Nuevo Progreso...again...

Since it's been a whole five months since I've been to Mexico, I got the urge to drive down to Nuevo Progreso (NP) this weekend. I was there last September and even though it's not on the Caribbean with that beautiful blue water, I figured it would give me a little Mexican fix in the meantime. However, when I told people I was planning on doing this, they said, "WHAT?!?! ARE YOU CRAZY!?!? IT'S DANGEROUS DOWN THERE...ESPECIALLY ON A BORDER TOWN!!!" That didn't sway me.

Here's the usual Texas scenery on the way to just about anywhere in the state.

Somewhere around 50 miles north of the border on your way down, you hit a checkpoint where the border patrol checks cars in the northbound lane for various items they think you possibly shouldn't have. You don't get checked on the way down, but they do have about ten cameras set up on the right and left side of the highway taking pictures as you drive by.

Sidebar: I don't remember the cotton fields last year, but maybe I just wasn't paying attention. There were a lot of them.

Strange little plants.

So, it's about a 350 mile drive to the bridge. It takes just about as long to drive here as it does to fly to Cancun with a layover in Houston or Mexico City.

Here's the bridge where you can either drive over, or park in the lot off to the right for $2.00 and walk over.

I don't know what this sign is all about on this little grassy spot. Motorcycles maybe??

Last time when I was standing in about this same place, I got yelled at for trying to take a picture of a bunch of Homeland Security guys standing around. This year, I didn't even see anyone outside.

They have this nice little area on the U.S. side just before you cross...

Here's walking over the bridge looking back at the U.S. side...

And the Rio Grande River. It's a lot higher than it was last year. In fact, when I was thinking of coming down again, I e-mailed someone who works at the nearby Weslaco Chamber of Commerce to ask about the danger issue. She replied that the only problem was the recent flooding and they had to temporarily close the bridge for awhile because of that.

This is looking back at the U.S. side where the fence runs alongside.

As you drive down the highway, you can see it behind private homes...

Last year when I walked over the bridge, I could just see hats poking through the slits. These girls were getting a little bolder...but they looked like they were having fun.

So, here we are in Mexico...

Security was MUCH lighter this year. Last year, there was a tank sitting on the other side of this drive-through. No tanks this time.

Armed guards were still present, though, but they looked more bored (and hot) than anything.


Especially this guy, who was obviously on a little break. I don't know what this machine was...something about karaoke...but it seemed kind of ironic considering the fully loaded machine gun casually draped across his back.

Here's a view as soon as you go through the drive-through area...

And some other town shots...





Do you think they intentionally made the U.S.A. guy larger than the Mexican guy?

I did not try out the mechanical bull...

Shot to prove I actually was there...

I'm a big fan of suns and liked this ceiling painting...

Quite a few vendors. When I was stateside, I passed a bank with a sign noting that the temperature was 104 degrees. I think it had to be even hotter than that in NP with all the people, cement and vendors heating food.




Lots of colorful wares in the stores and on the streets. It was nice to be able to go into some of the shops to cool off.









Hammocks are very popular...

I'm not a cowboy boot expert, but these seemed very reasonably priced...

I'm guessing these were pinatas in the making...or maybe the poor man's pinatas. Haha!

There are four services that are advertised aggressively...



...and dermatology procedures which I didn't get a photo of.

Here's lunch. You had no idea how good that Dos Equis tasted after walking around for a couple hours in that heat. I drank it so fast, I didn't even bother to get a picture. The Enchiladas Tamaulipecas was very good.

But it's an easy spot for "little" vendors to come along and try to sell their wares. That didn't bother me, though. These little guys are very serious and it's hard to get them to smile. Even though they're brave enough to come up to you, they're very shy...but they always say "thank you" if you buy something from them. Who could resist these faces?



Or these? Haha! They came walking up and started singing. "No, no no!" I insist...but not before I got a picture.

Saw these guys a little later down the street. At least their outfits coordinate...ha!

People of all ages sell their wares...

This was a guy selling vegetable "curlers" and I stopped to see how it worked.

This little guy tried to sell me one of these candies for a dollar. I said, "A dollar!?!" like that was way out of my price range and the guy standing next to him laughed and said, "I think he means two for twenty-five cents." He smiled and I gave him a dollar for two. I'm a sucker for a cute face.


Some people, however, didn't want their picture taken. (Or I could have said he was just giving me a high five.)

They still have the elderly women sitting on the street for money like I saw last time.

So, after about four hours, I had had enough of the heat and headed back north. I took a different way back, but still had to go through a checkpoint. The guy in the car in front of me was an African-American driving a Volvo. The officers were looking at his driver's license and must have asked him to pop the trunk because one of them was standing behind the car with a drug sniffing dog. He raised the trunk and the dog looked very bored. Green light to the guy in the Volvo.

When I pulled up, they just asked if I was an American citizen. I held up my driver's license and said, "yes." They didn't even look at it and told me to go on. Geez...I must look totally boring. When I told my friend, Paul, he said, "Yeah, you don't look like a pot mule." Haha!

So, what did I score while I was there?

These are from the children...

I bought some of these last time I was in NP and love them. They are a perfect size for sauces and stuff you don't want to mix in with the rest of the food on your plate. My son broke the ones I had so I have looked all over for something similar, but haven't found anything I like. Well, I guess I had to come back to Mexico to find them. These probably would have sold for about $8.00 at the Mexican Market in San Antonio. Score for $2.95. Oh, yeah.

Some fire opal earrings to match my ring...

And...last but not least...the vegetable curler thingy. WAY cool. I love this thing. I don't know what I'll ever use it for, but when the time comes, I'll have one!

Adios, Nuevo Progreso. After 710 miles on my car, I don't think I'll be going back again soon...but it was fun.

Miscellaneous stuff...

I was looking through some of my older blog posts last night which made me realize that I haven't been posting nearly as often lately. I used to take my camera with me all the time and would take pictures wherever I went. I just don't do that anymore...maybe because I've become somewhat bored with the area where I am and don't think there's anything to take pictures of that I haven't already taken. A few weeks ago, I DID take my camera along when I went down to New Braunfels to have lunch with my son. When I got back home, I looked at the photos I took while I was there and thought, "boring," so I never posted them. I looked at them again last night, and decided to post them anyway, so here they are.

A couple pictures of the Guadalupe River...one of the prettier areas of Texas Hill Country...

I was experimenting with different settings on the camera on this one trying to get a softer effect on the waterfall, but couldn't figure it out. I'll have to work on that one...

I had to stop and wait for a train and took this one across the street. For being so scraggly looking, these cacti sure have beautiful flowers. This one is going to be incredible when all those buds open up. I'll have to swing by there when they start to bloom.

Unless I'm in a hurry, I never mind watching trains go by. I think there is a real art to graffiti, although some of it is hard to read. I wonder if there is a graffiti school somewhere...I would like to take a class.



So, Jonathan and I had lunch at Schobels...a German restaurant in New Braunfels that opened about a year or so ago. Really nice building...

Nice bar area...

Great fireplace, but it would look nicer if they had a fire going. When the outside temp is over 100 degrees, though, I guess I can understand why they don't.

Here's the main dining room. Uh-oh...I see lots of old people. Even though I'm an "old person" myself, I always worry a little when I see that the majority of a restaurant's customers are of the elderly persuasion.

Buffet...

Liver and onions (that is definitely an old people thing...yuck)...

Here's the menu. Kind of on the pricey side if you ask me. While I was doing this post, I checked online for reviews and a LOT of them were not good. Bad service and bland food.

Here's what I had...a chicken salad sandwich. I love chicken salad sandwiches...but not this one. Look closely...what do you see?

That's right...MUSTARD!! WTF is up with that?? Who on God's green earth puts mustard in chicken salad?? I ate half of it, but I'd certainly never order it again. The fries were pretty good, though. Jonathan had a caesar salad which was average. Would I go back? Only if someone else was paying for it. Haha!

So, while I was in New Braunfels, I decided to run by the old homestead and see what they had done to my "yard from hell." Remember how it looked when I moved in six years ago?

And what it looked like when I sold it a year ago?

Here's what it looks like today. Kind of boring if you ask me...

And remember when I did the post on Bad Times in Texas? This is a picture I took in February of 2009 of a nearby shopping center they had built I think sometime around the Summer of 2008 that was still vacant.

This is it a few weeks ago. Only one business has moved in. I guess times are still not so good in Texas.

And kids are still using the sign for target practice.

So there you go. Another fascinating post from South Texas. I need to go somewhere exciting.

A quick weekend project...

I decided to tackle a stained glass project this weekend...pretty much because I was just bored. I found a pattern on-line and tried it out...

It has been awhile since I worked with stained glass, so I had forgotten how dangerous this craft is. This is when I was doing some glass cutting and a piece dropped onto my ankle. I was concentrating on what I was doing that I didn't notice that the blood was pooling into my flip flop. (Way too much information, I know.)

I made a lot of use of these things over the past two days and have about five cuts on my fingers. I'm guessing that if you do this on a regular basis, your fingers develop callouses.

Glass cuts like these are a lot of fun. (Not.) You start out with the most difficult cut first so that if you screw up, you haven't wasted time with the easier cuts.

Then you have to put foil around every single piece which enables you to solder everything.

Here's what it looked like on the table...

And when I put it in the window...

And a long-distance shot in the room. I'm so-so on how it turned out. I wanted a less yellow look on top but didn't have much of a selection at Hobby Lobby, so you take what you get.

This one is still my favorite...but probably because it has more meaning for me...