Exploring South Texas: A Day Tour with an Old Twitter Friend

Yesterday, I met up with an old Twitter friend, Shashi Bellamkonda, who has come into town for an analyst conference. We have followed each other since the early days of Twitter, around 2007. Our paths may have crossed at a SXSW over the years. I don't remember if we ever did meet in person. I consider yesterday our first official meet as it was more than shaking hands in passing. Twitter is now X. But it seems odd to think of acquaintances from early Twitter as X friends. There is something dissonant about it.

Rather than sit around and chat, I offered to take Shashi around town to see some things. For one, he had heard about the McAllen Public Library in an article from about 11 years ago. The library is a favorite destination for my family, so we are familiar with it. The City of McAllen took an old Walmart property and remodeled it. It's a huge library with areas for children and teens. There is a computer lab, coffee shop, and even a nice auditorium. The designers did more than remodel the interior, they also built up the exterior into a park-like space.

Afterward, Shashi wanted to see the border with Mexico. So we headed down to Granjeno to see a section of the border wall that is the subject of much media controversy. For people living here in South Texas, the border wall is not a major issue. It was mostly built on land already under federal control through the International Boundary and Water Commission. The IBWC maintains levees that are designed to channel water out to the Gulf of Mexico in cases when the Rio Grande overflows its banks. In my lifetime, I have seen the floodway filled with water a couple of times. Without the floodway, many people would lose their homes. These levees also form the foundation of the areas where the border wall is constructed.

The media likes to joke about the futility of a wall. They say that if you build a 20 foot wall, immigrants will bring a 21 foot ladder. Perhaps this is true. However, during out visit, Shashi and I did not see any abandoned ladders along the wall. This is because the wall has openings for local people and Border Patrol agents to pass through. The wall was not meant to completely stop people from entering the country. It is meant to funnel traffic around the wall to the openings. It creates choke points where people can be seen and apprehended easier. It is a low-tech aid for the people responsible for patrolling our borders.

From Granjeno, we went down to The Riverside Club, which is a bar and grill that sits right on the side of the Rio Grande. You can have some beers and a burger while watching the sunset on the river. We had a couple of beers and chatted a while about politics and Artificial Intelligence. We also talked about how Twitter has impacted our professional lives.

Our last stop was Chimney Park where there is a boat ramp into the Rio Grande. This is one spot where the Border Patrol launches their boats, or they moor for quick breaks. Chimney Park is an RV park that gets its name from a brick chimney stack that once served a pump house that would draw water from the river. The pump is no longer in service. But the chimney stack has remained. South Texas has annual visitors from northern states who come to spend the winter with us in the warm climate. We call them Winter Texans. It is an interesting juxtaposition of Winter Texans and Border Patrol personnel on the same grounds.

Shashi was pleased to have a better experience than he usually does when traveling to conferences. From my own experience, one usually deplanes and heads for the hotel. Maybe you have a meal at the hotel restaurant. Then keep busy until bedtime. So it was something new to get a quick tour so soon after arrival. We may possibly be able to meet up again towards the end of the conference.

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