Run for the Border

San Antonio Tx  to  Del Rio Tx   155 Miles

Day 20

It rained all night.  Apparently we left before it got even worse according to the San Antonio TV news tonight. Too bad, the weather is playing havoc with the biggest festival of the year in that area. 

So off we went, driving west on Hwy90 instead of I10.  We are glad we did.  This part of the country isn't know for being an interesting ride, but being off the Interstate was much better.  Especially with the heavy rain, we were spared of the trailer trucks blinding spray.  The only real problem was with one of the old west towns, either Castroville or Hondo where there was a road project going on.  One side of the street had no drainage and of course, that was the side we were on.  Muddy water, two feet deep for several miles certainly made for a dirty RV and even dirtier Jeep! 

As we drove on,  a large building appeared on the eastbound lane, all vehicles are funneled through it.  Without thinking where we were, Jim mentioned that there must be an 'agricultural inspection station' up ahead.  Shaking my head, I informed him that I didn't think that they were looking for fruit and vegetables...they were more than likely looking into the Fed Ex truck to make sure there wasn't 500 illegals packed into it!

We forget that we are only a few miles from the border of Mexico.  In fact the RV park is 7 miles, as the crow flies) from the border. 

Just before we got to Del Rio, we passed a road sign that pointed to 'Alamo Village' the movie set made for The  Alamo with John Wayne.  The rain had stopped by that time, but thank God, that there was so much flooding in the area, because if Jim had thought the 7 mile drive off the highway had been safe, we'd have driven to it.  John Wayne...his childhood hero - not mine.   Floods are a good thing sometimes!

Not too much here...but great WIFI!

We got here early afternoon.  We didn't even un-hook the Jeep.  Jim asked the guy in the RV Park office if there was anything to see in town.  The guy said, "No."     Okay then.

I knew that I'd seen a huge lake in the area looking at the road atlas.  So I Googled it and sure enough, there is a dam only 9 miles away.  A road crosses the dam and halfway across is the Mexican border....half the dam is in U.S. and half in Mexico.  I tried to put the little 'google man' from street view across the dam to see what the other side looked like, but he wouldn't go...kept bouncing back, right to the middle of the dam.  Even he wants to live  in this country!

I told Jim if he squints really hard, he may see John Wayne riding over that hill!

So we watched the towering storm clouds just to the east and northeast of us that are causing such flooding not too far away, as we walked two miles around the park.  No trees, just scrubby plants, old ranch land, I can almost imagine the cattle drives coming through here in days gone by. 

Tomorrow we will leave early for our drive further west on Hwy 90 and into even more sparsely populated areas.  We will be staying inside a National Park campground, for the first time.  No cable and WIFI - for at least two days!


Pray we don't kill each other...