Whelan's Wheels (go round and round, round and round): Baldemar Garza Huerta

Thursday, February 10, 2011

Baldemar Garza Huerta

WHO???

Hey it's not everyone that gets their name and likeness on two sides of a water tower now is it? Seems when you're staying in San Benito for 12 nights you certainly should go to the Freddy Fender (born Baldemar Garza Huerta) museum, don't ya think?

Now I can not get "Before the Next Teardrop Falls" and "Wasted Days and Wasted Nights" out of my head and it's been a few days! Trust me, if I could figure out how to play music on the blog (when you blog on a Mac) you too would be listening to Freddy/Baldemar right now!

Now Chester, when we told you we were going to the museum I don't believe you had a clue who we were talking about ~ your comment was something to the effect that "oh the guy who made Fender guitars" well honey, you weren't far off ~ sort of. If you can enlarge the photo above you will see what I mean - read what it says above the picture of him to the right of the bike.

Speaking of the bike, the day we were there all the ice from the major ice storm was melting and falling from power lines etc. Of course the roof of the museum was leaking, of course it was leaking on the bike - Rick offered to help the man working the museum move the bike - no way, no how was that man going to let Rick help him - he was waiting for the maintenance guy to come with two others - he said when they put the bike in there it took four of them ... HUH? Seriously, I don't make this stuff up, but as far as I can tell, motorcycles have wheels so they move easily ~ just a thought!

After we left the museum we went to the San Benito Memorial Park where Freddy is buried. Freddy's site is above, very well done, very close to the road. Since we had no clue where in the cemetery to look we rode through the entire place before we came upon this plot that look considerably different than the others!

I did a lot of scratching my head going through here. Yup a clear case of different strokes for different folks, ya think! Interesting how this varies between cultures.

I'm so glad we did this little "field trip" while we were in the area, seems it's been a long long time since we did one of these blog worthy "adventures" hasn't it.

Stay tuned ....

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This is our story ~ and we're sticking to it.

Our attempt at a blog - quite scary isn't it?

We left MA in early October, 2007 after I (Tracey) retired September 5 as an executive assistant for a software developer and Rick retired from his job on October 1. We passed papers on our house September 28th and off we went. We traveled down the east coast to the Florida Keys ~ where we planned to spend three nights but 17 nights later had to leave our site because someone had reserved it a year prior! We then stayed in northern FL for another month and headed off to meet our Marine returning to the San Diego area after his second tour "over there". We spent several wonderful weeks realizing why grandparents get tired easily! After the San Diego area we headed to the "low desert" (certainly a new phrase for us) of CA and into western AZ .. and decided it was finally time to start the blog we'd talked about since August or so!!

So many wonderful things we saw along the way. And the people, oh the people. I have said so many times to Rick the best part of this journey has been the people. So, so many people with so many interesting stories. Think about it - think about the stories YOU have and multiply that by the many many people we must have met along the way ~ particularly a social person like Rick .. we met a rattlesnake milker in Sweetwater, TX, we met the camp hosts in the Keys who summer back in NH ~ talk about the best of both worlds! We met the female police Sgt. at the Sweetwater Elks whose son was also in Iraq at the same base as my son. We met people in Slidell, LA who survived Katrina and had a great attitude and a smile on their faces and were proud to share their local cuisine with us. We saw the Blue Angels, purely by chance, in El Centro, CA. Or the "campground" where within an hour of arriving our house had been hit three times by golf balls! Or the Elks lodge in Indio ~ the sweetest, bike riding, bartender ~ I just wanted to pack her up and bring her along on our adventure. Not to mention the aerial tram while we were there, the warplane museum for Rick who does NOT do aerial trams! The Salton Sea ~ WOW just WOW. We stayed in the lovely little town of Wilcox, AZ - there was just something about that town. How about Pensacola, FL where the Elks Lodge on the beach is now built high, very high, off the ground! Or what about Huntington Beach State Park in Murrels Inlet, SC - talk about beautiful. What a great place that was to spend our first Thanksgiving on the road with good friends - that was something to be thankful for, for sure. Our first Christmas and New Years in the Keys!! WOW. The love and support of a dear friend in FL while Rick had to fly back to Boston and we dealt with all that entailed with unexpected follow ups back in FL .. how fortunate were we through all of that. Not to mention having the new trailer outfitted in Myrtle Beach and staying at what a week or two a year is the Broken Spoke? Or the kind and soft spoken LA Police Detective who is on the gang unit? So many people, so many stories. And there is so much ahead. The people .. did I mention how wonderful the people have been - all different walks of life .. so many personalities, so many stories! I have said many times ~ I need to pinch myself every morning to be certain it REALLY is happening to US! We are so grateful.

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