South Texas, Rio Grande & Mexico
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These are pictures taken on two different lookout points on the Pecos River. The view was fascinating and the pictures don't give it all the justice it deserves. It is an absolutely incredible view. The whole south Texas trip reminded me of what I thought Texas would look like when I first flew down there in 1985. I thought it would be nothing but brush, tumbleweed and cactus. This part of Texas is what I envisioned Texas to be as this is how it is presented in the movie. Very isolated, dry and certainly not fit for travel overland. One of the pictures shows a view looking south. It shows where the river connects to the Rio Grande. Across the Rio Grande is old Mexico and its hills. This whole area is almost a parody of the old spaghetti western movies you have ever seen. We still can't figure out why people live there. CLICK TO ENLARGE |
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Laurel and I traveled to South Texas with friends - Debbie Maldonado and James Ramirez. We figured we would need someone who knew Spanish. Debbie grew up around Del Rio so she was familiar with the whole area. We met Aunt Tessa who lived in Del Rio. She spoke 'Tex Mex', which combines English and Spanish words. Debbie said people generally learn Spanish real quick down there because you hear the same words spoken over and over and eventually you pick up what people are talking about These are the pictures for Bracketville. They include Fort Clark, which is one of the posts where Patton served early in his career. This is a desolate area that is full of scrub brush and cacti. This was so close to the Mexican border that it makes sense to have a border, especially during the times of Pancho Villa. The other pictures are of the fake Alamo set used in the original John Wayne movie. It costs $9.95 to get into the set. The other part of this area is an old western movie set that has been used by countless grade B movies and TV shows. The day we were there they had a national gunslingers tournament. None of my pictures turned out so I have nothing to show for it, except to say it was unusual. The 'actors' did like my shirt I was wearing and let me know about it. It is a blue neon flowered Hawaiian shirt. As Laurel says about my shirt when I am wearing it, "Women want to be with me and men want to be me!" It always gets lots of attention . CLICK TO ENLARGE |
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This is a picture of the Whitehead Museum in Del Rio. It was closed when we tried to see it. I don't know what interesting things are inside it, except it contains the grave of Judge Roy Bean. Don't ask me why he is buried 60 miles from Langtry. I am sure there is a story about this and probably similar to the one about Mobridge and Sitting Bull. Anyway, I thought you might like to see this one too. Well, that is about it for pictures. Sometime this week you will get a short report about Lillie and her tie-in to the Turgeons side of the family (see Jersey Lil). The next group of pictures are when we traveled into Mexico. We drank the water and survived! Ciudad Acuna is a border town across the Rio Grande from Del Rio, Texas. The streets are narrower than the US side, and the streets were cleaner than I expected. Most of the shop owners knew English. Some had pretty good English skills and you don't really need to convert dollars into pesos. The shop keepers know all the converted amounts and love Americano dollars. Debbie was practicing her Spanish with the shopkeepers. She doesn't get a lot of chance to use her Spanish skills until she gets down close to the border. James knows Spanish too and helped out a shopkeeper in Ozona, Texas, as the sales lady had a customer who knew only a little English. Right now we are planning our next trip out to Big Bend, but that probably won't happen until closer to October when the weather gets more bearable. Prices are pretty good down there, but not as low as you might expect.CLICK TO ENLARGE |
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Judge Roy Bean. Boy, doesn't that make you think about the wild, woolly west! Why in God's name would anyone live there is beyond me. There is a nice, modern visitor center there built by the state of Texas. It commemorates Judge Bean and his peculiar behaviors. Other than that, the bulk of town is pretty old. I suspect part of town (General store and Jersey Lillie Ice Cream Parlor probably depend on tourist traffic. There is hardly any one traveling the highway there, but surprising as it seems a lot of people stop in to see this odd exhibit and preserved buildings from old Langtry. These are the original buildings and they appear as they looked when first built. The state only preserves the buildings and did not make reproductions |
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