"Out in the west Texas town of El Paso, I fell in love with a Mexican girl...."
I have a favorable first impression of El Paso and El Pasoans. Friendly, industrious Mexican-Americans and a med-lg city that appears to be well run. Of course, that could be the fresh tortillas and incredible salsa talking....
This is the perfect opportunity to practice my Spanish, but I feel like a douche doing it, like I'm patronizing them - "Que pasa, amigo!" - when that is not my intent. I'm not sure why I feel this way. This is my freaking country, damn it, and I'll speak Spanish if I want to!
The trip on I-10 was alternately beautiful and desolate. Miles and miles of nothing - no thing - except scrub, with a hilly horizon and the occasional abandoned adobe casa. I'm back to that feeling of smallness surrounded by immense and expansive that I had in South Dakota. It's big out here. Like, really big. And sparsely populated outside the metro areas.
Our RV park is nice except for the rinky dink bath houses. We're only here for a week so I can deal. There's a heated indoor pool with a hot tub that Monello tried out last night, and it's pretty close to most of what we need. I think our days of grass and greenery, though, are over for awhile. It's brown here, with little flora and lots of sandy dirt. One of the things you learn when you travel a lot is to put what you're used to behind you and embrace the here and now, and both Monello and I are down with that.
Last night we went to a Mexican buffet. Do not think tacos and burritos - most of the stuff on this buffet was unrecognizable, and what's more they didn't have labels on anything. So we winged it and took bits of things that looked interesting. Unfortunately this led to me accidentally putting liver in my mouth and not having anywhere to spit it. But everything else was pretty good. Our server was pretty good about telling us what we were eating and how we should eat it. I made the mistake of taking a dish of their red salsa, thinking I would douse my food. Um, no. This stuff was like napalm. A little dab'll do ya.
This morning I took my car to the local Toyota for a check-over. Dropped it off, then Monello and I went to breakfast. He had eggs and toast, I had machaca and tortillas. Machaca is shredded beef with huevos, peppers, onions, and cheese. Served with hash browns and refrieds, and one of those warm homemade tortillas that I will never get tired of. I wonder how long it will take before I'm over Mexican food? Because I honestly don't see any end in sight, and now that I'm completely spoiled I won't be rolling around the chain taco shops when we get back east.
We have been assured that there is nothing to see in El Paso, but I have a list of a few things that will keep us entertained and help us get a feel for the area.
I have a favorable first impression of El Paso and El Pasoans. Friendly, industrious Mexican-Americans and a med-lg city that appears to be well run. Of course, that could be the fresh tortillas and incredible salsa talking....
This is the perfect opportunity to practice my Spanish, but I feel like a douche doing it, like I'm patronizing them - "Que pasa, amigo!" - when that is not my intent. I'm not sure why I feel this way. This is my freaking country, damn it, and I'll speak Spanish if I want to!
The trip on I-10 was alternately beautiful and desolate. Miles and miles of nothing - no thing - except scrub, with a hilly horizon and the occasional abandoned adobe casa. I'm back to that feeling of smallness surrounded by immense and expansive that I had in South Dakota. It's big out here. Like, really big. And sparsely populated outside the metro areas.
Our RV park is nice except for the rinky dink bath houses. We're only here for a week so I can deal. There's a heated indoor pool with a hot tub that Monello tried out last night, and it's pretty close to most of what we need. I think our days of grass and greenery, though, are over for awhile. It's brown here, with little flora and lots of sandy dirt. One of the things you learn when you travel a lot is to put what you're used to behind you and embrace the here and now, and both Monello and I are down with that.
Last night we went to a Mexican buffet. Do not think tacos and burritos - most of the stuff on this buffet was unrecognizable, and what's more they didn't have labels on anything. So we winged it and took bits of things that looked interesting. Unfortunately this led to me accidentally putting liver in my mouth and not having anywhere to spit it. But everything else was pretty good. Our server was pretty good about telling us what we were eating and how we should eat it. I made the mistake of taking a dish of their red salsa, thinking I would douse my food. Um, no. This stuff was like napalm. A little dab'll do ya.
This morning I took my car to the local Toyota for a check-over. Dropped it off, then Monello and I went to breakfast. He had eggs and toast, I had machaca and tortillas. Machaca is shredded beef with huevos, peppers, onions, and cheese. Served with hash browns and refrieds, and one of those warm homemade tortillas that I will never get tired of. I wonder how long it will take before I'm over Mexican food? Because I honestly don't see any end in sight, and now that I'm completely spoiled I won't be rolling around the chain taco shops when we get back east.
We have been assured that there is nothing to see in El Paso, but I have a list of a few things that will keep us entertained and help us get a feel for the area.