Still In Texas
January 15, 2005
We are currently in Harlingen, Texas. We intend to stay here for the next two weeks. This is again one of those places like we have been in so many times in the last several years. We talk to people and hear, “You should have been here last week. The sun was shining and the temperature was twenty degrees warmer.” This has happened at least on five of our vacations. It happened twice in California, once in Texas, and twice in Florida. We could watch the weather channel on TV when we got back to Colorado and as soon as we left the state the weather would improve. We hear that the temperature here is twenty degrees cooler than normal this week. There is no sun to be seen, the wind is blowing cold and there is an increasing chance of rain for the next several days. Even with those thoughts I am still looking out the window and seeing green grass, leaves on trees, a few blooming plants and PALM trees. I received an e-mail from a friend that was rather impressed by the fact that it had snowed where she was and it made her entire property look rounded and soft. There is no chance of snow here unless the weather changes a WHOLE LOT. I will take this to snow. I may have to wear a long sleeved shirt but I don’t need a heavy coat.
WIND GENERATORS ON THE HORIZON
After we left Fort Stockton we went through a lot of country that was sagebrush, mesquite, and yucca. It seemed that we were always in sight of low mountains. A lot of areas had flat topped hills. At one point we saw a very strange looking flat-topped mesa in the distance. The first thing that came to mind was a few hundred telephone pole poking up from the top of the hill. It was not long before a better view revealed what we were seeing. As we passed a small rise in the road there was another hill that was covered with wind generators. For the next twenty or thirty miles it seems that all the hills were covered with the windmills. Some of the hills were so packed that there must have been danger of the blades hitting each other and other hills that were sparsely built. I am sure that we saw many thousands, and if we saw that many there could have been a hundred times that many out of sight. I kept thinking that there would have be a safe place to pull off and get a photograph. But it didn’t work out that way. It seemed that every good pull off was just behind a hill or miles away from the wind generators. Then suddenly the generators were behind us and gone. These are the best I was able to get. A forty-foot motor home pulling a vehicle behind has its drawbacks to be sure. Some day I am sure that I will have to disconnect the Jeep just to be able to get out of a filling station or somewhere else I have driven.
SEVEN WIND GENERATORS
We were in San Antonio for several days last week. I heard that it was the seventh largest city in the US. It is a very interesting city. It is the home of the River Walk, The Alamo and several old missions. I am sure that you have all seen pictures of The Alamo and you have heard that people were disappointed when they saw the actual place. I would guess that I had a different feeling about it than most people would have, but I was not disappointed. A lot of people have thought The Alamo would be a lot bigger. I guess that they don’t really think about the fact that it was built as a mission out in the frontier and most buildings were simply smaller a hundred and fifty years or more ago. I was actually impressed by the largeness of the structure. The Alamo is totally surrounded by paved city streets and business property. There is a movie set somewhere that has a replica of the area at the time of the Alamo battle. It is authentic except for the distinctive rounded front. That front was actually added years after the battle, but every movie shows it as existing at the time, not with the flat top it actually had. I found that The Alamo was a very impressive building. It really was a beautifully designed structure and there was a lot more detail put into its construction than I expected. The Alamo is built in the shape of a cross, like many cathedrals in Europe and many other missions in America. Until I was at the top of the America’s Tower in a revolving restaurant I did not realize that. I am sure that I have seen aerial pictures of the Alamo, but that shape did not stick in my mind.
THE FRONT OF THE ALAMO
The river walk was rather a pleasant surprise. Walking along a locked river was fun. They have the capability of closing off the river and bypassing the commercial area in case there is a flooding rain up stream. I saw a whole hatch of baby ducks. The little balls of fluff were out in the middle of the river with its tour boats. They had not yet learned to get out of the way of the boats, so the captains were extremely careful to avoid any contact with the babies. As can be expected the River Walk is totally geared to commerce. Everything is geared to encourage the spending of money. Still it is a wonderful place to go for a walk by the water and see lights reflecting off the water. We just missed seeing the Christmas displays by a couple of weeks. It seems that every tree that is near the river walk is wrapped with the little lights that are so popular to hang on trees a Christmas time. In driving around the area a great place to view the city is America’s Tower. It is not very far from the Alamo and the view top gives a perspective that is not available from any other place. Many of the missions that were built here were modeled from the churches in Europe. Many of the cathedrals of Europe are built in the shape of a cross. The Alamo is built in that shape also. The view of the rest of the city from America’ tower makes it worthwhile to visit. We also visited a local church where the final remains of the defenders of the Alamo was gathered and placed in a coffin.
THE ALAMO FROM AMERICA’S TOWER
There are several old missions close by. I had never considered how much the priests had to know to be able to serve in these missions. Not only were they there for the conversion of the Indians to the Catholic church, they did a lot in training the natives to farm with the modern techniques of the time. They also had to be able to direct the construction of the missions as the center of a community that could defend itself from hostiles. While I may not agree with the religious beliefs of the priest, I am forced to admire their talents of organization. It would have been self evident, had I ever thought about it, that there were schools run by the Catholic Church to train the priests to do exactly the type of work they did in the Southwest. I have looked at some of the buildings that were built, some of the irrigation systems that were dug and some of the other feats of engineering that were performed, by the Indians before and after the priests came and am totally amazed. I think that 2005 man would be hard pressed to do this amount of construction in the same length of time with bull dozers and cranes and have it stand as many years.
We went to Los Ebanos, Texas to see the only hand powered ferry on any US border. It was something to see. I would call the ferry a barge that was fastened to a steel cable with pulleys attached to a block and tackle. It is large enough to carry three vehicles at a time. There were four Mexicans that pulled on a rope to propel the ferry back and forth across the Rio Grande. Before we got to the ferry my mother-in-law stated that she was not going to get on the ferry and she was not going into Mexico. We walked up to the border crossing and paid fifty cents each to go on towards the river. My impression has always been that the border was in the middle of the Rio Grande. I was wrong again. Just twenty feet past the building where we paid our fee, I saw a brass cap and discovered that I was in Mexico, so much for not going into Mexico. It was still about two hundred feet to the edge of the Rio Grande. The ferry was taking three cars to Mexico when we walked up. It brought three cars back to the US on its return. I said I was going to ride across the river on foot and both Erma and Helen didn’t hesitate to get on the ferry to go with me. At some point of the crossing we each pulled on the rope to propel us across the water. The block and tackles are used to tilt the ferry so that the water flow of the Rio Grande pushes the ferry towards the bank. The hand power of the workers speeds the passage and finishes the last few feet. One of the younger pullers showed Erma and I his hands. They had calluses that were thicker than I have ever seen on any person. He spoke little or no English but he flexed his arm indicating that he has a lot of strength in it. I indicated back that he also had to have a lot of strength in his shoulders. When I patted his shoulder it was about like patting a block of wood. When I was in high school and working the hay fields and farms in the summer I was tough, but there has never been any time in my life that I would even come close to working nearly as hard as this young man did every day.
LOADING CARS ON THE FERRY OUT OF MEXICO
Los Ebanos is named after ebony trees. I thought ebony trees grew in Africa. That was more education for me. Just inside Mexico there was an ebony tree growing that had a very large prickly pear cactus growing out of its limbs twelve foot above the ground. As we were going back through the town we saw another very large prickly pear cactus growing on the top of a roof of a house. I guess that things simply grow where they can. Along the River Walk in San Antonio there was a tree growing out of stone wall. Our guide said it had been cut out a couple of times before the decision was made to let it grow if it could. In Los Ebanos there were also more puppies laying around in the streets than I have ever seen anywhere.
BACK ON THE UNITED STATES SIDE AT LOS EBANOS, TEXAS
PRICKLEY PEAR CACTUS GROWING IN AN EBONY TREE
PRICKLY PEAR ON A ROOF TOP IN THE TOWN OF LOS EBANOS
In Harlingen, Texas is the original Iwo Jimo monument that was built, being inspired by the famous picture that was taken by Joe Rosenthal on February 23, 1945 when the second flag was being raised on Mt. Suribachi, Iwo Jimo during WWII. Easy Company had been fighting 4 days. They had 40% casualties to date. On February 23rd, 1945 they were raising this flag on Mt. Suribachi when photographer Joe Rosenthal shot this the most reproduced photograph in history. Within seventeen and half hours the picture had been distributed to hundreds of newspapers in the United States. Just two days after it was first seen in the US, Senators rose on the floor of the US Senate calling for a national monument modeled on the picture. The California State Legislature petitioned the Federal Government to build a grand monument. Thousands of ordinary American's wrote the President appealing for a monument to immortalize the picture they loved. Felix DeWeldon, a sculptor, had a clay replica of the picture sculpted within 72 hours of seeing the picture. Before the bronze monument that was placed in Arlington, Virginia could be cast a full size model had to be made. After completion of the Arlington monument, this sculpture was placed in storage until the early 1980's when it was donated to the Marine Military Academy in Harlingen. The Iwo Jima museum next to the monument provides a lot of information about the monument, the events that led to the photograph, the creation of the statue and the six flag raisers, with emphasis on Ire Hayes. The six men that are in the picture and portrayed in the statues are heralded as heroes. The three that survived the battle of Iwo Jimo all claimed that they were not heroes and the heroes were those that did not make it back alive. I knew the statue was a large sculpture but it was even larger than I thought. In the park there were a number of weapons, howitzers and tanks or part of them. There were signs posted by them warning to not attempt to operate the guns or tanks. I looked at them and noted that everything was welded tight, removed, or rusted and painted solid. To get anything to move would take a few hours with specialized tools. I do not understand people and their signs.
THE IWO JIMO MONUMENT IN HARLINGEN, TEXAS
The park where we are staying must have two to three hundred spaces for people to occupy. There are only seventy-five that are set up RV’s, the rest are what they call park models. Basically a trailer house, designed to be set up without the wheels, as near as I can tell. The park has a lot of activities that the residents can participate in. We went one evening to play beanbags. We had no idea what that might be. It turned out to be like horseshoes, except beanbags replaced the shoes and a hole in a slanted board replaced the stake. I talked to some of the people there who had been playing this game for ten to twenty years. Another evening we played dominos, with rules like I have never played before. Again, some of the people had been playing this well over ten years. While they were both fun one evening, I cannot see myself doing it for ten or more years. The park also promotes meals, socials, blood drives and other activities. I saw one morning they had an AARP safe driving course. It seems that most parks have some sort of activity schedule available for the residents.
We will be here until January 15, and then we move a little closed to Corpus Christi for the next two weeks. I think I have mentioned that the microwave/convection failed again. We have an appointment to get it worked on AGAIN. From there we have no plans as to where we go. As you know we don’t have to have a schedule. We were on the beach yesterday watching the waves and it was so nice to realize that I was not going to have to start driving to get back to work in time.
Till Later This Is Doug Of
PEACE ON THE ROAD
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