Still on the Border

 I arrived in Del Rio, TX on Sunday. Nice place! It sits on the border, with Acuna being the city on the Mexican side. It neighbors Amistad Lake, which is a great bass fishing lake, with over 50 major tournaments a year. Monday I visited the Amistad Dam, built where Amistad Lake and the Rio Grande merge, between US and Mexico. I then drove to the Pecos River. There I had some beautiful views of the river and the limestone canyon.

I also went to the Seminole Canyon, which contains pictographs 3500 years old. I arrived on a day when they didn't have any tours into the canyon, so I only saw pictures and drawings of the stone art. The State Park facility had tremendous pictorial displays and dioramas of the environment 10,000 years, 5,000 years and 3,000 years ago, as well as more recent times, shown through pictures. They also had some pictures honoring the last Seminole Negro Indian Scouts. They now have reunions of descendants of this group.

 


I stopped in Langtry to check out Judge Roy Bean's Saloon, Courthouse and Opera House. Justice west of the Pecos, was at the whim of Judge Roy Bean. The legend may have grown bigger than the man, but there is a lot of fun in the legend, and the man. "But Judge, the bill was $1.35. I gave him a $20 gold coin. He owes me." Judge: "I fine you $18.65 for disturbing the peace. Now, get out of this town and don't come back." The Courthouse was in his saloon. The Opera House was in his home. The saloon and the town were named after Lillie Langtry, an opera singer, for whom he also built the "Opera House."  Langtry finally did visit the town, but months after Roy Bean's death. One of his children made a presentation to her. I'm going to have to find the movie "Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean", starring Paul Newman (rrrrrhhh, or meow, meow).

 Next was a long strip without gas stations. At one point, I knew I'd be looking for gas pretty soon, and asked Gypsy (GPS) how close we were to gas. She said over 50 miles, and I thought, "hmmmmmm," but luckily she was wrong. At the gas station I mentioned to the owner that I was getting worried. She said this seemed to be the longest stretch in Texas without gas ( and warnings). There had been flash flooding and a number of businesses had closed. Now, this part of Texas is extremely dry.

I stayed overnight in Marathon, TX, which was a fun little town. They advertise the town as Marathon, where there is nothing "to do." They have a webcam, so you can see that nothing is being done. And they have a nice upscale restaurant and bar, a great breakfast and lunch place, and a fantastic train, which runs all night across the little street from the campground.