Memories of a Foreigner

The last day of my American journey.

Read the 1st part or
the 2nd part

This post took me time because I spent time in Mexico doing different things. And now that I’m back in the USA I haven’t had time (aha) because I was checking with time my e-mail and playing videogames such as starcraft and frets on fire.

I hope you liked the other two posts of this journey because if it is not the case I do not know why you are reading the 3rd post and last.

Day 3 (the last one)



After waking up late (first time I wake up and I don’t hear the alarm) I could not open my eyes, I was very tired and I do not know how my father can drive 18 hours a day. After taking a shower we went to the van to leave the baggage. Outside looked like when we came to the hotel, dark and no one outside. We waited some minutes for the breakfast at 6 A.M.

We arrived at the reception where they had the common food on an American hotel: scrambled eggs, sausage, flakes, yogurt, milk, orange juice, very sugary bread and coffee. While eating, they had a big 42” screen LCD TV where the receptionist was watching the most important thing of sports of the day before. I ate many things; I was hungry but not so much. I could not finish my sugar frosted flakes; you know the ones of the tiger. I took them with me to the car.

I was giving again instructions to my father to where to go until he reached a long road that was going to take us to Abilene. I decided to sleep. I was so tired.
I woke up after we passed Abilene and we were towards Midland and Odessa. My father noticed that the cool climate in the night helped the car not o overheat so he decided to wake up the earliest possible so the heat in the desert would not be very hot. We were wrong.

My father continued driving. Sometimes we talked but both of us were tired. We felt very happy because the car did not give us problems until the union between the intersection of the highway 20 (the one we were) and 10.

After many hours of driving the car started to overheat near the intersection. We stopped as soon as possible but cautious so another police would not stop us. My father took gallons of water and poured in to the radiator. My father poured gallons of water inside and out the radiator. It consumed a lot. I looked towards the incoming cars and there was a truck that stopped 200 meters away. Maybe he was waiting for us to ask him for help because I only saw him do nothing until he continued forward. Minutes later my father asked me (like in the rest of the trip) where was a city or rest zone, so we could stop to give the car service. I gave him instructions that were indicated in the map.

We continued about 5 miles and we stopped again, but in a picnic are because it did not have restrooms as in the rest areas. The same truck and same driver were there, maybe they were waiting for us but he did not do anything more than talking in the phone. My father continued pouring water in the radiator while I was admiring the landscape.

After taking some steps in the dirt a lot of bugs started to jump, and then I noticed they were grasshoppers. A long time I have not seen them while in Mexico and the USA. I grabbed one and it was kind of fat. I tried it to make it fly by moving the hand quickly but it gave me the same result as throwing a rock up. Then the wind started to come stronger than before but it did not help us to cool the car because it was going the same direction as the car, from east to west. My father stopped some minutes to rest and let the van cool off. I missed that hot climate but it was making that day hard for us. We continued back towards El Paso.

In average we stopped every 8 miles from the picnic area until we reached El Paso. Because of the cars that were behind us my father decided to get out of the highway and drive in the sideway. We drove at 50 miles, 20 lower than in the highway. We stopped 2 or 3 times before arriving to Van Horn were we thought it was going to be very small. It was mainly a tourist city, of independent stores. I think because some miles away there is a national park.

After arriving Van Horn we stopped in the Love’s (it’s the name) gas station. It was huge to be for a town. We put gasoline and refilled the water containers. We drove some miles in the commercial area and we stopped in a closed store were they sold Mexican bread (¿?). Then we waited for the van to cool off and then poured water again. It was hot even though we were under an open parking lot with roof. And back again to reality, to El Paso.

8 miles later we stopped in another picnic area. The seats were inside of a teepee, like the old Indian houses. Inside they had some… kind of messages such as A& K forever and f… someone. Because the map did not indicate places to stop. We needed to ration the water. So we stopped around 20 minutes to let the van cool with the wind.

We needed to enter back to the highway. We continued but we were looking for a place to stop. We continued that way over 5 miles until we found that the continuation of the sideway was in the other side but the good thing was that it finished suddenly and you needed to go in dirt to a small town to continue towards El Paso.

One good thing of the Metro cities is that they reach far places and that happened to us. The radiator was almost boiling but because in the cities you need to drive slower than in open road. Everyone drove slowly like us. My father decided to go to eat to a Chinese buffet but we did no remember the address of a some what known buffet. We looked around 10 minutes until we found another buffet, kind of new. We stopped but before going in we poured water in the radiator.

After being welcomed and seated, I picked first the food that I had not tasted before, and then at last eat some sushi and dessert. My father did not eat much because he had a headache but I ate like 3 plates. In the third plate I put a lot of sushi, of different kinds; and when I put it the woman that was making us told me something in Spanish that I do not remember but it did not make any sense. I thought she was asking me to give because she was pointing to the money jar and I told her that I did not have any money because I left my wallet in the car. She got a little angry and moved the money jar closer to the sushi that was what she wanted me to do.

I went to eat back. In the nigirizushi (a variation) I put very little Wasabi and algae because they are very spicy. I tried one that had a inked fish in red with rice. Even though I put very, very little wasabi I felt like my brain was freezing and my eyes were tearing. It was like chili with vinegar, separated they do not do a lot but together they are very hot. I finished eating while my father was checking some papers and then we went back to the van.

My father drove looking for a place to leave the owner paper to regularize the van (make it Mexican). We wasted around 30 minutes because they closed it, it was 4th of July.

We went to El Paso Airport where we left the van so we would come back again another day. We took a taxi towards the bus station, specifically limousines of Mexico (they are buses). When riding the taxi, like always the taxi driver started to ask questions and talked with us. My father like always lied so the taxi driver would not want to steal us (with he taximeter or something like that). Some of the things my father said was that he had a brother in a city north of El Paso where he was going to hunt. My father said that he had a gun… Hehehe.

After we arrived we needed to wait around 3 hours because in the American side were repairing the bridge to go to Mexico and it was hard for the buses to enter.

I almost fell asleep but they had the TV that was very loud. They were watching a soup Opera like always. In the TV passed a commercial that one woman was talking a bottled water (those commercial are always like ridiculous) were she was saying that the water made you feel light and she said “You can feel when the water runs in your stomach” and she made a hand movement indicating the flow of the digestive system, specifically the intestine. Very untruthful and ridiculous commercial.

It was 10 o’clock and nothing relevant passed during those 3 hours. The bus arrived and I got on it and a long 4 hours trip was beginning. I could not sleep and it was very boring because everyone was sleeping or trying to sleep. I hate when people don’t close the curtains.

4 hours passed and we arrive. My mother picked us up and I slept in the car. When we arrived I was very sleepy and I went directly to bed. Finally the Journey was over, more or less because we were going back in 3 weeks more.

If you have not read the 1st part here it is.
For part 3, go here

Part 2 of 3.

Day 2

In the dawn I woke up 1 or 2 times because I forgot one triangle window open, the one that are usually only in vans. Also because it was a little bit uncomfortable the seat, and you ask why if it is a van why did not I went to the back to sleep… well, we had many things that we were going to sell and some were in the back seat, and if I were to remove them from it, I would lose my sleep.
When I really woke up we left Springfield and we already passed San Luis. We were going towards Tulsa, OK. Later after recovering from my sleep, we decided to go to eat and we stopped in a Macdonald’s. You can notice how people are because of music and it was the same there. They had music country and it has been the only time I have heard in a fast-food restaurant; indeed, there were a lottttt of agricultural areas.

Between San Luis and Tulsa, there is the biggest MacDonald’s in the world, it is over the highway and is kind of big. We were going to stop there to eat but because we were hungry, we stopped before at Wendy’s.

As I have said in my another memoire (or maybe not yet at the time of this writing), toll highways in Mexico are proved, the most expensive ones in the world, both, in average and in dollars currency. We passed many toll highways that were from 30 cents to 2 dollars, a lot cheaper than 20 dollars in Mexico.
In one toll boot it was automatic, you only needed to throw the coins and then leave but that toll boot was not accepting coins, maybe because it was full. My father threw the coins but it didn’t accept them… we left and the small traffic light turned red.

In all the trip I helped my father by giving him instructions of which highway to take and when that he marked before taking the trip or the changes while traveling. After getting off Tulsa we departed towards Oklahoma city.

I decided to take a nap… After some minutes I was awaked because my father needed to stop in the side of the road. The cause was overheating. We stayed there like 10 minutes. My father thought, and also was a reason of the overheating, he forgot to refill completely the radiator after dumping the water when he stopped in a gas station. Because we did not have a cloth to use to clean and open the radiator, my father used his green polo shirt so the vapor would not touch him. That car needed a lot of water, it was almost a water tank with wheels.

In the next toll boot was of person-to-person pay, after my father paid, he said that some polices looked suspicious, we advanced and they stopped us. At first instance I thought they did it because of the toll boot that displayed a red light, but it wasn’t. A bald (of the head, not his personality) came by my side and asked my father to step out of the car and to go with him to the patrol. When walking I heard him say (the police) that he did not marked his light to get out of the highway. I don’t know if my father did it because I was asleep but he always does it. Some seconds later another police, Hispanic looking came to me and asked me to in an American accent“¿Usted habla Ingles?” (do you speak English). I said, “yes, both English and Spanish”. He started to ask me the common things such as what is your name, where are you from and were are you going to. While I was showing him the map from the route to make time so I would not talk too much (sometimes I don’t want to), he put his hand near to his gun… No idea why.

Later, the other police came by and asked me some of the same questions. Then he went back with my father, he was in the copilot seat (the one next to the driver). The police talked briefly with my father and he came towards me and told me that my father allowed him to search inside the car. The police asked me if I would allow him to do so. He told me to step out of the car, I did it and after some second the other police from very far told me to step in the grass, in the place that is a little bit deep. I stayed around 10 minutes there. The bald police got out of the car and allowed to go. It was 2 o’clock. We lost 30 minutes and my father got a warning ticket. The only good thing was that we did not need to pay anything.

We continued around 30 minutes to Oklahoma city. There we stopped in a Tourist Information Center where we let the car cool off 15 minutes. My father went to buy a anti freeze-anti heat liquid. I went inside. They had some beautiful thing to sell. Most of them were very expensive. They had a buffalo head that was huge, more than the ones that I have seen in Mexico and USA. They also had a chandelier made of horns. I think from reindeers.

Oklahoma city looked like the city of Toronto, Canada (later I will tell the relate when I went to Niagara Falls). The design looks strange because of the high or tall highways that rise over buildings. Even the ford dome looked like the Hockey dome in Toronto.

My father put the anti-freezer in the radiator so the Van would not heat up very fast, then We continued back in the route approximately 10 minutes when the Van started to heat up. We went off the highway and stopped the most suddenly possible under the highway bridge. My father got out of the car and told me to get the water containers that we refilled every time we stopped in a gas station when we refilled the radiator. I brought him the containers and he put his “cloth” over the radiator cap after pouring water over the radiator. Then a geyser of vapor exploded. My father and me moved back quickly so we would not get burned. The few people that passed were looking at us. The vapor did not stopped after some minutes. I thought it was going to be the end of the trip and my father was going to call my mother to come for us. I do not know why I didn’t take a picture of that scene.

When my father was looking for a phone in stores nearby he asked for a mechanic, they told him to go up that avenue. We needed to drive very slow so the ca would not heat and we did not how far the mechanic was. We stopped in a tire store and they told us to continue up the street. They had a dog that was so old that it could not even bark. Before we went back to look up for the mechanic there was a Hispanic person that was buying tires and told us if we needed help. My father explained what the car was doing and the person said that he could do it. They went to see the motor and after seeing how difficult it was to reach the motor, he retracted. The person started to explain were the mechanic Before he departed, my father asked him if at last he had glue or silicone so, he could repair the car if the mechanic would or could not repair the van. The person gave him the silicone tube and my father asked how much he owed him and he said “nothing”.

We followed the instructions if the person. He told us to ask for Jaime, the owner of that auto shop.

He told us about other auto shop but we did not put attention when he said that. We drove on another street and the streets looked vey ugly and old, maybe a place of drug addicts. We drove as soon as possible of those streets and continued on a principal avenue even though the car was overheating. We stopped in a closed store (no idea what they sold) because the car was very hot. Some streets away we could see a store but we decided to wait the car to cool off.
15 minutes later we drove to that store where an Indian was working. It was a “party store”. We bought some pop so we would cool off like the car. Then my father asked where a mechanic was and the said that was in the next building but they did not have something to show that they were mechanics, only by being recommended by friends.

I waited 5 minutes while my father went to look up for the auto shop. Even though I was under a shadow, my skin was burning because of the humidity like in Michigan. I’m from a dry place and I have never ever liked humid summers. After the 5 hot minutes my father came and told me that the mechanic allowed him to fix the car in front of the auto shop. We got in and drove like 100 meters only to be 5 meters of the store, the streets are made strangely.

After we stopped I tried to help my father but he did not want me to help, indeed when we arrived home he had a very dark tan around his face and arms. I stayed most of the time inside the van even though my dad wanted me to go under a shadow. After some minutes a person of the auto shop came and he started to talk about the car with my father. He was from Mexico but he did not say his name.

After… I don’t know exactly how much, my father “found” the reason why the van was heating, it was a pressure “button” in a tube of the radiator that connect with the motor. The piece was half broken so it could not open whit the pressure of the boiling water. The most difficult part was to put back the pieces; I think that was the mot difficult. It was the only time that I helped my father in all the trip. After finishing we filled up the containers and talked with Jaime, a Salvadorian. It was 8 o’clock, we spent around 5 hours and I don’t know how my father continued driving after a tenuous activity.

We departed towards Amarillo, TX. Instead of Fort Worth where we could get help and housing of some friends because my father felt the car very confident about the van. After 5 miles the car was overheating again… OMG I thought and my father got out of the highway in the first food place we saw because the only food we had in all day was the hamburger. We stopped in a Love’s gas station (really, that is the name). There they had a Subway mini restaurant and we ate a sandwich. Again, after waiting 15 minutes for the car to cool off my father decided to go to Fort Worth, to the south. We went towards Chackasha where supposedly the route was rural and slow but only was rural. It was 5 or 10 miles slower than the highway but because of the small towns it took more time due to the “drive slow signs”. Sometimes we drove in a town at 25 mph. My father noticed something, while driving at speeds lower than 60-65 mph the car kept the temperature constant.

It was like in my Mexico but only greener and without mountains.
After 1 hour we arrived at Chackasha and it was huge as we expected. A lot of big stores and lights. We continued without any problem. In the route 10 my father decided to go towards El Paso instead of Fort Worth. I tried to sleep but because was July 3rd, one day before Independence day, in many houses we passed they had fireworks. Only one bad thing happened, a house was burning, and I hoped nothing bad happened.

I tried to sleep again but I could only concede to close my eyes. We went towards Wichita Falls where we where going to sleep.

As I helped him all over the trip with map directions, I helped him to locate the hotel. He trusted my directions. The city was big as we expected and they had, as I have said before, two seasons in that city. When we arrived in the hotel it was midnight. We were very tired. When we entered in the room, the room neighbors had loud the TV… and they turned it down. We went to sleep to continue another day of journey.

Continues on part 3