A Run for the Border

Today we drove as far south as we could, to nearly the southernmost part of Texas.  We parked the RV in a gigantic parking lot next to the Progreso International Bridge and walked across the Rio Grande River into Mexico. 

Nuevo Progreso, the town on the Mexican side, is a lot like Los Algodones, which we visited a couple years ago: a dense tourist town packed with tourist shops, dental clinics, pharmacies, manicure shops, and others.  Both of us were due for a teeth cleaning, so we made an appointment at one of the many dental clinics.  Thirty dollars will get you a teeth cleaning, last I paid at our dentist was about $190.

We strolled the busy main street, stopping in at several of the stores and waving off many of the trinkets that were proffered to us by the vendors on foot.  These types of towns are noisy, crowded, colorful, busy, and just to walk around and observe everything is worth the trip. Deb bought a few spices and a few gifts.

When it came time for our appointment, we went to the place pinned on the map on the clinic’s web site, but it appeared to be in a section of town that had no stores on it.  After searching for a while, I called the clinic and told them where I was.  The guy asked me what I was wearing, so I stood in the middle of the intersection and told him I was wearing a red shirt.  I finally spotted him waving about two blocks away.  When we met up with him, he told us that this was the second time this week someone ended up at that location.

Maybe they should get the map on their web site fixed, ya think?

The clinic was on the second floor of a building with no apparent sign to mark it, so it’s good that this guy came out to get us.

Probably would not recommend this clinic.  I think they did a fairly decent job on my teeth, Deb is not convinced.  She thought they missed a couple areas and didn’t like the cleaning method.  It did feel somewhat like an angle grinder with water thrown in.  I had a cleaning in Los Algodones a couple years ago and they did a great job.  I guess for thirty bucks, your mileage may vary.  We’ll use Doctor X next time.

So now, with allegedly clean teeth, it was time to use them for lunch.  A recommended taco vendor was Taqueria Benny, situated in a whole row of taco stands. This one was bigger, had places to sit, and the waiter was friendly and spoke excellent English.

We had a great lunch of tacos and also tried the flautas.  Quite a bit of food for thirteen bucks.  While eating we were continually accosted by vendors on foot selling everything from Virgin Mary statues to hats.  We did buy a small bag of churros from a woman who came by, and they were probably some of the worst churros we have ever had.

A street band came in and played a song using the typical accordion, guitar, and bass fiddle.  This kind of music is played continually at high volumes wherever you go in this town, but it was rather cool to see it performed live right here in the taco stand.

After a couple more trips up and down the street, we walked back across the border and started driving north.  A rather fun day in Mexico, but now it’s time to start heading north.

We stopped for dinner and fuel in Alice, Texas, a rather desperate looking town in the middle of nowhere.  Lots of boarded up businesses.  We discovered that the bananas we had packed in the backpack when we walked into Mexico had migrated to the bottom and the weight of water bottles and all the other stuff we purchased made a mess of the bananas and the bottom of the pack.  So we took what was left and combined it with yogurt, frozen blueberries, and whatever other fruit we had left and made smoothies for dessert.  Turned out rather well.

We covered another 60 miles or so and stopped for the night in a rest area along Interstate 37 by Three Rivers.