We are recovering from a fairly boring and uneventful stay at our "little mud hut" in Nowhere, Mexico, adjacent to the the Sierra Madre Oriental. The recent stay began with our drive down, I believe on the 9th of September, 2017. Everything went in good order until my having a blowout of the right-rear tire of my little run-about KIA after completing 91.5% of the journey to our home in Nowhere. This was a bit of an inconvenience, but luckily, we were less than one kilometre (about 5/8ths of a mile) from an OXXO (private) convenience store and PEMEX gasoline and diesel dispenser (still government owned). So your humble servant decided to continue to the beacon in the distance, instead of stopping on the side of the major Frontier - Capital City highway connection.
As we motored in....with the right-rear area of the motor-car making all nature of protests and loud "clappity, clappity, clappity" sounds, a couple of young fellows took note of the matter and began to approach. One....the very rotund one....declared, "Ay! Señor, tiene Usted tiene un problema con la llanta tracera!!!: (Hey! Sir! You have a really bad rear flat tire!)"
I confirmed my knowledge of the blowout, and also suggested that it would be good to find a "vulcanizadora" (a Mexicanality, found throughout Mexico, who fix tires at very low cost, for travellers, truckers, and extraterrestrials), although the boys immediately declared....."Well, until Ciudad Victoria....but here, there are none." That immediately left the issue to "THE DOUGHNUT". Most OROGs know that the "doughnut" is a useless spare of very inadequate strength which is used when the iceberg has floated away and the Titanic is already hopelessly sinking. And before the OROG begins to think that the boys were trying to "gain" me, there really is no good, reliable "vulcanizador" in the Old Guemez (first capital of Tamaulipas) area.
But your humble servant is a Texian, and the Mexican boys confronting me, as usual, seemed concerned. With my familiarity with the people of the area and with my own inadequacies, it was deemed necessary to advance with a tire change. To-morrow would be the time to send for a "real tire" in Ciudad Victoria and have it brought to the Quinta Tesoro de la Sierra Madre. Of course, the Hacendado (owner) of the Hacienda de la Vega happened to be available, took my "ultra-preferred" card and bought the necessary replacement, had it rimmed, balanced, and blessed and then brought it to the Quinta Tesoro de la Sierra Madre.
We had a bit of any issue when I suggested that I had given the fat-boy (5'-11" - 300 pounds) who did all the work of extracting the "dough-nut" etc. and putting me back in motion, 100 pesos. The Hacendado was distressed because the work could be valued at 50 or 60 pesos, at the most. Such is the nature of the traditional, and white, extreme upper-middle class and aristocracy of Mexico....whose blood is found in abundance in the veins of my neighbour. And, of this, I would not change a thing.
As a Southerner and Confederate, I would hope that the boy who did the work on my right-rear wheel area could make 2,000 pesos a day....because his work was clean, correct, and he replaced all of the implements in the correct place, after wiping them down with a cleaning agent. He also refused payment because "no tenemos letrero...fue mi obligacion"- (we have no sign, it was our obligation as a friend). All of which was true, but he saved me....and his friend saved me...from having to spend 2,000 pesos to find a taxi to take me to and from Cd. Victoria to find, buy, and return to mount a new tire.
There will be more about this story in the coming week's "Relaciones de Aventuras in Mexico Rural" (Tales about Adventures in Rural Mexico). By the way...the "doughnut failed 3 miles from the Quinta, but another "boy" came to the rescue and a family put me up for an hour or so, and, once on my way, I arrived at the Quinta just an hour and fourty-five minutes later than normal. Such is Mexico.
More in a little while....we are making a special supper because I cannot remember the date of our anniversary, but it is coming up shortly. Also, all OROGs, please communicate with us via e-mail, so that we can notify you first....and last. Our circulation has been peculiarly brisk, lamentably with Red Chinese figures composing about 16% of our contacts, but we have a serious cyber razor-wire and 14, 000 - volt barbed wire fence around your data and communications.
El Gringo Viejo
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