The alarm goes off at 6am, and we take Tootsie for a walk, just a slow amble around the block. We are usually accompanied by other dogs. A little terrier, almost always comes with us. She’s a little character and struts along like she owns the place, so confident for something so small. She likes to wind up the other dogs in the neighbourhood who are stuck behind their fences. Another dog which often comes along is a husky, but we haven’t seen him for a few days.
It’s an interesting neighbourhood. It’s in Camp Swift which was an army base during WW2. The people living here are mostly Mexicans, and Jane refers to herself as the “old white lady.” Most of the houses have an eclectic mix of knick-knacks adorning their front porches, and a jumble of cars out the front. Chickens and roosters run free, clucking and crowing, and every house has a few dogs.
There is a “NO TRESPASSING” sign on each house. I asked Jane why they have a need to say that, I mean, in NZ we know not to trespass. But apparently the police won’t do anything about intruders in your back yard if you don’t display this sign. So that kinda makes sense.
As we walk around the block, a stark building surrounded by a barbed wire fence is on our right. We both assumed it was an army base, but it’s not… It’s a prison!
We walk alongside it, a security car patrolling up and down. All is quiet in the prison at 6am, but later in the day we can see the prisoners out playing sports. Sometimes baseball, or tennis. Jane refers to it as a prison resort.
After our walk, we have our breakfast. This morning we had to drop our van off in town to get the air-conditioning fixed. I took Janes car and it was my first time driving in America. It was ok, just weird making sure I was sat in the right place on the road. I found I tended to keep to the edge too much, but used my mirrors to centre myself.
After dropping the van off, we took a stroll along the river, which was very nice. Lots of other people making the most of the cool morning to get their exercise in.
Bastrop is a quaint little town, and we’ll do a vlog on it at some point. We saw an orange jeep in the Main Street with a kiwi on it, and Aotearoa written on the side. It’s nice to know we’re not the only kiwis here.
Today we saw a racoon. Thankfully it didn’t come too close to the house, but the cats decided to check it out. You don’t want to get too close to one, as they carry rabies.