Merry Christmas!

Just wanted to wish y'all - readers, family, and friends - a very happy Christmas. 'tis the time to count our blessings, and to step away from this hectic world of ours and to relax for a day or two.
Now would be an excellent time to reach out to that long lost old friend, relative, maybe even former friend that you have been thinking of. Take the time to wish them the best and to wish them a prosperous 2009.

Feliz Navidad!

Progreso and Ancient Guerrero

Nuevo Progreso:

We've been traveling back and forth across the border quite a bit recently. Quite a bit. Enough that we are getting to be pals with some of the border guards.

We did a day trip across the border at Progreso, TX to the sister city of Nuevo Progreso, Tamaulipas. I don't believe that I have ever seen a more gringo-friendly town in Mexico in my life, and that includes Tijuana. Contrary to what most Norte Americanos think, for most of Mexico tourism is a minor part of their economy with industry being where it's at. Nuevo Progreso is the opposite - think in terms of Disneyland's spic and span version of Key West. Progreso is all about a crowded main street that you can walk up and down and enjoy numerous restaurants, bars, beauticians, dentists, MDs, and more curio shops than you can shake a wallet at. You see old gringos everywhere wearing bermuda shorts, and housewives having their nails done. With plenty of English language signs and businesses that quote prices in dollars it's pretty tough to believe that this place is Mexican, except for the low prices (even so, dinner or beer will cost you more in Progreso than if you do a little shopping in Reynosa, for example).

Frankly, I have mixed emotions about Nuevo Progreso. We had a great time and an excellent lunch, chatting with a young American accountant and her date about how silly most gringos are for being so afraid of Mexico. Then again, for a first time traveler to Mexico, Nuevo Progreso is almost too easy. In the rest of Mexico you can NOT expect much in the way of English signage and you'd better know your prices in pesos.

Here are some US motorcyclists in downtown Nuevo Progreso:

~~

We decided to head into Mexico for a few days of exploring. Well ... best laid plans, etc.

I had wanted to check out the ghost town to end all ghost towns, the old city of Guerrero, or "Ancient Guerrero," since the entire town was rebuilt maybe 15 miles away from the site of the original city. Today the very clean and pretty town of Nuevo (new) Guerrero sits at the base of the Falcon Dam, which is a relatively unknown border crossing.

A little history: Once upon a time almost all of Texas belonged to Mexico under Spanish control. Guerrero was a major port city on the Rio Grande (Rio Bravo) River and located where the Salado River empties into the Rio Grande.

During the Indian wars in the fledgling United States several Indian tribes were chased so far south that Guerrero found it necessary to fortify the city in order to resist Indian attacks. As late as the 1900's Guerrero enjoyed an international (mostly European) reputation as a resort city.

In the 1950's, when Guerrero had a population of almost 50,000, the USA and Mexico jointly decided to dam the Rio Grande River. Several communities went underwater, including much of Guerrero.

According to several sources that I have, the relocation of Guerrero wasn't pretty, and families were forced off of their properties, particularly those properties that dated back to Spanish land grants. There are a few books out there that claim that, despite initial promises to do so, neither the USA nor Mexico compensated the families for properties that were flooded by Falcon Reservoir, and that the Mexican Army eventually came in and forced the last families out at gunpoint. Buildings were reportedly stripped of their elaborate stone work (much of this going to New York City to reappear on buildings there, I heard) and bulldozers were called in to destroy some of the buildings.

That was then, and this is now. Because the water level of Falcon Lake has dropped dramatically in recent years, Ancient Guerrero is back. And since Mexico has a much kinder, gentler government than in the bad old days, the state of Tamaulipas has even put up signs directing tourists to the site.

That's the good news. The bad news is that the place is still a bit of a bear to find. If you don't look in the right place, that is. I was following some directions from gringos and and using my gringo maps and managed to waste an entire day when, duh ... I discovered that the old city was right there on my Guia Roji atlas that I bought a few years ago on another Mexican trip. Talk about the frickin' obvious.

Day 1. We headed towards Laredo on the US side and crossed into Mexico at the "Smugglers Crossing" at Camargo. This is the last crossing between the USA and Mexico that is a small, cable-operated ferry and is pretty surreal. It's tiny! There is really nothing much on the Mexican side that is nearby to attract gringos, although there is a perfectly nice small Mexican farm town a few miles inland. An older US couple on the ferry told me that the big thing was to buy smokes and such at the duty-free store on the US side and then to ride the ferry to Mexico and back, just to comply with the letter of the law. We saw a couple of Border Patrol guys who looked bored as hell and didn't want to be photographed. Welcome to America!

We had a fine time exploring Mexican Route 2 along the border. The only problem was that we got a late start and discovered that Falcon Lake and Ancient Guerrero were further west than we expected and that Rt. 2 was pretty slow going, much slower than the US equivalent. This part of Mexico was fairly rural and we didn't see any motels in the smaller towns, so we decided that the best course of action was to return to the USA along the Falcon Bridge and head back home to our RV.

Day2: We got up early the next morning, drove for an hour or two, and recrossed the Falcon Bridge. Beautiful view, and a magnificent structure.

We then drove maybe 20 miles down Rt. 2 past where we were the night before, and found the hand-painted sign for the turn off to the old city of Guerrero:

To say that the road was a bit rough is to be kind. We did the better part of an hour on this surface, at times crossing cattle crossings and opening and closing several fences. It's hard-packed rock, dusty and rough, and would be perfect for motorcycling on a BMW GS.

Driving along this road puts you up close and personal with several head of cattle and more than a few goats. This might have been the main road to Guerrero in the 50's but today it's open range and long horn cattle roam.

We cruised along and finally ran into this, which threatened to stop our trip just before we got to the ghost town:

This wasn't just a little water or a mud puddle, this was the freakin' lake beginning to cover the road for maybe an 1/8 of a mile as the water level had gone up following Hurricane Ike!

We checked for an alternative route but could find none. Nearby farmers' fields had their gates locked and their access roads were flooded as well. We were fearing that we might have gotten this close to Ancient Guerrero and failed in our journey, but refusing to take "no" (or "common sense") for an answer Yours Truly went wading to the other side of the lake to test the depth.

The conclusion? The water never got up to my knees, and we'd put the Land Rover to a test. I wouldn't say that there weren't some sphincter-tightening moments as the SS Discovery II set sail in some of the deeper waters, but we made it!

And over on the other side of the water, we found the remains of Ancient Guerrero:

The metal structure in the foreground is the old town windmill. I don't think that this part of town was ever completely covered with water from the lake:



Notice the town's grand hotel, today and in it's heyday in the 50's:

And finally, the centerpiece of Ancient Guerrero, the local cathedral, the Nuestra Señora del Refugio Church. The church has never been completely underwater and in recent years was dry enough that a restoration effort took place where the local believers restored the church interior and repainted the exterior. Alas, with the water levels high again, the church has partially gone back underwater:

As you can see from some photos that I found online, it hasn't been too long ago that the church was completely high and dry:

This aerial view of Ancient Guerrero is fascinating. The church is in the foreground. Out there somewhere there is a large stone bridge that crossed the Salado River. In this photo the lake is slightly lower than it is today:

All and all, a fascinating trip and a fascinating learning experience. While we were in Ancient Guerrero we ran across a gentleman from the Chamber of Commerce in nearby Roma, Texas and his photographer who were working up materials for the tourist trade, but otherwise it was pretty lonely. The one caretaker at the entrance was gone the entire day and no other tourists showed up. So this place is pretty isolated, although there are some large ranches nearby and two or three farmhouses within walking distance of the town. If you go there in the summer then take plenty of bottled water. Don't expect to find a 7-11 nearby.

And the photographer was wearing snake-proof pants, which I thought was a pretty prudent idea.

Hey, Disney this ain't! This is a real ghost town, and in Mexico, to boot.

For more information on Ancient Guerrero may I suggest that y'all check out the sites at

http://www.rice.edu/armadillo/Past/Book/Part5/part5.html

and at

http://jessmerrill-photography.com/images/ViejoGuerrero/vg.html


Next post: Nuevo Laredo and Monterrey.

We've been having a great time. I just wish that I'd be able to find the time to write about it.

Time. There is never enough.

I was doing OK blogging until about two weeks ago. When I blogged about being at Indianola, Texas we were actually set up down the road in Corpus Christi. Move on to the next locations, Organize those photos, reflect, and take the time to write. That's how it's supposed to work.

Corpus Christi was wonderful. We were on a small island just outside the downtown area proper. There were a handful of bars, a nature park, the USS Lexington aircraft carrier, and little else. And the salt water was maybe 20 ft. in front of our bumper. Deb was up fishing at 4 and 5AM several days in a row. As a side trip we ran over to Mustang Island and took the ferry to the legendary Port Aransas. Just beautiful!

Since our stay in Corpus Christi we moved on to Port Isabel, Texas for a few days. Port Isabel and nearby South Padre Beach were also beautiful.

Now we are in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas, about 60 miles inland and down on the Mexico border. We'll be here for about a month.

In the meantime we have been exploring the Mexican border areas at a furious pace and deciding where to go and what to do next. Budget willing, of course.

We ran over to the modern-day Playa Bagdad, an area that I have wanted to explore for years. Historically the last Confederate port open during the Civil War, the Bagdad of old was perhaps 7 miles from the Playa Bagdad of today due to the shifting sands of the Rio Bravo River. We discovered a delightful fishing village built right on the ocean, along with a small tourist village. If there was ever a good place for a gringo to go and hide and to get away from it all then the Playa Bagdad is the place to go.

Near McAllen, Texas we found the perfect RV park, right on the Rio Bravo River. You could literally look across the river and into Mexico. The border patrol was in attendance, and so were numerous fishermen from the RV park. I'm not sure what the bag limit was, but I suspect that you had to throw back anything under 95 lbs.

Alas, the perfect RV park was next to a flood wall that was under construction, and we didn't think that it was prudent to try and get a 40 ft. motorhome over that steep embankment with a tight turn and a sheer dropoff.


So we checked into another, very nice RV park that caters to "Winter Texans," i.e. the generally-retired snowbirds that flock to Texas as the weather gets cold. We may be a bit younger than most of the folks here but we are having a great time!

We have also made several trips up and down the border around Reynosa. We've checked out a couple of points that we could see from the USA side and which just scream "future development!" all over them.

The only real fly in the ointment is that our rear air conditioner finally went caput. Long-time readers of this blog may recall that we replaced the front "basement" A/C unit with an overhead unit in the Spring while we were still in Florida, and we were considering installing a similar rear unit. The rear A/C unit was getting weak when we were doing disaster relief work. We actually scheduled an appointment weeks in advance to do the replacement with an RV dealer in Houston. Alas, the rear basement unit stopped completely a number of days ago. I had a replacement overhead unit shipped in, and the next day a roving RV maintenance guy and I removed the overhead vent and put the A/C unit into the existing spot (I had wanted to cut another hole in the roof but after we started it became obvious that we'd have to cut through a major structural beam and that put the kabosh on that plan). Mercifully the temps have been cool so we haven't really missed the defunct A/C unit.


What does the future hold? Well ... I am organizing a small group to go and (don't laugh too hard here) check out a supposed UFO crash site in Mexico, not too far from el Paso. We'll likely move the motorhome to Del Rio, Texas so that Deb can hit the casino there for a few days while I explore in rural Mexico.


Wish me luck, and if you don't hear from me again then let's just hope that those alien abductions are merciful.

Could the next Margaritaville be a ghost town?

Indianola, Texas in its prime:

And what is left of Indianola, Texas today:

Often called the Queen of Texas Ghost Towns, little remains of the port of Indianola other than that marker, the town cistern in the background, and what is left of the town grave yard on the other side of that marsh.

What happened to a major Texas city which at one time was rivaled only by Galveston?

The short answer is two hurricanes and disease, all of which wiped out the settlers in what was once Texas' second largest port, and which had luxury motels and was quite the place to be. The grand mansions of Old Indianola were either torn down or moved to nearby towns. And the foundations of the original municipal buildings are now underwater.

Founded in 1846 by German immigrants, Indianola was twice occupied by Union troops during the Civil War.

In 1869 the first shipment of mechanically refrigerated beef left Indianola aboard a ship bound for New Orleans, pioneering the technologies of both beef processing and commercial refrigeration.

The census of 1875 revealed that Indianola had a population of 5,000. In September of the same year a hurricane struck, almost completely destroying the town and killing between 150 and 300. An epidemic soon followed.

Indianola rebuilt. and in 1886 another crippling hurricane struck. Rather than rebuild Indianola the county seat moved to Port Lavaca.

What does remain is a charming, somewhat remote fishing village. Fifteen miles out of Port Lavaca, you'd better make sure that you have enough gasoline to get out there and back because the only service station in the area is up for sale.

For that matter, the only place currently selling beer (by the can) and serving food (on paper plates) is the local bait shop at the end of the road. So if they aren't open, or you don't like the beer selection, then you had better stock up in Port Lavaca and bring it with you.

This is fishin' and RV country. We had a great time hanging out at the bait store (the store closes around 10PM but they invite folks to fish on their deck as late as folks want to).

We found an excellent, small RV campground ...

With an excellent view of the beach and Matagorda Bay:

The owner of the RV campground pointed out that many, many snowbirds came down and camp right on the beach:

So this entire area is very laid back. Very. Laid. Back.

If you have an RV, or can rent one of the cabins along the coast, Indianola is very reminiscent of what Key West and the Florida Keys would have been like before the mass of tourists showed up. Just don't expect to find any chain motels out here.

And should Indianola not be your cup of fish chowder, consider wandering over to the nearby town of Port O'Connor. A bit bigger than Indianola and a bit more upscale, Port O'Connor is also on Matagorda Bay (although the "other side") and actually claims a service station, a couple of restaurants, and a bar or two. No overnight camping on the beach, but once again the fishin' promises to be excellent:

Angleton, Texas and the local beachfront

Deb and I have spent the majority of our assignment camped out at a KOA (Kampgrounds of America) on the northern side of Houston. The folks there were nice enough, and after all it was an emergency (we moved in before the power was restored) but the place just didn't give us the warm fuzzies.

For one thing, the KOA campground flooded easily:



For another thing, it was expensive for what I'd consider to be a B- place. We were charged full price for the days when there was no electricity and we had to run our own generator, and that hurt.

So we packed up, ran up to the Flying J truckstop off of I-45 where we took on 100 gallons of fuel (at $3.37/gallon, which is a far cry from the almost $5/gallon fuel that we were seeing earlier this year in Florida), and set sail for an RV park that we had spotted a few days earlier near the small town of Angleton, Texas.

Now this is the life - we are right on a bayou and have been getting up at sunup and fishin' for the last few days:






This campground seemed like a nice, safe location to let the cats out so they've been given the opportunity to roam a bit:



Here's Coyote hangin' with the resident RV park tomcat. Obviously none of them are too traumatized:




We will be keeping a wary eye on the cats in the future, however. I spotted this guy within a few hundred feet of where we have been fishin' :




That's a 'gator friends. The RV park management assured me that the 'gators 'round here were all hibernating but I guess that this guy lost his calender during Hurricane Ike. He's not a real big one, but he's about 5 ft. long, and that's big enough to ruin a housecat's day.

Angleton is a small town not too far removed from Houston so once we return from Mexico we'll come back here and hang out while we look for jobs. The RV park is about 10 miles out of town and almost 5 miles from the nearest biker bar so it's well out in the boondocks.

There are some really interesting seaside towns near here. Surfside Beach is actually large enough to support two small bars/grills, both of which are just reopening following Ike's departure. Freeport is a fair-sized town on the mainland that has an unincorporated portion on the eastern side of the Intracoastal Waterway. No bars and no stores on that side of Freeport without crossing back to the mainland as far as I could see.

In between the two towns is a massive chemical plant and a ship channel. There is no bridge directly connecting the two towns - you need to drive back to the mainland and then recross the Intracoastal to get from Surfside Beach to the coastal community of Freeport, for instance.

Here's the coastal portion of Freeport which, by and large, showed little damage from Ike:



Talk about a bridge to nowhere! Quite a massive structure considering that there is little more than a few dozen houses, a small state park, and a marina on the oceanfront side of Freeport. Some politician must have a house over there:



Surfside Beach seems to be a bit more blue collar. They have a couple of RV and tent campgrounds (full of construction folks at the moment). By and large the houses there look like they took a harder hit from Hurricane Ike. Even among the standing houses you can tell that large portions of roof are gone and the interiors have been ruined.






At least the two bars/grills on Surfside are coming back to life. We were among the first to have a drink at this place as they were unloading the booze (first rule of hurricane evacuation when you own a bar - save the hard likker!)



One thing that I really like about this area is that you can get seriously up close and personal to the ships coming through the channel. There is a small park in Surfside and the locals were all out on the breakwater fishing as the ships passed. Notice the two guys wading in the shallows as the ship passes - can we say "bow wave" guys?:



The Angleton/Surfside area of Texas is pretty entertaining and I have heard from others that it's popular motorcycling territory, so we'll be looking forward to exploring there a bit more when we get back.

Brazoria County, TX

I have wanted to explore the coastal towns and beaches of Texas for several years. Now that Deb and I are in Texas, and our disaster relief commitments in Houston have wound down, 'tis the time it would appear.


We drove into Galveston on Wednesday, October 22nd, a bit over 5 weeks after Hurricane Ike had made landfall.


Let's just say that the boats that were lining the causeway as you come into Galveston are finally being removed.


Eerie.

There's going to be plenty of cleanup and reconstruction in Galveston for years to come.

When we were in Galveston the last time (a few weeks ago) we headed north to the ferry to Ft. Bolivar. At that time the ferry was closed to the general public and it still is. Bodies are reportedly being found, buried under the rubble of the Bolivar Peninsula, almost daily. Residents can now go to Bolivar (until recently it was just the authorities) although tourists and looky lous are being kept out. The curfew was until 2PM; I hear it's been extended to 6PM.

Yeah, things sound grim over on the Bolivar Peninsula.

This time instead of heading north we headed south and drove along the beach strand and the famous Galveston Seawall.

Residences along the highway in southern Galveston were severely damaged. The Red Cross still has a feeding center near the end of the island, and FEMA has an RV with a satellite antenna for communications. Few businesses were open. Debris were piled up (notice the side of the road-you see mile upon mile of stacks of debris).

We then crossed the toll bridge (which was untended and not collecting tolls) at the end of Galveston Island and where you cross over into Brazoria County. Immediately we came to a sign that said that the road was closed. Being the shy types that we are we pushed on.

That roughly 25 mile stretch of coastal road running to the little town of Surfside Beach is pretty much gone for a significant portion of it's existence. There are sections ranging from a lane to a few hundreds of yards that are missing, but at one point the highway vanished completely and we were routed out onto the beach itself. Construction trucks are also using the beach strand as a makeshift highway so things get entertaining when you are on what is essentially one lane of packed sand and meeting a Mack dump truck.

This took up an entire lane. Trust me, you don't want to be driving out here at night:







Notice that the road ends completely and that traffic, such as it is, is being routed to the right. This was fairly intense - we followed a family in a Jeep that decided to turn around, but the local construction guys in their pickups just plowed on.

Finally, the road just ran out and we drove for maybe 5 miles on the beach. Notice the heavy traffic.

Yeah, right.

Also notice how desolate this area is, the trash piled up, and the few standing houses in the background:






Alas, things weren't all fun and games. We did witness one poor schmuck getting his car pulled out with a bulldozer. I hear that once you've turned your Toyota into a salt water submarine then they are never the same:

Enough of the road, which will have to be rebuilt. Take a look at the houses. Notice the lean on this first one, and no, the photographer was neither drunk nor standing with one foot in a hole when the photo was shot:

Here's another one that just don't look quite right:

And this one, which is now accessible primarily by boat:

As bad as those examples are, they are rebuildable. We ran across the following in the otherwise charming seaside village of Surfside Beach, Texas. Notice the pile of rubble where a house once stood:




And finally, this is sad. No amount of polish is going to buff out the damage to this family's home.




Let's keep the good people of coastal Texas in our thoughts.