Texas Highways, Willie Nelson, and the Chinese Consulate

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Texas highways are part of the romance of the Lone Star State, and the 160 mile stretch from Austin to Houston is no exception. It's a refeshing alternative to the interstate, a 3-hour drive through countless cattle roaming green pastures, farms, intermittent town squares, tractor shops and truck stops.

It's gotta be Divine Intervention when your car stereo--which has a mind of its own and only plays select cds, straight through--only plays the quintisential Texas album 'Waylon and Willie' by the late, great Waylon Jennings (the West Texas rockabilly and country icon who gave up his seat on the flight that killed his Texan friends Buddy Holly and the Big Bopper) and living legend and Austinite Willie Nelson, the King of the cosmic cowboys and the poet-laureate of the prarie-home proletariat. Just remember: "Mamas, don't let your babies grow-up to be cowboys..."

The transaction at the consulate was bang-bang, $30 for Pachi and $50 for her American husband and two lovely visa stamps in return. This will be the first entry in Pachi's always-in-good-shape brand-new Ecuadorian passport and likely the last in my ragged American one after a good decade of use.

Tickets to China? Check. Visas? Check. Tickets back from LA? Not quite yet a check. No worries. T-minus 9 days and counting.

More to come....

--Shaun Hopkins

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Photos

It's amazing they let me cross borders with this
I'm praying that my passport doesn't disintegrate before I make it back to the US. It's a beautiful disgrace.