Del Rio

We had to drive up and around the Big Bend National Park to settle in on the other side at a place called Del Rio. When we left Lajitas we noticed that we were getting low on diesel so we needed to find a truck stop. Since we weren’t on an Interstate we knew that we needed a find a local gas station that could fit the Busse Bus (height and length requirements). We got into the town Alpine after driving for about 60 miles and saw a gas station on the left and across the street on the road where we needed to make a right. It was about 1/2 block down the road and after surveying the gas station from my perch in the driver’s seat, I assessed that we would fit and started to turn on the road. After committing to the turn, I realized that it was a one-way and I was now headed in the wrong direction. With the toad attached, I could not back up. I sat there blocking two of three lanes as Katrina hopped out to go back and unhook the truck. We realized that if a cranked the wheel all the way to the right that there was enough room to miss the telephone pole. Just then, Alpine’s Finest stopped by and held the traffic up so that I could make the turn. Success! We had to go forward and round the block until we could safely pull into the gas station.

Note to self: Always check gas gauge and fill up at truck stops! It makes life so much easier.

On the way down to Del Rio, we saw that in the town of Langtry we pulled over to see the Judge Roy Bean museum. Since we wasted time getting diesel and because their parking lot could not accommodate our coach, we decided not to stop, but we did get this picture:

Judge Roy Bean called himself “The Only Law West of the Pecos”. There have been a lot of movies and TV shows based on Bean. My favorite was “The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean” of 1972 starring Paul Newman as Bean. Check it out.

Once we got to Del Rio, we parked at the Broke Mill RV Park just outside of town. A nice place out in the countryside.

The reason we wanted to stay in the area was because of the Amistad National Recreation Area. We were able to take Bear the following day and let him play in the water:

Beautiful area! The water was low, but Bear really didn’t care. He loved chasing his toy over and over and over again. The lake was created by damming up the Rio Grande River, therefore half of the lake is in Mexico and the other half in the USA. Talk about some good cooperation between countries!

After Bear got tired (took a long time), we drove into the town of Del Rio looking for a place to eat for an early dinner. We decided on this place:

We wanted to try this local burger chain. The burgers were pretty good.

We headed back to the coach and relaxed a bit before leaving the next day.