Which came first...?
Heck, I don’t know… That’s something I’ll leave for the philosophers to ponder. The ‘what’ was of more immediate concern than the ‘why’ or ‘how’ at that particular moment… Those buzzards in my lane were staying ‘on task’ a little long to suit me, I’d thought to myself, as I eased off on the throttle just a bit. Are they hoping we’ll go around? Are they ignoring us thinking we’ll just go away? Are they just that hungry?
Was it even the fault of the vultures we had a near encounter, as we picked our way through the deer carcass, blood, and guts spattered over nearly our entire half of the road? Or, was the deer the guilty party for having made a bad decision the night before? Did it matter? Not really, I concluded. More likely some sort of ‘contributory negligence’ thing, but what mattered most was that we came close to adding another important and 'personal' element to that discussion!
We missed, but not by much… I could almost smell his bad breath as one tardy scavenger flew-up right in front of ALI’s windshield… He must have been young, I reasoned, otherwise there surely would have been some ‘used venison’ deposited on her windshield or her rider… Forest rats can be dangerous, it appears, even post-mortem…
Great way to start a new day! Yep, got the old heart-rate up a notch or two, and I didn’t even have to exercise to achieve it! Goliad had just disappeared in the mirrors, and my thoughts had already turned to breakfast… The clouds were still thick and threatening, but we were rolling the dice anyway. Maybe a stop in Beeville or George West…?
A café would be nice this time, but the Golden Arches again certainly would do in a pinch… I smiled as I visualized a mess of grits… A wee bit of barely visible steam hovering just above a pure white mound of those miracle morsels, with a daub of butter melting and cascading downhill obeying the laws of gravity… Could this be a future Olympic event…?
Well south and a bit east of the famous Texas Hill Country, or anything else particularly scenic, this part of the state is… unique. Lots of scrub with pasture land carved out, an oil well here and there, straight roads, and endless miles of… not much.
It is interesting in its own way, but I could easily come up with another place or two I’d rather be… Towns are tiny and far between, and they’re geared more towards ranching and ‘work’ than tourist accommodation… Worth seeing, in my opinion, just not worthy of frequent visits!
We were headed to the southern tip of the Republic trying our best to escape a persistent, soggy weather pattern that had set-up over the eastern two-thirds of the state. I can’t complain, though, as the green on the weather map had extended up through Oklahoma, across Arkansas, and all the way to New England; plus, it had also caused intermittent precip throughout the southeast. “Into each life…”, it has been written, and lots of folks were getting theirs' lately! Frankly, I was beginning to tire of my share…
It was bound to happen again… and it did. Drizzle caught us while out in the middle of nowhere… If you’ve ever wondered where that is, I can give directions! The recent daily internal debate resumed… Should I ‘suit-up’? Should I start to think about finding lodging before we reached the spot we'd planned-on down by the Rio Grande… if there were any? What happened to those visions of grits…? Even lovers of ground corn have to prioritize sometimes…
I'd been holding out for a café as we rode through Beeville and George West, so I had not eaten a thing so far that day... Now with this drizzle, I was persuaded that a stop could be beneficial on several levels, so... I was determined to pull over at the next available...
Wouldn't you know it...? Golden Arches again... I did have a choice, however, as I could have picked the Dairy Queen next door... but no, I wanted something resembling breakfast, and 'carrot top' Donald does offer 'all day breakfast'... It wasn't grits by any means, but it was filling... and it was hot... and actually tasty too! Afterward, I tried to access TWC on my smart phone... no dice...
I couldn't get the McD's wifi to work... I stepped outside and managed to get on with the DQ wifi, though, so it all worked out. The rain had picked up while I'd been dining, but TWC radar indicated it would pass by pretty quickly... happily, it did!
In and out of sprinkles, drizzle and a touch of fog until just before McAllen, TX, when it all stopped... We made the turn and rode east in search of a suitable motel... After about ten miles we found just what I needed! A decent motel with a McD's, DQ, Whataburger, and convenience store all within walking distance! They even had an armed guard maintaining a vigilant eye on the parking lot... Yep, I'd hit the mother-load!!!
I should have asked if he might be kin to the cop in Carrabelle, FL...
DDT
