Don't mess with Texas

I received a short e-mail message from my brother, he’s been a cop down in Houston TX for over 20 years now, and he took offense at my mild remark about the parade we witnessed in Corpus Christi last year, and how evidently things weren’t all bigger in TX. He and his family were with us at the time. His message was basically, don’t mess with TX, because they could whoop our yankee behinds with one spur. The fact that he was born and raised a yankee in the land of 10,000 lakes doesn’t matter, after 20 years the heat and humidity in Houston has addled his brain and he now considers himself a full-fledged Texan.

I’m joking of course. My family loves Texas. My wife’s parents were snowbirds for quite awhile, but now they’re full-fledged Texans as well, they live in Mission. We’ve gone down to visit for the last 5 years. The nice thing about Texas is that it is so big we have been able to make every visit a little different by going to see something new from year to year. We still have some favorites that we’ve hit every visit---San Antonio’s River Walk and South Padre Island being two of them.

The one thing I have vowed never to do again is to visit one of the border towns in Mexico. I had actually made that vow after the first visit, to New Progresso; but, we did go one other time into Matamuras, which is across the border from Brownsville. These border towns have one main strip, maybe about 10 blocks long, full of vendors who try and get you to buy their wares. This strip is carefully patrolled and guaranteed safe for the Americans who go across to spend money; just don’t make the mistake of going off the main strip for any reason, there you’re on your own. There are hundreds of different vendors along the strip, but somehow they’re all managing to sell the exact same merchandise. I don’t know how much money the vendors make, but the guys who distribute the stuff to the vendors are probably making out like bandits. There are some nice deals to be had; but I just didn’t get into the whole atmosphere and pushiness of it all. My in-laws in Mission will drive about 45 minutes to shop in New Progresso, even though Reynosa is about a 10 minute drive; unfortunately, Reynosa is a town where the last few sheriffs have been gunned down in cold blood, so they tend to stay away from there.

Anyway, we enjoy our visits into the Lone Star State. The next time we go, we’re hoping to stop in Austin and see the bats come out from some bridge in town. We always have to stop in San Antonio and have dinner at Mi Tierra; the food is so good it makes me want to slap my momma. (my brother’s sister-in-law taught our kids that when she gave them a lesson on talking Texan, I don’t hear to many Norwegians throwing that phrase out up here in MN don’tcha know)