more on Texas

Well, it's been an interesting time here... I got really sick with a throat infection and actually took myself to the ol' western medical doctor (that is the pharmaceutical dr, not the wild west doc, however cool that would have been...). He was very impressed with my beefy, pus-filled throat and gave me a shot of the same antibiotic we used to treat gnorrhea in Haiti, but 4 times the dose, and gave me 10 days of oral amoxicillin, which I just finished... I've basically been recovering since then, with the exception of a (foolish) 25 mile bike ride in 95+ degree heat, which certainly set me back a few days on the road to recovery.

We made one trip up to Austin, but had poor timing and were there just in time to catch a lot of traffic and thus didn't have as pleasant of an adventure as hoped for...since then we've been considering moving to San Anton instead. (Other days we toy with the idea of moving to Iowa City...) Tomorrow though, we are giving it another shot, and will spend a couple days up there checking it out more thoroughly. I am really excited about the abundance of yoga, dance, kirtan, amazing restaurants and food, outdoorsy activities ETC there, so I don't want to give up on it yet, though we have also had a nice time biking around San Antonio and getting to know it. Justin grew up on the SE side and like most east-siders, so I hear, hasn't left that side of town much (till now), so he is equally enjoying discovering ol' San Anton.

In other activities, Justin bought a little 1999 Toyota truck, so that has made us feel right at home in Texas. In addition we have been wearing our cowboy boots out for special occasions (like Church with his grandma), and even went Texas two-steppin' at a dance hall called Cowboys a couple nights ago. We also went down to Pleasanton to visit his grandma, where we took her to a Czech mass and festival and also learned how to can/pickle jalapenos. Yeeeehaw! Aside from watching a million movies and reading, we've also spent a couple glorious days up in the hill country. We saw hundreds of thousands of bats emerge from an old train tunnel over a period of about 9 min near Fredricksburg (an old German town) and we wandered around the Cibolo nature center, where we saw an armadillo, watched a snake eat a large tadpole, waded in the river, sat in some cedar trees, and saw several deer and hawks.

Czech festival food

Justin Robert looking like a proper cowboy

Shiner beer is the local favorite

Our beautiful dill pickled jalapenos

Hanging out with Grandma Shiller in Jourdanten

Some pictures

Tlaxcala town center, outside of Mexico City



Copper Canyon




Saguaros in the Sonoran Desert




Me and Pancho Villa at his house in Chihuahua

Economic class on the beautiful Pacific ocean-Chihuahua train

.... .... texas

Phew. I am TIRED.

I can't be sure how many days we spent in Arizona. We were in Pheonix for a bit, then Tucson over night--just long enough to check out the revolution book store/cafe, go to a yoga class, and crash at a couchsurfers' place, who we never actually met, since she was out late and we left early. Couchsurfing is amazing like that though--she left her key and told us where to look for it, we vaguely got to know her by looking at her art and sleeping in her sister's room, and then we left. From Pheonix we got a ride through craigslist to Albuquerque with a guy who was following a band around the country. It was our first of too many long drives without airconditioning...it gave something to yearn for of the buses.

We spent about a week in Albuquerque and Santa Fe, which was really nice. We got to see old friends, have some familiarity, and eat such longed for foods as a really good breakfast burrito and Indian food. Unfortunately we didn't get to hike in the mountains at all though because of the fires, which weren't actually in town, but the smoke could be seen at sunset all around the city. I had a lot of nice girl time, which I didn't even know I had been craving so much after 6 weeks with one very nice but very boyish boy :) There were even some surprises like a scuba diving trip to the Blue Hole, which in itself was a surprise trip, but I was also surprised to learn that I don't really like scuba diving...snorkel only please! I also got to have dinner with my sister and brothers (or rather my brother-in-law and his brother, which seems to cancel out into 2 brothers). And to top it all off, I got to spend the fourth of July with friends and attend the Santa Rueda salsa fesitval.

We then drove down to White Sands (having picked up Justin's car and our bikes ETC) in Albuquerque. We had some fun there, then headed to Las Cruces. Basically we were killing time until I could meet with a midwife friend of mine in El Paso. Then to El Paso and on to the lovely west Texas town of Marfa. Marfa is one of the weirdest and coolest places I've ever been in the US, and certainly very American. It's as if the whole town decided to stay exactly how it was in 1969, with the exception of the addition of a couple coffee places and a beer garden. We stayed in a $60 "Safari Tent" at a place called El Cosmico, the cheapest deal in town (actually it's camping for $20, but we got in too late at night for that). Marfa also has an opera house, a lot of bicycles, and a mix of Hispanic, hipster, occasional movie stars, and redneck culture. We had a great time riding our bikes around the very interesting desert town. Justin didn't want to leave, but we were too tired to camp and couldn't justifying spending another $60 to sleep outside. The next day we intended to drive all the way to San Antonio, but ended up loving another west Tex town called Alpine (just east of Marfa actually), and took the scenic route to boot, so only made it to Del Rio.... another crappy motel, and then finally to San Anton, just a couple days ago.

We are exhausted and have been spending a lot of time watching movies and letting his wonderful mom dote on us. Tomorrow we are heading up to Austin to look for our new place. We have no specific move in date, but we are hoping to move in within the next few weeks, as we are headed to Peru in August for the Patch Adams trip.... our final fling before throwing ourselves into our respective businesses: babies and bees, and never leaving home again :) Ohhh to have a kitchen and bookshelves and a nice bed!

.........speaking of which, good night!