"On the Road Again"

This week we have been on the road doing zone conferences. The first 2 were in Tampico but then we traveled out to Tempoal on Thursday. On the way back to Tampico that afternoon we encountered a major traffic problem on the road. A semi had gone off the road earlier. We had seen it at 8:00 that morning but they were still working on it when we came back. We were out in the middle of nowhere but still someone had something in their car to sell. Or maybe he lives out in the middle of nowhere.

So he went car to car and we bought 2 packages of candied peanut things that were actually pretty good. One package for 10 pesos or two for 15. Let's give him the benefit of the doubt. He was just out there to make people happy today while they waited, cars turned off, for about 45 minutes. Dad's smiling,

When we finally got nearer to town we noticed that the poinsettas were out for sale along the road.

We got into Tampico and quickly had the office elders load up the van with supplies for 3 other zones, we packed our bags and headed north for Victoria. The next day,after the Victoria ZC, we headed for Mante. When we pulled into the "hotel" we noticed that we were the only car in the parking lot that wasn't a Federal Police car. We arrived after dark so the opportune moment for a photo wasn't possible. Besides, there was a policeman standing next to one of the cars with his big gun. So the next morning we took the picture. They are apparently in Mante to show power and have been there for about a month. They have had a lot of problems with violence so they're hoping the numbers will make a difference. I guess this is where they sleep when they're not out doing whatever they do. Dad decided that we should either feel very safe or be very worried.

The roads in Mexico, for the most part, are terrible. They're trying to fix this one and on our way home we saw this big water truck with this man sitting on top with the hose. He was wetting down the road with a powerful flow while they drove along. But there were cars coming and going. He seemed to be trying to miss them. It was just another strange thing in Mexico.

The sugar cane is being harvested. They fill these trucks to overflowing and drive it to the processing plant. You can see the smoke in the valleys where the processing is taking place.