>From David Locklear Please hit delete button.
I am back in Texas waiting very patiently at the Kika de la Garza Border Station south of the town of Pharr. https://g.co/kgs/12vEZL Three of my Mexican in-laws are inside the Custom's Office getting their 6 month travel permit ( see link below ). [ They all had to go in advance to US Consulate Office in Monterrey to get an official U.S. Border Passing Card ( which slightly resembles a Green Card ). https://www.dropbox.com/s/68jp4l8a7r0s61q/us-crosscard.jpg?dl=0 They do not have Mexican passports, so they can not travel by road to US places that require entry into Canada. ] https://www.dropbox.com/s/0gm322kz7r2r16z/I-94A-1.jpg?dl=0 A foreign tourist travelling by road only needs both of these U.S. documents if they get interrogated. Back to the story. Yesterday afternoon, shortly after the garbage-man and Panchita ( the soon-to-be famous garbage-horse ) rode away, a large Federal military convoy passes directly in front of the house. ( This street has horrendous traffic ). The vehicle pictured below passed the house ( except the soldiers were in full tactical gear wearing mask ). https://www.dropbox.com/s/dkbdid79je9huks/1507423180967304635494.jpg?dl=0 [ note the armored roof-mounted 50 mm ]. It followed a caravan of 6 SWAT pick-up trucks one with a mounted machine guns, one being at least 20 mm. All 50 officers were heavily armed. Later we saw this armored Humvee with armored roof-mounted turret machine gun patrolling the neighborhood. https://www.dropbox.com/s/5jj96dkwvv2re3k/1507507514764719281213.jpg?dl=0 Every relative that I spoke with said they seldom go to restaurants, and never at night and that you should not drive around town in a nice car. They all seemed paranoid, especially my mother-in-law. I drove around several nearby streets and it was obvious that people seemed to be far less active outdoors or had packed up and abandoned their house. However it was Sunday. I saw one mansion about 4 blocks away that would have cost 10 million dollars in the suburbs of Houston. It was occupied. I only saw one suspicious car and one very inconsiderate driver. My mother-in-law alleged one creepy looking guy in the restaurant was scoping us out looking for an opportunity to rob us. He did make me feel uncomfortable. You usually do not see men like that in a quaint family-oriented cafe. I have never been in Mexico with my Sequoia and since I still owe $ 23,000 I felt really moronic for driving it there. One thing that I had not noticed before is that the neighbors 30 feet to the west installed an enormous cell-tower in their courtyard about 5 feet from their backdoor. This completely blocks our view to the west from the back-porch. Something like that would never happen in a normal place. Another thing I did not realize was the water-shortage problem seems worse or maybe I just am more grumpy now in my old age about such things. And it may be just andropause, but I lack the patience to sit in a traffic line at U.S. Customs for hours in the hot sun. Sunday afternoon, We continued north on Hwy. 281 and uneventfully past the interior checkpoint. Between Pharr and Edinburg on US Highway 281 there are some tiny blue roadside signs that say Interstate "69C," which I guess stands for Central fork, as the high way to Brownsville is allegedly marked Interstate "69E." We only saw one more sign that read "Future Interstate 69" near the town of Driscoll on Hwy. 77. The only new construction that we saw south of Driscoll was the beginning of what looks like a permanent customs checkpoint where the current checkpoint is south of Falfurrias. 7:30 p.m. We are near the town of Victoria, so about 3 hours from Magdalena's house. I am paranoid about putting unnecessary miles on my Sequoia, so none of this road-trip is a pleasant experience. I will most likely have to drive another 2 hours tonight to go get my daughter from my mom's house. The point being, my plate is full and it is hard to think about anything else. For anyone that thinks I am just a racist jerk curmudgeon, here is a picture of me to show that is just a very tiny part of who I am: ( with my suegra, sobrina and cuñada and my esposa-distante ): https://www.dropbox.com/s/crhxfupsjblvj2z/SotoFamilywithLocklear.jpg?dl=0 David
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