On the Road Again...

Hi all, Dianne here.  We started our five-month road trip Thursday by following the Rio Grande River north and west on our way to Seminole Canyon State Park near Comstock, TX.  

Near Laredo, TX we stopped at this lovely stop that reminded me of the Taj Mahal.  Guess what it is?   A Texas REST STOP!  

How many rest stops have you stopped at to use the facilities, eat lunch, get travel info or whatever, which include a Koi pond, mosaic-tiled picnic shelters, fountains, topiary, a beautiful state-inspired sculpture -- I could go on and on.  Texas pride at its best!  

Even the picnic shelters in the trucker's section had mosaic tile and lovely landscaping.  Here are some additional photos:

Another very Texas sight we saw along our drive was this HUGE high school football stadium being built in the small town of Eagle Pass, Texas.  If any of you saw the excellent series "Friday Night Lights," you had a taste of what high school football means in the state of Texas.  It's no myth, as this photo proves.

We passed through two Border Patrol checkpoints along our drive on Roads 83, 277, and 90.  We were, after all, following the Rio Grande River, which meant we were just across the border from Mexico during most of the drive.

 Here's a blurry photo of a very large Mexican flag that flys near Del Rio, TX, right across the border in Mexico.  I took this photo from the RV as we drove through town.


One interesting side note about Del Rio, TX is the little-known fact that the movie Lonesome Dove was filmed on a set built on private ranch property near here.  Lonesome Dove is one of our favorite books of all time (we both read the entire series), and after reading the books we rented and watched the entire movie series, as well.  Whenever I think of Robert Duvall, I think of him as "Gus."  Now that we spend six months of the year in South Texas on the Rio Grande, I decided to re-read Lonesome Dove and downloaded it to my Kindle a few weeks ago.  I enjoyed the book even more this time!  


I also came across an interesting web site of a man from Illinois (an extreme fan) who had made a pilgrimage to Del Rio to see the movie set.  There are photos of how the set looked at the time he was there, and at the end another set of photos taken in 2005.
http://www.lonesomedoveremembered.com/  


Here's a link to Amazon if any of you are interested in the DVD (I'm not hawking this, just putting it in for convenience's sake for anyone who might be interested in it.)  

Here's a link for the novel (both the book and movie are excellent): 

There's even a book out now of just photos taken from the filming of the epic movie:

Okay, enough product placement!

This photo isn't interesting in itself, unless you consider the fact this is the first rain that Roger and I have seen since we arrived in Texas December 30! Unfortunately, this also turned out to be a "12-incher", meaning that it's about 12 inches between drops. I only wish some of that Mississippi flood water could make its way to South Texas.

We'll probably be updating our blog more often, now that we're traveling and actually have things to write about.  This is, after all, our "virtual scrapbook."

The pet photo of the day shows Bandido and Chaplin enjoying the desert scrub at our campsite at Seminole Canyon State Park.  We pretty much have the entire park to ourselves.  We are so out in the middle of nowhere that we should have some major stargazing in the night sky.  Check back soon as we write about our short stay here at this Texas state park, including our guided tour tomorrow to see ancient pictographs.  Then it's off to Big Bend National Park...