Del Rio

Day 5
Destination: Del Rio, Texas
Miles: 469    Total Miles:  1,928
Route: Highway 10, east to 90, then south

Points of Interest:

• Judge Roy Bean's Museum

Del Rio is a small town along the border with Mexico. To get there from El Paso, one spends 40 minutes or so on Highway 10, and the balance of their lives on Highway 90, a two lane highway which seems to run almost forever. This may be an exaggeration, but only a small one. You travel through many, many small towns, some on the map, some not on the map. The distances between gas stations is great, and often GPS reports a station or other supplier of gas which has long since (LONG SINCE) been closed. Most of the buildings along the route are unoccupied and dilapidated, and it is obvious that the Obama stimulus money never got this far south. There are few farms, and most of the land is brush. There is no shortage of border patrol officers, however, and we got stopped several times at check points. I know...we got stopped without any probable cause. We didn't look like illegals. We didn't act like illegals. We weren't violating any laws, but they stopped us anyway! But really, we didn't complain, whine, cry, bellyache, or act like a better-than-thou democrat about the conduct of these brave men and women.  Instead, we thanked them for their service and went about our business.

The last two hundred miles was a challenge, since it was hot, sultry, and we were running out of gas. We found the Judge Roy Bean Museum, and spent some time there in the town of Langtry. Turns out the town was not named after Lilly Langtry, the actress, but some dude. Who knew? Our first taste of rain didn't help, but it didn't dampen our spirits and made the trip more memorable and the lightening off to the west was also cool.