Sistah Pat

or something like that…Got up early this morning and had DS drive us over to the Wyndham Hotel for pickup to go across the border to the dental clinic.  Hector showed up, handsome, well dressed, well spoken and quite personable.  He drove us across the border to the dental clinic where Donnie and I had appointments. 

The clinic was very nice.  Very modern and clean and the dentists were all Americans and the staff were all bilingual.  Juarez, the city, is a different matter.  Very dirty, junk cars, graffiti, etc.  The clinic was surrounded by a high concrete wall and a metal gate.  On top of that, all the windows and doors had decorative but very utilitarian bars.  Once inside, they locked the doors behind us to keep us safe and secure.  Interesting…

I planned on having my teeth cleaned and whitened.  After the exam, the dentist told me about the whitening process and I decided not to have it done.  He said it makes your teeth really porous for the first month after the process and you have to avoid coffee, tea, cigarettes, cherries, blueberries, cola, etc.  Anything that stains because the teeth are so porous after the process that they’ll pick up stains really easily and they’re really difficult to get rid of if you get them when your enamel has been etched by the chemicals used in the whitening process.  Well, hey!  I was just doing it for the heck of it anyway.  So, I decided since I didn’t really need it, I wouldn’t risk it.  I do need two fillings and a cleaning, however, so I thought I’d go ahead and get that done.  They started cleaning my teeth and 15 minutes later, the water went out for the entire block.  They use bottled water for the cleaning and handpieces but the vacuum system uses city water.  They had massive panic in the office because it seems that the phones go out all the time but the water going out is really unusual.  They sent us out to the waiting room where we chatted with a half dozen other americanos for three hours and then they decided to call Hector to take us all back over the border and pick us up again tomorrow.  You can drive straight across from the US to Mexico but coming back in is a lot more involved.  The line of cars usually takes anywhere from an hour to three hours to cross over.  We sat in the van and got well acquainted with our fellow patients.  A young couple getting married next month that flew in from Houston to have their teeth whitened for the wedding and for him to have a bridge and a couple of crowns before the wedding.  An older gentleman who needed “a whole bunch” of work and couldn’t afford the prices in the US and a chatty middle-aged court interpretor who lives in El Paso and has all her dental work done at the clinic because she doesn’t have insurance and said she’s always had it done across the border.  As the van approached the front of the line, we all got off and walked through the customs area while Hector drove the van through the line and then picked us up on the other side of the bridge.  Quite an adventure!  And the neat thing?  We get to do it all again tomorrow!

Now, you guys know how I don’t like breakfast but I didn’t get anything to eat from dinner last night until about 4:30 when DS picked us up and said he wanted to show us “a really neat little Mexican restaurant” he found.  I really wasn’t thinking about food when I went over into Mexico this morning but I certainly wasn’t leaving the dental clinic and wandering around Juarez and I wouldn’t have eaten anything they had even if I could so I was starving!  I ordered the fajita platter for two for $7.99 for DH and I and we got a huge serving of steak strips, six warm flour tortillas, beans, rice, guacamole, sour cream, and a topping bar that had all kinds of sauces, lettuce, tomato, jalapenos, etc.  I ate two tortillas with beef and toppings but I didn’t use the queso sauce or any kind of cheese.  Gave DH the beans and rice so I guess I did pretty good.  Tomorrow, I’m packing a lunch for us before we cross the border.

Now I’m finally back at the RV and I’m heading to the pool!

8:00 - That glorious sunset is beginning.  I don’t think I’m going to climb up on the RV tonight but will watch it from the table here in the courtyard instead. 

I guess DH and I will spend another day at the clinic tomorrow so I’m going to plan out the day for Andrew, Steven, and Darryl tomorrow.  The boys want to see the War Eagles Air Museum that has a bunch or restored planes. The Museum is dedicated to collecting, restoring, and displaying historic aircraft of the World War II and Korean Conflict eras.   It’s located in Santa Teresa, New Mexico but it’s only about 50 miles away.  As soon as DS drops DH and I off, he can take the boys out for pancakes, which they love, and then they can head to the museum.  When they get back, probably around noon, they can go to the Border Patrol Museum and the adjacent Archeology Museum.  That ought to keep them busy till DH and I get finished and back across the border.

I don’t feel like cooking so I just boiled a bag of shrimp and mixed up some seafood sauce to go with them.  No calories to speak of but the cholesterol isn’t that great.  I have a Mickey D’s fruit and yogurt parfait for dessert. 

10:30 - One of those wonderful, nature experiences!  Ever been in the desert during a wind storm?  They come in the evening when the surface air cools but the heat from the ground rises and the clash creates dust devils and wind storms complete with thunder and lightening but no rain.  We had one this evening.  I stepped outside to enoy it in a light, flowing sundress and the wind was warm and wrapped my dress around my calves.  I walked to the end of the RV park, away from all the people and RVs, and found that if I walked up against the concrete wall that surrounds the park, I could look down on the lights of Juarez and see the lightening flashing over the city.  For such an ugly town, it sure is beautiful after dark.