It's a hot time exploring the "Streets of Laredo"

As we head northwest along the Texas border, it was only a 60-mile drive to our next destination in Laredo. Most of the scenery on the drive was miles of mesquite and cactus. But also notice from the picture below that Texas highways usually have nice wide shoulders. We're also seeing a narrow lane between the two dotted center lines. Is that supposed to be for the bikers or walkers, or just a safety corridor between the traffic going in opposite directions?

Does Laredo, Texas, bring any songs to mind? Our son started quoting the lyrics from Chris Cagle's 2001 hit song, "Laredo" when we talked to him on the phone during our stay. We were planning to visit the site where the music video from that song was filmed, but then we found out that would be four hours away in Lone Pines, Texas. Sheesh!

Since we are from an older generation, we automatically started humming the theme song from the older movie of the same name, "The Streets of Laredo." So we drove to the historic downtown and walked the streets of Laredo for ourselves. We found the most impressive building downtown, San Augustine Cathedral, which has been hosting daily mass since 1778. We didn't stay long downtown, because it was 100 degrees in the church plaza.

The song, "Streets of Laredo" has been recorded over the years by musicians like Johnny Cash, Eddie Albert, Marty Robbins, Buck Owens, and more recently by Michael Martin Murphey. We're thinking that this downtown street of Laredo is one of the narrowest we have ever driven with trees hugging us on both sides.

We were singing parts of the song as we traveled around this city that sits on the border with Mexico. In fact, when we were parked near San Augustine Cathedral, we were just two blocks from the Rio Grande River and the border of Mexico. We're the blue dot in the center of the screen shot below, and you can see the river and border on the GPS screen. On the right side of the picture is I-35, with slow traffic because there are long lines going into and out of Mexico. That's the same I-35 that goes through Oklahoma City, and ends right here when it goes across the border of Mexico.

The other thing we learned when walking the streets of Laredo is that we were the only ones speaking English. Over 95 percent of this city's citizens are Hispanic. One article we read pointed out that this is the least ethnically diverse city in the United States. We definitely felt in the minority. When we arrived at our campground at Lake Casa Blanca International State Park, we were given a hiking map--and it was in Spanish. To understand the "Puntos de Interes"  we had to use our google translate app to read about the "Points of Interest" in our Texas state park.

We are seeing temperatures in the 90s, so we had to wait until early the next morning to explore our state park. We were out on the bike/hike trails early, but it was already close to 80 degrees.

Our first trail took us all the way to the end of Lake Casa Blanca.

That's where some of the birds were hanging out, including a pair of white pelicans. We noticed that they had the knob on their beaks that show up during mating season.

As we rode our bikes back on this loop, we couldn't help but notice that five white pickups were now parked where we had just ridden our bikes. Since we are living on the Mexican border, we couldn't help but wonder if they were looking for illegal aliens? So we watched as they unloaded a german shepherd from one of the pickups, and held on to the leash as the dog sniffed a trail. We repositioned ourselves, and watched a training drill where the dog and handler were looking for one of the pickup drivers who was now hiding in the brush. We were glad to see that they were just practicing instead of looking for a real fugitive.

We continued on our bike ride through the mesquite and cactus. This "street of Laredo" was pretty rough.

As we approached the water near the swimming beach, Denisa looked up in one of the palm trees to see a familiar silhouette.

The golden-fronted woodpecker was drilling a new hole in that very tall palm.

Riding back on the paved road, we saw movement by one of the picnic tables. We stopped to try to get a distant picture of the javelina.

But as soon as we stopped our bikes, that lone javelina started walking towards us. We took off the zoom on the camera, because he kept moving closer and closer to us.

The javelina was only a few feet away before it finally stopped. Exhibiting no fear of humans, we are wondering if someone is feeding these wild animals.

By the time we finished our ten-mile bike ride it was hot! It was already over 90 degrees, so we were looking for some indoor activities to get off the streets of Laredo. Our Boondocker Welcome host yesterday gave us a couple of Laredo suggestions. One was to go to a show at the planetarium at Texas A & M International University in Laredo. We drove to the large campus and found the science center. Underneath that glass pyramid is a big round purple ball that is the dome of the planetarium.

This state-of-art dome was built in 2005, and upgraded in 2014. We were expecting to see a show about stars and planets, but we found they show IMAX-like documentaries as matinee shows. What a great way to get out of the heat! So we bought our senior tickets and realized we were the only ones there on a Tuesday afternoon. The director of the planetarium took an instant liking to Mark, with his ability to talk about techy subjects. Before we knew it, we had a private explanation about the workings of the projectors and computers that run the sophisticated programs that are projected on the big dome above our heads.

The director ended up showing us the best seats for the audio, and then explained why they were best. He showed us several previews, and let us pick which one we wanted to see, rather than just the one scheduled for today. He projected the night sky on the dome and explained what we should be watching for during the next several nights. We finally took a seat in one of the comfortable reclining chairs (with the best audio) and watched our private showing of our choice. Nice!

The second suggestion from our host was to check out the display at the Laredo airport. We started outside, with this interesting statue where the Spanish vaquero meets the American cowboy--with Mark in the middle.

Then we went inside, and found the elaborate costumes from the 2022 Princess Pocahontas Pageant. Held each February, local young women and men dress up in these ornate robes and gowns.

The detail is stunning! This was Denisa's favorite, with beads that formed a howling coyote hanging from the sleeves.

Each gown was displayed with the name of the 2022 princess, and her picture wearing it. This was the latest "Princess Dancing Waters."

This display is at the Laredo airport, except when the costumes are needed for the pageant.

The Pocahontas Princess and the Chief Spirit Warrior wear the most impressive costumes on display.

The 2022 chief and princess were the models for this beautiful picture!

When the air cooled off to the low 90's, we braved the searing temperatures for a sunset hike up to the tallest point in Lake Casa Blanca International State Park. The loop trail curves its way up the hill until we could see the lake below us.

It was 92 degrees when we watched this February sunset in Laredo. That's entirely too hot too late in the day and too early in the year!

We camped here in 2017, and we took this same hike. We include that picture from January 2017 when we needed long sleeves and jeans to sit on the bench on the hill overlooking the lake.

We recreated that same picture in February 2023, but Mark is wearing shorts and short sleeves because of the heat. It's been a hot time exploring the Streets of Laredo!