Houston-Brownsville-Matamoros-Tampico

I have been trying to add this update from the road, via Art's IPhone, all day,  but no luck.  Our internet connection worked surprisingly well, but blogger would only let me type in the title and link fields; no text allowed.

So here we are at our Tampico hotel, fresh from a swim and attempting to order room service.  Can't possibly do justice to the diversity of experiences we've had since Houston, but here's a quick list:

NASA visit, Johnson Space Center, took the last tour of the day and saw an astronaut in training, the demo space shuttle module, a life size model of the international space station, including Soyuz--the TINY rescue pod that somehow fits 3 astronauts--and the enormous rocket used in one of the Apollo launches.  (such is the level of detail recalled 48 hrs post-visit.)

Long drive to Brownsville.  Observations:  Texas is extremely flat.  Sorghum fields resemble corn until you realize that corn would have been harvested at a height of about 2 feet, highly unlikely.  Got hotter--Crispin monitoring heat at 20-min intervals and thrilled to encounter 104 degrees near Kingsville as flat farmland was becoming desert.

Spent last night with my wonderful friends Alejandra and Rebekah Gomez in Brownsville.  They live on a "resaca," which I've finally learned is the lake-like body of water created by a constriction of running water, in this case, the Rio Grande.  Ate our last American pizza, slept like babies, and were led to the border by Alejandra first thing in the morning.

Nary a hitch passing through to Matamoros!  We knew it was too easy, and after turning the wrong way down a one-way street, were flagged down by our guardian angel, in this case the elderly Arturo in his green and white tourist guide uniform.  His tip was worth every penny to ensure we were led to a different entry point and ushered through immigration and the vehicle registration process.  Along the way, we even got to see two tigers in their circus cages outside a Wal-Mart.  We bid Arturo farewell from the highway heading south and spent a completely calm and easy day watching flat sorghum fields gradually change to hillier green ranchos with cows, burros and horses.  Haven't seen the Gulf since New Orleans,  but hoping to catch a glimpse, or even hit the beach, on our way to Veracruz tomorrow.