SOUTH EAST TEXAS  (into "The Valley")

The truck runs a lot better without six hundred pounds of amplifiers,

speakers, &c.

Jerry Jeff Walker wrote a song called "LA Freeway," famous now because it is

the theme song for "Austin City Limits" -- PBS' priceless program on country

music -- and I'm pretty much ready to write some kind of blues about I-10

West, certainly the most blues-inspiring road I have ever driven. But I'm

about done with it!!!! A night in a more expensive Motel 8, trying to get

on the internet, a breakfast sausage sandwich from Jack-in-the-Box, and I'm

on my way.

I make an easy two hours on I-10W and Texas 71 to La Grange (formerly the

home of the Biggest Little Whore House in Texas) and lunch with Bruce & 

Vicki. They were in Belize for over ten years (1989-99) publishing a

newspaper, and they regaled me with stories about "the old days," how they

stumbled into the publishing business, and how/why they got out. They now

own a little four-acre spread outside of La Grange which <surprise> looks a

lot like Belize!

Then, on to San Marcos, where I immediately get lost, and my old friend Tug

has to come get me and lead me to his house. He is a retired history

professor, and we have a lot of catching up to do, about the election, old

friends, and the state of the Union. Next morning, we spend a fruitless

hour trying to hook me up to the University internet port, and then he leads

me back to I-35S.

I'm heading for "the Valley." "The Valley" is the Rio Grande valley,

booming because of NAFTA, and snowbirds, and the fact that it is probably

the cheapest warm place in the US to live. I leave the NAFTA corridor,

switching from I-35 to I-37 in San Antone, and finally getting off on

US-281S, which, signs proclaim, will soon become the I-69 corridor. It is

already an excellent road, with many of the hallmarks of a Texas Freeway,

miles of frontage road, punctuated by (dangerous) on and off-ramps.

In Edinburg, I turn East, thru a series of other little burgs, to Elsa, and

Edcouch, finding my friend's house in the dark.

They are getting ready to go to a big Conjunto wedding, and I'm invited.

That deserves a separate little chronicle.

Cheerios,

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