What a spectacle of pride, dedication, competition and patriotic spirit there must be at the annualArmy/Navy Game … I’ve never been, but I am reminded of that classic as I read the final stats from the Black Knights of Army’s most recent win.
After destroying the Houston Cougars in the 2018 Lockheed Martin Armed Forces Bowl, 70-14, again and again on the stats sheet, Army broke bowl records … numerous records, many established by The Navy Midshipmen in previous years at The Armed Forces Bowl (with a few BYU and Cal records mixed in.)
161 rushing yards in the first quarter … 592 total offensive yards … 10 sacks for 71 yards … 254 yards on the ground in the first half …
When I was a young kid and then continuing on through the teen years, I was led to believe — particularly from the coaches who were so crucial in our development, body and soul — that my hometown Vega, Texas was much more special than all the other special, tiny, farm towns throughout Texas … especially in the rugged Texas Panhandle … The “Real Texas,” I like to call it.
Recently, I had a conversation with my older brother’s classmate, back in our hometown.And despite several years difference in our ages, in conversation we learned that we both pull the same stunt.When we want our English-speaking friends and co-workers to mistakenly think that we are bilingual, we rapid-fire recite a little poem that we were assigned to memorize decades ago in Español class … back in high school.Ha!It fools everyone because it sounds legit and verdad.
Magically in sync, without hesitation, she and I went into an impromptu West Texas, Tex-Mex gringo rap version of the silly verse.It translates: “I have three friends, very strong and loyal … these are my friends, a burro and two dogs” … blah blah … nonsense, yet effective:)
My story began in Vega, Texas … where “what stayed in Vega, happened in Vega,” I love to say.
In the early chapters, childhood was spent watching sports teams at the school, hours upon hours — when I wasn’t watching Fall’s fading light obscure the fast-moving shadow of a school bus, over country roads, sorghum fields and ranch-land pasture.Dreaming of being a Vega Longhorn was all that any boy or girl could want.
Flash forward a few years, and journalism became my passion.
After a quick jaunt back to Texas, I returned to “The Dirty Gig” in Mexico and then on the first opportunity headed straight for The Pyramid of the Sun, an hour northeast of Mexico City.IF I had a bucket list, Teotihuacan would be there.But who takes the credit for it making the list? Well … we still don’t know.The Aztecs — “johnies-come-lately” — followed the builders’ culture by a thousand years. Some, mysterious, fluorishing culture built the structure — the third largest pyramid from the ancient world.Regardless of its origin, the site is one of three dozen UNESCOWorld Heritage Sites immediately beyond our southern border.And the pyramid was in the heart of a vibrant civilization … one of the largest cities in North America at that time.
Sometimes things just fall into place. For instance, when this blogger visited San Miguel de Allende a couple of weeks back, it seemed like the coolest place on the planet. However, now that I’ve seen Guanajuato City, the state capitol … I may like it even better. So glad the order worked out like it did.
Both cities, San Miguel and Guanajuato offer a cityscape of architectural “eye candy” most noticeably in the centuries-old cathedrals and colonial-era plazas. But San Miguel has a modern feel to it … the vibe from all the American and European ex-patriots living there. But, Guanajuato is “old world.”
Many times I question my decision to do The Dirty Gig to fund my travel.But as I headed north of Celaya, Mexico to San Miguel de Allende, Mexico I was convinced that doing disaster recovery work is worth it for the travel.
San Miguel has never been on my radar before, and yet Conde Nast Traveler selected it as the numbero uno city in the world a few years ago.I’d say I got pretty lucky in coming to this part of Mexico, oddly enough, to work on robot computer controls at an automotive factory, damaged in a flood.
Welcome to Mexico. Unlike just about every one of my friends, I had never been to the true resort areas of Mexico, merely some border cities. Still haven’t …
However, today I woke up in the heart of Mexico, three hours northwest of Mexico City in the cuidad de Celaya. Celaya has all the traditional “South of the Border” flair you would expect — cathedrals built in the 1500s, and indigenous mummies interned slightly prior to that, for example.
But there’s also a modern, one-world kinda vibe here, rocking to the tune of Japanese and American investment — automobile plants, and the Western retailers/hotels that follow hot on that money trail.
“There is more to life than making apparently obvious observations”
– Jerry Seinfeld
Before this blog is read, Facebook, Instagram, Google+, etc., will have reworked something new into their social media blueprints for world domination (just when we thought we had this whole thing figured out.) But we play right along …
