Del Rio Texas

We headed to Del Rio as it was a day’s drive for us from Laredo. We had hoped for a town of more interest, but we found just another small town with a devastated down town area along the Mexican border. But we did find that our President didn’t need to focus any money in this area. The border “wall”, or formidable fencing, already spans the entire span of Del Rio.

We did manage to find a gem in the area. The Amistad National Recreation Area, jointly managed by the Bureau of Land Management and the National Park Service, is made possible by a dam built jointly by the US and Mexico in 1968 to both tame the Rio Grande and control annual flooding and provide water both for drinking and recreation.

Amistad Dam was built at the confluence of the Rio Grande and the Pecos rivers. Lake Amistad that developed behind the dam, is the 3rd largest manmade international border lake in the world (they had to reach a bit in their definition to come up with number 3). We hiked our way out onto the dam in order to find the border dedication monument, which was quite impressive. Note that Richard Milhouse Nixon presided over the dedication ceremonies on behalf of the US.

We did learn that folk in Del Rio are extremely precise. In Del Rio, you don’t see signs that generally say “Brown Plaza 2 miles”, which is obviously just a rough estimate, or a rounded measurement. That just won’t do in Del Rio. Even Brenda, our GPS, is not nearly this precise!

Talk to you soon!