Walking Downtown While Truck Is In the Shop

Mean Mister Brownsville

Since our truck was being fixed by Mr. Lozano, we took the bus to downtown Brownsville Saturday.  BTW, no Brownsville mechanic is better than Humberto Lozano.  A Certified Master Mechanic with a couple decades experience in the dealerships before opening his own shop at 2624 E. 13th St., Lozano is not the cheapest, but he never has to fix anything twice.

The lady bus driver for Brownsville Metro allowed one young man with a pull cart on the bus.  The next person with a pull cart was an elderly woman who the driver made empty and collapse the cart so as not to block the aisle.  When another would-be passenger also had a cart, she was not allowed on the bus.  The bus driver was well aware of the safety concerns of a blocked aisle.

 Outside the multi-modal facility we found a woman braiding corn rows into a young man's hair.  I'm not sure if the stylist or her customer were homeless, but the bench they were using was covered with coats and blankets.

Nena and I had been wanting to try a new restaurant downtown named Aguascalientes.  I had seen the chalkboard outfront advertise the daily comida corrida at a reasonable price on other occasions.  This particular morning the breakfast special was still advertised out front so we ventured in.  The place looked very clean, but only one table had customers.

Unfortunately, a waitress was just erasing the breakfast special from the chalkboard inside the restaurant.  When we asked her if it was still available since it was advertised out front, she simply said "no" without any explanation.  We decided to move on to Rincon del Taco on 12th Street next to the church.  We order tacos de bistek and a gordita.  The food and service was fantastic.

Beautiful Cauliflower at A&V Lopez

On the way home, after shopping at H.E.B.,  I made a quick stop at A&V Lopez on Boca Chica to buy some  tortilla chips for guacamole.  H.E.B. doesn't handle the firmer, locally made tortilla chips I prefer, just the national brands.  While at Lopez, I saw the prettiest cauliflower I've ever seen, measuring nearly 12" across for just $1.99.

Some may recall a Matamoros restaurant popular in the 60's, La Linterna Verde. They made their own mole', served tacos de pollo con mole' that were exquisite. I spent many years trying to duplicate those tacos but never succeeded. I gave up trying to make mole' from scratch like the nuns in ancient Puebla and finally settled, after many years on a brand not too chocolaty, but with a bit of heat.

We saw this freshly painted VW bus parked on 9th St.  It appears to be a couple years older than the one vehicle Nena and I wished we had never sold or traded in, a '75 VW bus.  I've had 21 vehicles over the last 50 years, starting with the '50 Ford I bought from my grandfather.  I only had a strong attachment to one or two.  The VW bus was wonderful except for having two carburetors on the Porche engine that kept getting out of sync.  Years later I heard of a simple solution, removing one carb and capping it off.