Saturday at Canyon Lake

During the last hour or so of our night, I'd mentioned my plan to blow off the Mi Tierra breakfast + shopping excursion and just take a long walk instead. BUt it appears Ed didn't hear me--or maybe I didn't say it out loud--and when he asked about our schedule in the morning I was surprised. He'd actually been looking forward to the shopping. So with one vote "yes" and one vote "okay", we did it.

Traffic going down 281 was stop-and-go for a long time--the main road was under construction, so all traffic was routed onto the feeder with many stoplights. But eventually traffic picked up and became the sort of big city downtown driving that I despise. Too many lanes, too many exits, too many idiots driving too very fast, and no time to make the slightest mistake before you missed your exit and were miles away in minutes. Groan.

On the other hand, with a modern phone navigation you don't have to despair like I did that one time when I missed getting on I-45 south to Houston and ended up in downtown Dallas with no idea where I was or how to get back onto the tangled mess of highways just above my head.  That was one of the more miserable trips of my life.  But these days you need not worry--just let the phone reroute itself and you soon get a second chance. Or a third. Luckily, I only needed a second one.

I'd not planned where to park, though. I passed up what was probably free parking under the highway and was heading along streets crowded with pedestrians before I realized how close I was. Luckily a $5 lot appeared in front of me and I whipped inside. I'm not going to argue with a five-dollar parking fee when a Mi Tierra's breakfast is wafting through the air.

The wait was only ten minutes and the service was fast.  The menu seemed much smaller than I remember, but this was Saturday morning at eleven o'clock and they were serving more lunch than they were breakfast. I wouldn't be surprised if they had a breakfast-only menu we'd eaten off before...aha. They do. I didn't see pancakes on the menu at all, else I would have ordered some.  (Turns out they probably were there; I just missed them in my hunger.)


No matter--I pigged out on warm, fluffy flour tortillas instead. Plus machacado and fried potatoes, which I love.  I could eat fried potatoes for breakfast every day and not get tired of them.






Then we shopped around in El Mercado and surrounding shops until our time ran out. We needed to return to our poor puppies in time to give them a walk and give ourselves showers before heading to Bob & T's cookout.


On the way back my phone navigated us by a different route, avoiding 281 altogether. I liked that, and if I just knew where it had taken us, I'd make a note to always go that way. There were a lot more curvy, two-lane roads but no traffic light stop-and-go freeway feeders.

We took the dogs to Bob and Theresa's house and found the people all sitting out in the driveway talking. Their deck is still just a frame of wood, but it's going to be gorgeous some day. Zack got to roam around with the other dogs, but Izzy was best stowed in the back seat. I'm sorry for her, but I expect it was better than being in the RV all alone. At least she could see us from the back seat.

"The people" consisted of just Amy and Kelsey, Chris and Mary Rose. Good folk for a cookout. We didn't stay too late, of course. For future reference--COE parks--or at least this COE park--close their gates at ten p.m. and don't have a key code. If you get locked outside, you park outside and walk to your campsite.