A unique driving pattern in Texas is that they use the apron of the road to pull onto to let the vehicle behind you pass, even in "no passing" zones. Usually, any traffic coming at you will move over onto their apron as well. This is the courteous and customary behavior down here, and the aprons on the road are almost a full-sized lane. It makes driving the two-lane highways a little easier, and everyone moves along a little quicker.
We were traveling on Highway 277 to Carrizo Springs, then 83 to Laredo. Highway 83 has been named the "Texas Vietnam Veterans Memorial Highway." We stopped here at a roadside picnic pull-off for lunch, and I talked with a Texas Dept. of Transportation worker who stopped here as well.
He said this immediate area (Carrizo Springs, Catarina, Artesia Wells) was experiencing a big oil boom right now, started about a year ago and was expected to last about 10 years. (The town of Brundage was just a little east of this area, but he didn't mention it--Collins is probably keeping secrets again.) We saw a lot of construction traffic and areas where they were putting in tanks and equipment for their service yards. We also saw a lot of campgrounds that had been quickly laid out to handle the workers for this oil boom. The DOT guy said these little towns did not have near enough housing to take care of this increased population, so the oil companies had brought in campers for them to stay in. Another interesting thing about these Texas highways near the Mexican border is that there are usually dirt roads, like frontage roads, right beside the highway (sometimes on the other side of the fence, but not always). We would see a pile of 3 or 4 tires every so often that they use to drag these dirt roads, looking for footprints from the illegals. The Border Patrol is very busy along here, and we have gone through a couple Inspection Stations. They just asked if we were U.S. citizens and if anyone they couldn't see was traveling with us, while their German Shepherd sniffed our tires and outside cargo areas.
One picture I missed today was what I called a "rooster farm." We passed a place where there were 40-50 little A-frames set up, with a rooster on a tether for each one. I couldn't figure out what they were until it was too late to take a picture, but Joe told me they were fighting roosters, and that a lot of them are raised in this area. If we ever pass another one, I'll make him stop so I can get a picture.
We got into Laredo and found our campground (Lake Casa Blanca State Campground) about 2:00. Our GPS, Lucille, got a little confused so we had an interesting time getting on the right road. Somehow, she also got on Africanese language too, so that added to the confusion. I think we actually hit all 4 corners of the clover leaf, but we managed again Not to go into Mexico (it was a little iffy for a while, but there was one more exit before the bridge that took us over into Mexico). This is another really nice state campground, with electricity, and a big lake.
We rested for a while then ventured into the town. It reminds me of El Paso, and we managed to get right down by the border crossing, in 5:00 traffic. I found an ad in our brochure so I picked out a place to shop. It didn't take very long, but they had some interesting stuff.
There were lots of people heading back to the border crossing, and the streets were busy. I was a little anxious to get out of this part of town.
We managed to find our way back to the campground, thankfully. We are going to attempt to go to a museum right down by the border crossing in the morning, before we leave here for Corpus Christi. Bridgette has to check first thing tomorrow to make sure Southwest has not cancelled her flight from Tampa to Corpus on Thursday, since they have grounded some of their planes. She said if her flight is cancelled, she's just going to start driving. No way is she not going to defend on Friday!
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