one last night.

Mason - Foster House

The other day that I was headed to Frontera Road I noticed that this old historic house had been sold.  I tried to recall what it once looked like when I was younger but with my CRS I can not remember.

This is one of many old mansion with Historical Markers in Del Rio

 The house is in bad shape. 

 I hope whoever bought it restores it to its former glory.

Good night.  May you all have Terlingua Dreams.

Del Rio's Rotary Park

The severe thunderstorms that were predicted for last night thankfully did not materialize, we only had a little rain and wind.

Since I went to bed early I was wide awake by 4:30 a.m.  What is a girl to do at this ungodly hour?  Nothing...just unsuccessfully try to go back to sleep :-(

Gave up and decided to get up and wash last night dishes ( I hide them in one of my ice chests so I do not have to see them).  Was going to have cereal for breakfast but I did not have milk.  Main HEB does not open until 6:00 a.m. and besides I have poor night vision and had to wait for sunrise. Of course, I also had to do my morning chores before heading anywhere.

When I finally made my way into town...Main HEB was too packed...so I headed to little HEB.  Little HEB is located on Pecan Street and if you head south you will find yourself in Historic South Del Rio the area I grew up in when we first moved to this sleepy Border Town.

Del Rio has many historical landmarks and I wanted to photograph a particular one but there was no room to park so instead I decided to head to my favorite Del Rio park that was not a park when we moved here...it became one after the 1998 Del Rio Flood...with the help of a Federal Grant.

I have blogged about this little piece of heaven before...describing it as "my quiet place"... somewhere that I can come and de-stress...I likened it to Austin's "Barton Springs" a location and city I loved and where we moved from :-(

There are large ducks everywhere and they are not afraid of people...they just like to chill and enjoy the roar of the pristine waters of San Felipe Creek.

I liked that they incorporated this fallen tree into the landscape.

Good night.  May you all have Terlingua Dreams.

More storms on the way

This week it has been hot and humid. You know it is humid when our levels are higher than those in Houston!  I needed to drive into town both yesterday and today but decided to put it off until next week.

We are expecting severe storms this evening so decided to make an early post in case the lights go out or the internet goes down.  Temperatures have been in the high 80's this week, today it reached 90 with a heat index of 95 degrees.

I have not accomplished much this week and I have been feeling very tired lately.  So much so that I have even fallen asleep during my NBA games. Right now I am fighting going to sleep because I still have my afternoon chores to get to.

Good night.  May you all have Terlingua Dreams.

The honeymoon is over

Why is it that this part of Texas has the worst ISP?  I have had dial-up, Cricket hotspot, AT&T MiFi, Time Warner Cable, Dish satellite internet and Spectrum.  With my latest ISP (Spectrum) I bundled internet, television and home phone to get a better price.  It was all fine and dandy until three months ago.  Since then we have had episodes of one, two or all three services going out for hours despite there not being bad weather.

Last night thankfully after my NBA games (or I would have gone ballistic) the cable started freezing, the internet kept on dropping me and I could hardly hear my uncle on the phone.  The honeymoon is definitively over with Spectrum....grrrrrrrrrrrr!!!

When are real ISP going to come to Del Rio?  We need you!!! Help!!!

This morning I went to the library as my internet was still out.  On the way saw a lot of Spectrum service trucks working on the lines.  At least they were addressing the problem.

Our library took almost three years to be remodeled and expanded.  They knocked down three old mansions and now take up a city block.  However, they did a poor job of allocating enough parking space.

To the left of this picture is a church and if I was them I would sue the County because all these cars do not belong to churchgoers but to library patrons.  It was early so there weren't as many cars as there usually are.

The same held true prior to the remodeling and expansion everyone used their parking. Del Rio is big enough that we could use two libraries.

If you were thinking of using the Amistad Dam Port of Entry to go to Mexico or come back to the USA...I am sorry to say that as of today it is closed for 30 days...or until further notice more than likely the latter.

The skies were menacing to the south. I love how this old mansion across the street from the library is framed by the clouds.  I have always loved this mansion my parents bought an old bed frame and some chairs in a garage sale over 40 years ago and we still have them. Wish I had the money to purchase it ((sigh)).

However, to the north the skies were blue so I headed to Dollar Tree and Walmart before the tariffs kick in and the prices go up.

Good night.  May you all have Terlingua Dreams.

There are still kind-hearted souls around

Time and time again I notice that if I have a busy day the next day I am dragging, the same held true for yesterday. Since the only thing I bought in Ciudad Acuña on Tuesday was hot sauce I needed to make a grocery run to HEB.

I needed to buy things that are mostly found at the main HEB store. I have found that besides arriving early in the morning (which is not something I like to do) arriving after the lunch hour rush between 1:30 to 3:00 p.m. it is less crowded.

By now most of you know about my issues with insomnia. A couple of months ago I tried Peppermint Tea and found it relaxed me and allowed me to go to sleep with less effort.  I have tried to find it in Mexico and was surprised that the teas they had were imported from the USA or Europe and were not cheap.

Today I found some as well as one that calls itself Sleepytime Herbal Tea.  I did not buy it but need to look into it.

I wrote about the stray cats at HEB on a prior post a couple of years ago. There were at least a dozen or so the last time I spotted them but today there was only one.

There is now a chain link fence and he is in the space that was once a former dealership and that HEB bought and demolished but he can go around the fence and easily eat or drink the food and water kind-hearted souls or perhaps even HEB employees leave for them.

You can tell the food bowls are new and I was so happy to see that someone had left them plenty of water.  That made my day :)

I wanted to make a quick stop at Dollar Tree but the skies looked menacing so I headed home.  Got there just in time to bring the clothes in from the clothesline, feed my own strays and then the skies opened up. With all the rain we have had lately I have no more room in my rain catchment, therefore, could not save anymore.

Good night,  May you all have Terlingua Dreams.


NBA Corner

I was so tired I kept on dozing off during the Rockets vs Golden State Warriors game last night that I decided to tape it so I would not miss out on anything important.  This morning I re-watched the second quarter and could not believe the Rockets could not pull off a win with Durant out of the line-up and how few points James Harden, as well as CP3, scored in that interval.

I hate to say this to my Houston real life friends but I think GSW wins in six...sure hope I am wrong!

The trip that almost wasn't

I keep two calendars of appointments one for mother and one for myself.  Hers is obviously more important.  With the administration threating to shut down the border since last October 2018 and actually doing so in California for several hours last year I canceled my remaining appointments for 2018 so I could resume them in 2019.

This year did not start any better with the long lines at the border.  Have only managed a trip to the dentist thus far.  Scheduled a follow-up appointment but could not find my calendar so left the card in my purse and of course, forgot about it.

I was reading Barney's blog (OFM Adventures) when he mentioned his own trip to the dentist and something just kept nagging at me. Yesterday morning I found the appointment card only to realize it was today at noon and had less than two hours to get ready!  Thank you, Barney.

My dentist is a stickler for punctuality as one should be so was surprised that I had to wait for 30 minutes.  Listening to her son talking on his cell I understood why.  He had driven with his mother from San Angelo, Texas (a 3 hours drive) for her to have an emergency root canal.

Today I had the old filling removed from my two molars and replaced with a more natural color substance.  Fillings are $58.00 dollars each so today I spent $116.00 USD.

Tuesday's are Martes de Cosecha...Harvest Tuesday at Gutierrez.  They have really good specials on fruits and vegetables so much so that the other stores do not try to match their prices anymore and now offer their own version but on different days.

The shade canopies at Gutierrez give
it a leg up on the competition.

Drove by Gutierrez which has a much larger parking lot than this picture depicts, there is more on the side and the back...it was packed!  You know my rule...NO LINES...unless they are unavoidable like the lines to cross back to the USA.

Drove to the smaller Bodegas Aurrera (owned by Walmart) mostly so I could use their Wi-Fi as my cell phone does not work in Mexico and I wanted to check the Border Wait Times App.  It said there was a 35-minute wait which seemed incredible to believe.

Their limited shade canopies are no match
to those at Gutierrez.

Before I list the prices...here are the Exchange Rates...top number is the BUY rate for $1.00 US dollar you can buy $17.40 Mexican Pesos. The second number is the SELL rate, they will sell you one US dollar for $18.70 Mexican Pesos.

Exchange rates for 5-07-19

I wanted to buy some onions and tomatoes but I did not like the prices so I will buy those in Del Rio.

The last time I was in Bodegas Aurrera was at their larger store on the northwest part of town.  I remember mentioning then that there were stockers everywhere and empty shelves. The same took place today at this smaller location.

I was going to buy a bottle of Kahlua and save $3.75 (Texas liquor tax per bottle) by crossing at the Amistad Dam Port of Entry but the liquor shelves were barren.  Ended buying 3 bottles of hot sauce that were on sale for $20.00 pesos (20.00 divided by 17.40 equals $1.15 USD).

With the re-routing of traffic to the new Mexican Customs building
you have to pay attention to the signs or end up lost like what
happened to me the first couple of times.

With no reason to drive to the Amistad Dam Port of Entry headed back home the regular way still doubting the 35-minute wait quoted on the App. Tolls to cross to the USA are 28.00 Mexican Pesos the equivalent of $1.61 USD.

 

 When something sounds too good to be true it's because it is.  This was NOT a 35-minute line.

It was hot and humid around 88 degrees and it took 1 hour 20 minutes to cross the border because only two lanes were open to traffic.

When I got home I decided to make an early post because I had my NBA Semifinal games this evening only to find the cable, internet and home phone were not working.  The cable came back in time to watch my games but both the internet and telephone were out until 7:32 a.m. this morning.

Good night.  May you all have Terlingua Dreams.

Trip down Frontera Road

Had a very busy day yesterday, by the time I got home I was just too tired to make a post.  Why is printer ink so expensive?  Needed to make several copies but Val Verde County Library does not open till 1:00 p.m. on weekends. So was trying to kill time till they opened.

I have mentioned that we do not have a donation center in Del Rio like Goodwill or Salvation Army. The closest thing has always been Faith Mission a church on Frontera Road that before they built the new ICE headquarters had a large number of followers.  People would walk to it from Mexico but now that the access has been cut off they have to walk or drive for 4 miles versus one block.

This was Frontera Rd. prior to being closed off.  It may look unprotected
but the International Bridge is located there with armed ICE agents.

The border wall along Fronters Road

Faith Mission is located right next to who used to be our mechanic twice removed, he is now deceased.  I caught him several times dumpster diving and salvaging stuff so one of his relatives could sell them in Mexico instead of landing at the local landfill...I had no trouble with that.

Faith Mission Warehouse to the left, my former
 mechanic's shop to the right.

Up until I would say fifteen years ago or so there were two ways to go to Mexico.  The pretty way or the not so pretty but faster way.  My parents always went down the historic South Del Rio route.  That is where many of the beautiful mansions, vineyards and historic landmarks are located such as Dr. Brinkley's mansion. Who was Dr. Brinkley?  Here is a prior post if you care to read it.  I might also add the most read post on my blog...who would have imagined? http://terlinguadreams.blogspot.com/2013/10/the-brinkley-mansion.html

It has been a long time since I have been down this road and did not know if the church was still open and if they took donations and what type. The drop box was at a different location but it answered my question of what they accepted.

This is where the first border wall went up under President George W. Bush after the 9/11 attacks.  Over the wall is still the United States until you reach the Rio Grande about half a mile downhill.

Border Patrol drives down this road behind the fence to the Rio Grande.
Only Federal authorities have access to it.

Looking Southwest to what used to be the
former ICE headquarters and gateway to Mexico.

Frontera Road ends here (there is a big gap) and to the left is private property.

Good night.  May you all have Terlingua Dreams.



2019 NBA Conference Semifinals

I have really tried to get into the games this year but since my San Antonio Spurs were eliminated I really have not been enthused about them. 

I wish I had been able to watch the last game between Denver and Portland but I changed the channel to watch the news and never returned to it.  Had no idea they had gone to four overtimes would have been fun to watch.