Oh Mexico

part nine

I don’t know if you’ve ever watched much of The Andy Griffith Show, but if you have, you might remember the episode where Barney gets a motorcycle and starts ticketing truckers for speeding. The reason they were speeding was because they needed a little momentum to get up a hill, but Barney wasn’t about to cut them any slack. In protest, the truckers began driving through the middle of town in the dead of night. Anyone in bed had to listen to the trucks rumble by all night long.

That episode came to mind every night in our little room along the narrow village street. There weren’t many trucks during the day. They all came through at night. I assume, though I wasn’t told, that the streets were so narrow it was too much of a hassle to drive through during the day with all the people walking about.

So, every night, the trucks rumbled past our door. And when I say the streets were narrow, I mean I have no idea how those trucks fit through there. But they did. I know because I heard them every night.

We also had to contend with ants. I don’t know why they felt it necessary to come into the house. There was nothing in there to eat except Johnny and me. They made a nice marching line down the ropes tied to the ceiling beams that held our hammocks up, across the hemp ropes of our “beds,” and somewhere else. It seemed like a pointless journey to me, but they seemed to enjoy it.

After our time in the village, we boarded a return bus to the city. Thankfully, it wasn’t nearly as crowded as the outbound trip. We arrived at the bus station, then walked back to the hotel where most of the team had been staying. Richard had told me he’d arranged a room for us for our last night before we returned to Oklahoma.

I walked up to the counter and stood behind a couple who had stayed there for the full two weeks. The young man was berating the hotel staff because of a snafu with getting their laundry done.

At that moment, I almost snapped. I wanted to slap that boy on the top of his head. I wanted to shout, “Villages! Fish! Ants! Hammocks! Drunks! Shut up about your laundry and get out of my way!”

That’s what I wanted to say. But I didn’t. He turned around and saw me.

“Where have you guys been? How did things go?” he asked.

“It was fine,” I replied. “It was fine.”

And it was.

oklahoma