September 2006 - "Steve Saves L.A." screens at the Cinesol Film Festival in Brownsville, Texas!
This part of Texas just so happens to be home to my uncle Tim and my cousins Maya and Taylor!
Tim was emceeing a kids carnival in the park that afternoon.
He's the Chief Meteorologist at Channel 5, so he gets to do a lot of events like this.
Meanwhile, I got to hang out with my cousin Justin and his girlfriend Niki.
We got to hang out at Brownsville's #1 theme park, "Rental World."
Later on I went and checked out a bunch of the other films at the fest. They were very interesting.
The next day I went with some of the filmmakers to check out the border with Mexico.
There it is. Cross the river, and you're in another country.
Then we had to get back to the theater for the night's big movie.
The big showcase film for the Cinesol fest was "El Segundo."
It was about these Texas gangs who got a rock that was part of an ancient Aztec god. Everybody that looked at it killed themselves, but one guy got rubbed with an egg so he didn't die. Then everybody died. Then there was a volcano at the end of the world.
Guess who the emcee was?
Afterwards, we joined our friends Alex and Eva for steaks and steaks and steaks.
(I have no caption for this picture. These two nutballs speak for themselves.)
The next day we drove northwest to McAllen, and crossed the border into Mexico at Nuevo Progreso.
Here's the borderline!
Mexico loomed on the other side of the bridge.
It was a very hot day, but for some reason it was much cooler on the Mexico side.
We were getting hungry for lunch.
Mexico! Lots of pharmacies and dentists and eye surgeons right at the border.
In Progreso, you can get anything you want...
Be it Skwinkles Salsaghetti...
...Huge ceramic frogs...
...Pretty Mexican dresses...
...Pinatas of anybody or anything...
(Including the Ninja Turtles)
...Plaster Darth Vaders...
...Or a barbecue grill shaped like a pig.
We had a really great lunch and a really good time.
Early the next morning, we stopped by this statue on the way to the airport.
This full-sized model was built to prepare the bronze cast for the famous Iwo Jima memorial in Washington, D.C..
It was surrounded by old tanks and military equipment.
It was a great trip to Texas!