We retired from Laredo yesterday and moved north to this point at the edge of the Texas Hill Country north of the South Texas Plains.  We knew the weather would be cooler and welcomed the cold front that blasted past us last evening bringing wind, heavy rain, and a bit of medium-sized hail. 

Laredo had been warm and muggy.  How about that, muggy in the desert.  We enjoyed the town.  even if it is a bit rough and tumble.  The old town is today largely Tejano.  The Gringos are all in the suburbs.  We spent time in both areas. 

Our first outing took us into the old downtown and to the waterfront behind a somewhat unkempt looking neighborhood.  Just before dawn we looked for a trail head off of Water Street and there noticed young toughs sitting in cars watching.  They were all federal agents.  I finally asked one if he knew where the trail was.  He didn’t but said there was a trail through the marshes.  He asked Anne if she was scared.  She said yes.  He said nobody had crossed lately and that they wouldn’t bother us anyway.  That did not make her feel more comfortable.  We waited until day light became strong before heading into the trees.

There we wandered about river marshes and palm groves in search of seedeaters.  We found instead yellowthroats, mockingbirds, and wonderful Audubon’s Orioles.  Eventually we reached the end of the trail at a ravine formed by a tributary to the border stream.  Across the ravine were more federal agents eyeing us.  We turned back. 

Reaching a particularly fine patch of reeds I said to Anne that if there were any seedeaters about, this is where they would be.  We looked all about and after a pregnant pause, I spotted a tiny bird clinging to a tall reed at one edge of the clearing.  We looked close to see that it was indeed a White-collared Seedeater.  Over the next hour we saw almost a dozen and watched them call, feed, and court.  One hen was ready for action, but the nearby cock would not perform.  He must have thought it was too early in the season. 

We enjoyed grand views of this species so rare and local in this country.  We may never again return for that show.

We were camped at Lake Casa Blanca International Park, a Texas state park at the east edge of Laredo.  On Sunday all of Laredo was there.  We were surprised because usually when we arrive at a campground on Sunday afternoon everyone is leaving.  Instead, we joined the queue to enter the park.  In the evening we joined the natives to watch the sun set across the lake.  A lovely young woman spoke with her uncle in Spanish.  I greeted her as a winter Texan and she said that she was a native Texan but just moved to Laredo from the Washington D.C. area.  How about that?  She was delighted to be in Laredo.  My impression is that most of the people of Laredo are happy to be there, especially the Tejanos.  Despite the heat.

We hiked about the park on weekdays.  There, away from the border, we encountered a large canine corps.  I confronted the officers to find they to were part of the border patrol conducting monthly training.  We went one way down the trail and they the other.  Here you can’t get away from the border even away from the border.

Our GPS unit has been giving us fits and we bought another.  Now we have one for the motorhome and one for the car.  That may be a luxury, but it will be a blessing when the old one finally dies.  I’m ashamed to say we have become dependent on it.  It is so 21st Century.

We’ve also become dependent on the Internet and with none in camp we visited a fine and lovely branch of the Laredo City library three times during our week’s stay to communicate and buy airline tickets to San Francisco for a spring visit to our son. 

A disappointment in Laredo was no NPR radio and no radio station with Rush Limbaugh, but, unlike at our previous stop, we had American speaking television stations.  Thank goodness for little things.  Anne has yet to see the final episode of Downton Abby.  Don’t tell her what happened.

We left Laredo happy but decided to change plans and go north to the vicinity of San Antonio.  Anne and I realized we had never seen the Alamo.  Today we visited that shrine of Texas - I took my hat off as ordered - and downtown San Antonio and another of the five Spanish missions in the area.  The Mexicans invited American settlers to Texas to increase its prosperity and they sure did.  Today with some 1.3 million residents it has a splendid downtown thriving with commerce, industry, and tourism. 

Lunch was along the Riverwalk, of course.  The natives were shivering, but we knew we had to eat outside there to watch the stream of tourists on the walk and in the endless stream of tour boats in the channel.  Everyone should see the Alamo.