USBP Part 2
Sunday, December 05, 2004
Posted by: Jenny
Ok, my turn again. First, I will retract my total disappointment in Texas signage. Apparently they're saving all the good stuff for the more major entrances to the state and this is what we got this time.
Not nearly as exciting as Arizona's, but at least grandma would be proud. Then again, the border patrol is a lot more intense here, so my overall opinion of the state hasn't changed much. This time they diverted everyone off the interstate just outside of El Paso and we had the joy of being interviewed. It went something like this:
Cocky USBP Cop: "How'er you doing tonight?" (Inflection: I don't care in the slightest.)
Zach: Just fine.
C USBP C: (to Zach) "Are you a US citizen?"
Z: Yes.
C USBP C: (leaning into car and shining flashlight directly at my face, speaking very loudly) "What about you , MA'AM?"
Me: Yeah. (Inflection: Do I look Mexican, and by the way I'm sick of your attitude.)
Blah, blah, blah -where are you going, where did you come from type stuff, shined his flashlight in the back seat, tapped on the tonneau cover and told us to we could move on. The whole thing left a bad taste in my mouth. I mean, do smugglers actually say, "Yeah, I just came from Mexico" or do the smuggled actually say, "No, I'm not a citizen"? And does a person of Mexican descent (or anyone who looks Mexican, for that matter) have to prove their citizenship every time they drive down the interstate? Seems ridiculous to me, but then again I'm not from a border state, so maybe I just don't get it. Anyone with experience in the matter feel free to chime in. Anyway, I wanted to take a picture of the C USBP C, but Zach wouldn't let me for fear that he would make us unload everything in the truck in the rain, rational fear for sure, and so we instead agreed that I could take one as we were pulling away. I tried and it wouldn't take, something about a system error. Zach took a look at it later and confirmed, its pretty much busted, at least to the extent that we can't fix it. So... no more digital pictures for the rest of the trip. We did, however, purchase a disposable and plan on dutifully scanning in the appropriate scenes once we get home - for now "Picture Coming Soon" will have to suffice.
Blah, blah, blah -where are you going, where did you come from type stuff, shined his flashlight in the back seat, tapped on the tonneau cover and told us to we could move on. The whole thing left a bad taste in my mouth. I mean, do smugglers actually say, "Yeah, I just came from Mexico" or do the smuggled actually say, "No, I'm not a citizen"? And does a person of Mexican descent (or anyone who looks Mexican, for that matter) have to prove their citizenship every time they drive down the interstate? Seems ridiculous to me, but then again I'm not from a border state, so maybe I just don't get it. Anyone with experience in the matter feel free to chime in. Anyway, I wanted to take a picture of the C USBP C, but Zach wouldn't let me for fear that he would make us unload everything in the truck in the rain, rational fear for sure, and so we instead agreed that I could take one as we were pulling away. I tried and it wouldn't take, something about a system error. Zach took a look at it later and confirmed, its pretty much busted, at least to the extent that we can't fix it. So... no more digital pictures for the rest of the trip. We did, however, purchase a disposable and plan on dutifully scanning in the appropriate scenes once we get home - for now "Picture Coming Soon" will have to suffice.
Today we arrived in Dallas and headed to Ripley's Believe it or Not and Louis Toussand's Palace of Wax first thing. We toured the Ripley's half first, pretty much the same freak show they have everywhere else, except for a few fairly novel natural disaster scenes - walking through an earthquake and later a tornado - both of those were pretty awesome. We took a picture of Zach being eaten by a shark.
Picture Coming Later
Being the sucker that I am for wax museums, I enjoyed the second half way more. We toured galleries with pop icons - J Lo was particularly good, evil dictators, and presidents. Next there were scenes - fairy tales, movies, old west. Then came the unexpected - the life of Jesus, from birth to resurrection, shown in no less that seven scenes. It turns out Jesus was very white and very blond.
Picture Coming Later
Lastly, there was the horror and monster section, complete with sound effects. It scared the crap out of me and I'm sure Ben would have loved it. There was even a Dr. Frankenstein and his Monster scene.
We are staying in the nicest place yet tonight, by total coincidence of course - we had a coupon, and had a great Whole Foods salad bar dinner (no veg chicken salad to be had) complete with chocolate cake. Memphis is next - Graceland here we come. After that we'll be home - probably sometime Wednesday night. See you soon!
Comments:
Vijay said...
on my drive to CA i had to go through 3 of those check thingys but they were a more weird experience than what yall had. weird because they didn't do crap. one was just closed, the next they pretty much waved everyone through and the last, only 18 wheelers had to stop and everyone else could bypass (though a lot of trucks just skipped it too). and this is on the 10 going right by el paso with a brown dude with a ton of covered stuff in his car (which could have easily been 5 mexicans or 200 kilos of your favorite aphrodisiac
it's also funny how the first thing that comes to everyone's mind when coming across some old scary stuff is "Ben would love this"
Angela said...
yeah....glad you will be home soon....the house is starting to get very creepy at night :) have safe travels and be sure to have your camera ready for any elvis sightings.