THE RAIN IS COMING DOWN HARD when I awake but close my eyes and purposely sleep longer so not to be so tired early in the afternoon.

When I do get up, I go directly into the birding center but with the rain now coming down in bucketfuls, I only tour the visitors center, buy an embroidered patch and then return to the jammer in the parking lot.

My hope is that after my tour in México when on my way back through south Texas next spring, I plan to walk the trails here and hopefully, without the rain.

Upon leaving Resaca de la Palma state park, I drive to Santa Anna National Wildlife Preserve and do the same here, because of the rain, I just tour the the visitors center. Leaving Santa Anna preserve, I drive northwest on US 83 along the Rio Grande river heading for my next stop, Falcon Lake state park.

This valley is world renown for the variety of birds who live and visit here. Next, I turn off of US 83 in the village of Salineno, at a brown sign stating "Wildlife Preserve" and drive down to the Rio Grande but do not see a preserve, probably because the day is nearing it′s end and the light is diminished.

I return to the highway, turn northwest and shortly up the highway is a sign for Falcon Lake State Park. It′s nearing sunset now, so I turn in to the park to camp for the night. The rain stopped midafternoon and the wind is all but gone, still the cold air brought in on the wind persists. Nevertheless, I am still wearing my polo shirt and have yet to don a coat.

Today, during my bird watching, I talk with my sister a couple of times and she tells me she is making headway on the estate paperwork; she has been working on documenting all of the expenses. I have consistently told her that she does not have to justify what she has done to anyone because Mom appointed her the executor of the will and gave her the authority to decide.

She tells me that she is close to completing the report and should soon be working on Mom′s jewelry and books of which she is going to get appraisals and catalogue all of then. She says that once that is done, then the final division of the estate can be made.

The sun then drops below the horizon; I get out my camera and only now notice the crescent moon one hands above the distant horizon.

Now, it is after nine and after going into the men′s room here in the Park, I find it has a hot shower. Funny, I was just commenting to my sister on how I don′t miss hot showers and have become content with cold ones.

Still, I don′t think I will ever turn a hot shower down, so, I grab my towel and take a long steamy one. Finally, I read for a while and the go to sleep.

After dayspring, I am able to get a good view of the large lake this park is adjacent to. Also, I take a second hot showers this morning. Before falling to sleep last night, I began thinking that I would resume the campsite rating system (CRS) originally used while on the Appalachian Trail and used it to rate Falcon State Park shown above in the campsite header.

The original system was based on a scale from zero to ten and designed for walk-in campsites but when I began traveling across the continent during the third year in 1980, it was adjusted to include drive-in campsites as well. I have never found a campsite that rates ten or above but several of the walk-in campsites on the AT came very close.

Once back on the road, I return to find the birding center. It is called Salineño Wildlife Preserve and is located 100 meters up from the Rio Grand. (26.514722, -99.115389)

The preserve started out long ago simply as a trailer park where the owners began to put out bird food. Later, the trailers one by one were all removed until they were all gone but bird lovers kept coming to feed and watch the birds.

Then a birding society bought the land and set up a wildlife preserve and now there are volunteers who park their travel trailers at the preserve to monitor the bird feeding. The birds that come to feed at this preserve include the following: ¹⁰

Altamira Oriole, Audubon′s Oriole, Cardinal, Eastern Screech Owl, Golden-fronted Woodpecker, Great Kiskadee, Green Jay, Harris′ Hawk, Mourning Dove, Northern Crested Caracara, Orange-crowned Warbler, Red-winged Blackbird, and others.

Finally, I drive north to Laredo and set up at the same d-mart. Again, I am really tired, it must be from too much vacationing and so I will go directly to bed.

I was up way too late last night and sleep until nine this morning. Then, I check the bank for my new bank card but is has not arrived. I spend the rest of this day going to the post office to get priority boxes to put more of my things in, those things that are not absolutely needed and will mail them first thing next week. Then I do a little can goods shopping and finally get to sleep by ten.

Up early to go out in service with the English group after which I continue my preparation for the crossing. While I am sitting in my car outside of a restaurant, one that has WiFi, two of the bank employees stop for supper and upon coming back to their auto, notice me and say hello. Jose tells me that the bank card came in today and I tell him that I will be by later to pick it up. While I am at the bank, I also find a couple of DVD′s in the store so as to have a movie to watch in the long evenings. I work on my journal until after midnight and never did watch a movie.

First to arrive at the hall this morning and wait outside the gate. I have still not been able to get a copy of the new songbook, but I know it will come, I hope soon. After the meeting, I go to the bank and covert some of my cash into Pesos. It still seems odd to bank on Sunday. Then I return to my parking space in the d-mart and watch the Princess Bride, a movie that I found in the two-for bin at the g-mart, which is where my new bank is located. I have been looking to rent a movie for a dollar but I have not found a kiosks with the movie I want to watch, and that would be the new Star Trek movie.

I have looked for a small hand held Spanish-English translator but the one that I did buy I found to be useless because it requires me to buy batteries so this morning I bought the book version. After returning to my van, I begin to label my things so that I will have the Spanish words handy. Then just after midday I drive to the river to make my first run at the border. I do not cross it but do get a look see of the Mexican side. Also, upon asking a border guard, he tells me the same information that I already have heard from other sources. Driving a car into México requires that the driver acquire an import permit and for me to obtain the permit would requires me to have the title, the current registration, proof of insurance, a current driver′s license and pay a fee with a credit card. Also, to enter the interior of México requires a visa and to obtain the visa requires a passport. This trip has shown me that I am ready so tomorrow I will walk across carrying these items and try to obtain the permit and visa.

After leaving the almost ninety degree temperature ¹¹ at the border I search for a cooler place to pass the afternoon and evening. Just west of Laredo is the Casa Blanca state park and I checked in for the night. It does have hot showers and a lake but it is too close to town, the airport and a railroad track, all which makes it very noisy here. I only rate this campground at six-point-five at best because it cost nineteen dollars per night. Too, I do see a moorhen and several coots in the lake.

It has been a totally clear day and after sunset I see the waxing crescent moon overhead with a planet above. I have been watching both for five days. Today is the winter solstice which is the shortest day of the year as well as the official beginning of winter. You wouldn′t know it here in Laredo because oddly, today has been the hottest day thus far of my stay here. Tonight I stay up and watch some old John Wayne movies (that I purchased three for five dollars) in which he was very young, probably in his twenties. It is eleven now and how these late nights exhaust me.

It sure cooled off nicely last night and was a comfortable temperature for sleeping, however, it was humid and there were sounds coming from every direction. The hot shower is not worth the nineteen dollars I paid for parking in a space overnight especially since it was so noisy all night. I decided to take a second shower this morning before going to the border.

I have been hovering here at the border for almost a week, which has allowed me it find the best route to drive to the bridge, one without traffic. In doing so, I have found a small city park right on the river with a baño and I drive there in order to have lunch, clean out my car and other things. What I find truly amazing is that I never expected to find that Laredo has grown to a city the size that it is. Also, in my exploration, I find a parking lot adjacent to the bridge and yesterday parked there so as to walk to the border crossing, however without crossing.

Then today, I leave my car at the river side parking lot and venture across the border on foot. It costs me seventy-five cents to cross from the American side and when I arrive in México, I go to the immigrations office and begin to ask questions. I find out immediately that they will not accept my enhanced driver′s license in order to get my visa into the country. I have to give the agent my passport to purchase the six month visa. Well, I guess that fifteen dollars for the enhanced driver′s license was a waste of my resources.

I do not try to walk out of the customs area to enter the country but stay in the compound. I try but can not get a permit for my auto because I am told that I need to drive it across the border first. Also, I notice that there are military guards posted throughout the compound in pairs and one of each of the pairs had a machine gun. Right at the entrance, there is an armored vehicle with a gun turret on top.

Then I begin the walk back to Texas and have to pay three pesos (about thirty cents) to cross the bridge to the US. There is a lot of Mexicans coming into the US and the line is quite long both to walk as well as to drive, whereas the lines into México is not bad at all. Finally, when I show the US border guard my passport, he looks at the picture inside and handing it back to me said OK. That is so easy! After that I return to my car, drive to the d-mart and set up camp for another evening and will wait until my final crossing on which is planned for Friday.

Instead of closing my eyes when the sun comes out, I get up early and get dressed. Then I drive to get coffee (it is so nice to be able to drive for a cup of hot because such is the life in the city) and after go to the hall for the morning service meeting. The meeting is conducted by a substitute circuit overseer but still just as encouraging. I am assigned to work in the same car group with the CO and talk with him during the drive but do not get to work with him in the door to door work. Still, it is a good day lasting into the afternoon.

Later, I retire to the parking lot of a nearby g-mart and work on my journal. It is another hot day with temperatures reaching into the nineties and so I find a nice shady spot to park. Currently, I am sitting here outside a restaurant because it provides me with WiFi access and when I drive to the window to buy a burger, the cashier asks me if I am investigating someone. I explain to her that I am accessing the internet to update my web site and I even give her one of my cards. Earlier this week, someone, apparently from inside the restaurant called the police about a "suspicious person" sitting in a green van in the parking lot. When the officer arrives, I explain to him that the restaurant advertises "free WiFi" and that I always buy something to eat when I am here. He leaves without even asking for my ID.

Truly, we are living in a wicked world when people think the worst about their neighbor. Yes, that is the way of life in most cities in this system of things and why I do not like to go into the bigger ones. Afterwards, I drive to the cul-de-sac adjacent to the hall and park for the night.

It rained hard last night to which I awoke and watched the lightning at three in the morning. I return to sleep only to awake again to watch the dayspring and then the sunrise at about seven-thirty. The days are notably short inasmuch as the sun sets before six. After coffee, I go to check if the post office will be open today and find it will be later but only in the morning. I will prepare my final boxes to mail to Susan and send it this morning.

Today is the last full day I will spend in Laredo because I will be at the border before sunrise tomorrow, the twenty-fifth. I spend most of this day in final preparation before my crossing.

Later, I go to Casa Blanca State Park, pay the four dollar entrance fee and take a hot shower. Afterwards, I do laundry and finally go to the WiFi hot spot. Then this evening I go to the meeting and afterwards retire to the cul-de-sac for the night.