Travel

The other day I decided to venture out to meet John and Ellyn in Mexico.  I "met" John a few years ago on my space and we became pen pals.  I was instantly taken by his writing and after seeing a few videos he posted, I figured he was the real life "dude" from the Big Lebowsky , even though I know he gets that a lot. I meet a lot of nice folks on the internet and it's always fun to meet them in person after talking for a while to see how they are in real life.  John and Ellyn are exactly how I imagined...about as real as you can get. They live on a house right on the water about 35 minutes from the border.  They don't have electricity, but do have propane and water.  They refer to their housing community as the "camp" and everyone knows each other very well.  John and Ellyn are entertainers with a traveling show so you might have seen them at your local fair or at the San Diego zoo where Ellen is "Dr. Zoolittle." I didn't bring Max al...

On my way out of Austin, I stopped at a hole in the wall restaurant for breakfast.  I told the server that I didn't want meat with my meal.  Before he left, he confirmed, "no meat?" I nodded.  When my meal came, I looked at it then looked at the waiter and said, "there's meat on my plate."  He looked at my plate and back to me and said, "That's not meat, that's bacon."  At that moment I was reminded that yes, I was in Texas. There wasn't much I knew about El Paso except for the Pace salsa commercials from long ago.  For some reason, I was drawn to the area.  I didn't stay long but long enough to tour around the city for a while, which was empty for the most part.  There were a few locals browsing around at shops, feeding the birds in the park and waiting for the bus.  It seems to be a sleepy town. I walked around the downtown streets and after a while, I drove around to nearby areas to see if I could find some locals sitting outside...