Texas Trip 2010-2011, Part 1: Tucson to Del Rio

We bring you this first part of the Texas Trip after a little interruption. I loaded almost all the pictures in and then got distracted by Jury Duty and house guests. The guests have gone home and I don't have Jury Duty again until Tuesday the 15th. It's Sunday the 13th and all I have to do is laundry, ice the Valentine's red velvet cake, make dinner, etc., so it's a good time to finish this up.


This is also a great way to avoid cleaning off my desk and doing all the household accounting I need to do.


We left Tucson on Tuesday, December 28th. After dropping the animals off at their resorts, we headed east on IH10. We spent that night in Old Mesilla as usual so we could eat at La Posta as usual. Typically I hate to do the same things over and over, but this is one exception. It was an easy travel day and a yummy and relaxing evening.



The next day we got back on IH10 and headed on to Texas. As far as I'm concerned, El Paso is like Phoenix, just a place to get thought as quickly as possible. Trout really likes it when we get past there because the speed limit is 80, so he can drive his usual warp factor 1-2 and feel like he's going fast enough.


Our target for the evening was Fort Stockton. We got there just fine, had a decent dinner and another restful night. We found out that my cousin Ronna's husband, Allen, grew up in Fort Stockton, so we allowed ourselves a little extra time the next morning to drive around town.


Not only does it have the world's larget Road Runner, Paisano Pete, but the fort is restored and you can see the Comanche Springs swimming pool. The Paisano Pete picture I linked to shows him like we saw him. It was Christmas after all. The 1938 swimming pool picture isn't like it is today, but it's still a spring fed pool like so many in Texas.


After our little Fort Stockton tour, we got back on IH10, still driving east. We stopped in Sonora for lunch. That's not the Mexican state just south of Arizona but a town in Texas. To our entertainment, the place where we stopped was right where a tower segment of the wind turbines that are so prevalent in CA, NM and TX (but strangely not in AZ) was being driven off a side road on to IH10.

There was a double curve and those things are long. Unlike the airplane parts we see moved around WA that have a cab driver in the back to swing the back end around, this rig's back end cab had to be manipulated from outside. After about 20 minutes, the whole thing made it onto the freeway heading west.

We had been seeing them all along IH10 on the trip and wondered where they were built. There is a factory in Abilene TX, but Trout talked to the oversize load guide car driver about that. The driver said he didn't know where they were built, but that they were painted north of Sonora, so that's why it was being brought that way onto IH10.

After lunch, we got back on IH10 ourselves heading the opposite direction. Just a little past Junction, we turned left toward Fredericksburg, Johnson City and our final destination for a few days, my cousin's house on the Pedernales River. I had to move the map picture below, you won't be able to click on it to make it bigger, so I made it as big as I could here.

After Ronna & Allen's house, we took a back road to Austin to have lunch with some old friends of mine, Larry and Marianne Fitzgerald. We ate at the infamous Threadgill's, although it was at the South Austin location, not at the early venue for Janis Joplin, but we did get vegetable plates. Scroll down the menu -- only in the south, y'all, only in the south.


After lunch and not nearly enough catching up with Larry and Marianne, we tried to find evidence of any kind of work on the new Formula 1 racetack. We found nothing, not even a sign. All we saw were fields and livestock. There was some topographical relief, though. It's not flat there.


We arrived in San Antonio at my cousin Melba's way earlier than we expected and that was a good thing. We stayed with her and her husband, Bill for a few days.

Then it was Thursday, January 6th and time to start back west. This is the last map and as you can see, it was almost a straight shot there to see more cousins, Ronald and his son Ray, in Del Rio.

So now we are through all the maps and we can get on with the pictures.

Ronna and Allen's house is right on the Pedernales River. If you go to the link, you will see that it's pronounced like it would be spelled perdenales.

When we drove up, we saw Allen walking the dogs and there were deer eating in the front side yard. I always head for the river at least once per trip.

I thought this was limestone or granite, but Allen said it's dolomite. That's the same rock as in the part of the Italian Alps called the Dolomites. No wonder I liked it so much.

Now about those dogs. Ronna and Allen saved Tex a few years back. He's the black and white brindle one. Blondie (you can tell which one she is) is a recent rescue. Oh, yeah, they are Great Danes. You may not recognize her as one because her ears aren't cropped. She was less than 100 pounds when they got her. Not any more.

The living room is just made for big dogs. Their beds are actually bunk bed mattresses.

This is a very old cat named Mama. She can barely see or hear, but she makes to the food bowl okay and can get up on this ottoman.

This picture of Tex with me will give you some idea of his size. He eats well but remains slender. I should be so lucky.

Due to some anatomical reasons, Great Danes rarely sit. Tex does like to sit in your lap, though. Here he is with Allen.

Here's Trout with Blondie and Tex.

If you remember, I'm the youngest of 19 1st cousins. This is Betty, my closest cousin still living. I'm right in the middle in age between her, and Ronna, her daughter. Betty was born in 1936, I was born in 1946 and Ronna was born in 1956.

Believe it or not, this is a feral cat. I can't remember her name, but she loves Ronna and Allen's bed.

Back to the dogs. Now they're sleeping in the beds with their heads on the pillows. So cute.

We visited so much, we didn't take very many pictures, but this one with Ronna, me and the dogs turned out pretty well. Blondie's actually sitting, but it doesn't last long.

Our timetable in the Johnson City area included New Year's Eve at a real Texas honky tonk. Ronna made reservations for us at the Albert Dance Hall. It's between Johnson City and Fredericksburg and near the famous Luckenbach. In fact, Albert was named after Albert Luckenbach.

We didn't dance much. We mostly watched and there was a lot to see. Due to our advanced ages and how cold it was (no heat in the building) we left early and headed home. But it sure was fun seeing all the families there with the little kids learning to dance.

There were 3 couples in particular that were fun to watch as well. There were 2 older (like my age older) women there that had on very short skirts. They could easily ignore the What Not to Wear "no miniskirts after 35" sign because their legs were beautiful. Gotta love all that dancing.

My favorite sight was the trees lit with Christmas lights at the Pedernales Electric Coop building. They were the best I've ever seen. But they were turned off the night we tried to get pictures of them, so I linked to one here. Those lights are in very large live oak trees. This one shows the building a little bit. This one shows the trunks as if you were walking on the grounds.

We had a wonderful time visiting with Ronna, Allen and Betty, even if it does look like I was dog-obsessed. Ronna is a great cook and a wonderful hostess. She said she's not big on traveling, so I guess we'll be forced to enjoy her hospitality in the future. They say we have an open invitation anytime and that F1 racetrack will be finished someday.

Now on to San Antonio. Besides seeing cousins, one of my big goals for any trip to SA is to visit the graves of family members who have passed on. This trip I was particularly intent on going to a cemetery I had never visited -- San Fernando. The part I wanted to see was the part that used to be called Roselawn. It's where an aunt, a sister of my father, who died in 1924 at the age of 26 is buried. We may have visited her grave when I was very little, but I don't remember it.

Her sons, my first cousins, are also buried there. Below is the stone for my cousin Freddy. He was the pastor of our church and was killed when he fell while building a new church building. He was 45.

I was 14 and there at the church at the time. My father donated all the masonry work, my mother helped with the construction, and we frequently coordinated the potluck dinner for people who volunteered their time and effort on the project. When it happened, I was in setting up the food. My mother wouldn't let me go into the sanctuary where he had been working. I remember it being a full moon and a heart-wrenching time. I don't remember the funeral or the burial at all. Strange.

Freddy's wife, Margaret, is still living. We visited her in her assisted living facility. She will be 95 on February 19th.

Freddy's brother, Eugene, and his wife are buried there. He was also a pastor in our church and performed the marriage ceremonies of many family members. Trout actually got to meet him several years ago when we were in the area.

My aunt was married to Fred Long Galbraith. I have a picture of the two of them and she was absolutely beautiful.

Here is her tombstone. If you can read it, you can see that she died when she was 26. Eugene said she died in childbirth. I was curious to find out if the baby was buried here, too.

There was an unnamed baby buried here, but 2 years earlier. So if he was correct, perhaps that 2nd child (her 4th) didn't get carried to term. I guess we will never know unless I find her death certificate.

One of the cousins I hadn't seen in a bazillion years is Carol Galbraith Burdick. She is exactly the same age as I am, even with a birthday in January, but she is my 1st cousin once removed. Her father, Eugene, was my 1st cousin, so my Aunt Marguerite was her grandmother.

This is us. She luckily didn't take after the Smith side of her family. She's taller and obviously considerably thinner than I am. She looks a lot like her dad, and I just love that hair.

Disgusting. We both had silver purses.

We spent the better part of a day with her and it was way too short. We had lunch and she took us to the cemetery and to see her aunt, my cousin Freddy's wife, Margaret. I hope Carol and her husband will come visit us sometime. I certainly plan to see here again when we're back in San Antonio.

My father's side of the family were members of the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and that's the church I was baptized into. It's now called the Community of Christ and Carol and her husband are active members. Click on the link if you're interested.

The website includes the church history. You may be surprised. My father's family was from the Kansas City and Independence MO area and there are lots of Smiths in the church hierarchy, but I don't think I'm related to any of them.

While we were in San Antonio, we stayed with my cousin Melba and her husband, Bill. Melba and I spent a lot of time together when we were kids. Her grandmother married my grandfather, so we ended up with the same grandparents. Grandma Pearl took care of the both of us on many occasions.

We both grew up and went to high school in San Antonio. Back then (early 60's), Earl Abel's was an institution. It was close to the stadium where high school teams played football. It was the place to go for a date or before or after a prom. It was torn down for "progress" but it moved with a lot of the same interiors to a different location and we went there for a meal. I can vouch that the fried chicken and the pie are still just as good as they were back then.

Here we are with an icon.

Melba and Bill live just west of the military cemetery at Fort Sam Houston. My cousin, Tubby (brother to Betty above and Ronald below), is buried there. We found his grave easily online and in the cemetery. As you can see, he died at an early age, just shy of his 36th birthday. He got cancer from radiation exposure from his job at one of the military bases in town. It made the news, but there was no compensation for his family beyond the standard survivor benefits given when someone dies and leaves minor children. It was so sad. He was such a sweetheart.

He left a wife and 4 children. His wife had married at 16 and didn't finish high school. She went on to do that, get a degree in education and become a teacher. His kids took advantage of the opportuniity to go on to education and training past high school, and two of them were some of the first women allowed into Texas A&M.

I'm sure he is looking down on them with pride and has been for a long time.

Most of Melba's and my family are buried at Mission Park on the south side of town. So are Bill's. I always try to visit the graves when I'm in town.

This time I particularly wanted to see those of my Aunt Florence and her husband, Uncle Raymond.

Aunt Florence was my father's sister and mother to Tubby, Betty and Ronald. Growing up I probably spent more time with her and them than anyone besides my parents. Oddly, she died just a few months after my father.

After the cemetery we went over to Stinson Field almost right behind it. It's a private aviation airport with a cool history. It was San Antonio's first municipal airport and is the 2nd oldest general aviation airport in continuous operation in the United States. It's named after an aviation family which included the 4th female pilot licensed in the US and the 9th female pilot licensed in the world, Katherine and Marjorie Stinson, respectively. Marjorie founded, owned and operated the first aviation school run by a woman in the US, the Stinson School of Aviation.

We went there to have lunch and were delighted to find the US Army Golden Knights doing jumps that day. That was lots of fun to watch.

It was our last evening with Melba and Bill and unfortunately, I started feeling like I was coming down with something. So we went back home and I hit the sack with nausea, a sore throat (probably from all the talking) and general exhaustion. I fell soundly to sleep and slept for about 3 hours while they visited and then went to dinner without me. I got up about 1/2 hour before they got home and felt fine. I had my frequent cheese and crackers to settle things down. Aggravating, but necessary sometimes.

Before we left the next morning, we took some pictures. Trout was outnumbered. Melba, Bill and I all went to the University of Texas at Austin. They conveniently had some flags we could use to take pictures.

So here I am.

Here we three are giving the Hook 'Em Horns sign.

And here's Trout with me being a good sport about it all. His Laguna Seca T-shirt went well with the UT orange.

Okay, so now it's Thursday, January 6th and we're heading back west on US 90. It's not considered an interstate, but it was a fine road just the same.

We stopped in Sabinal along the way to get Butch (Part 2) and arrived in Del Rio pretty quickly. Still, my cousin Ray said his dad, my cousin Ronald, had been pacing the floor waiting for us.

Below we are in front of Ray's BBQ place. Ray knows how to do barbeque. Everything was good, but my favorites were the ribs and the chicken. I can safely say they were the best I've ever had.

So Ray's on the far left and Ronald's on the far right. Ronald turned 83 just before Christmas and Ray's in his early 50's. They've lived in Del Rio for about 16 years now. I thought it was a very small town, but including those living on base at Laughlin AFB, there are about 60,000 people in the county. All of them should eat at R&R's BBQ Shack.

One of the major non-food attractions is Lake Amistad. Amistad means friendship in Spanish. It's a large lake fed by the Rio Grande and the Devil's River with many other smaller streams coming in from both the US and Mexico. The map I linked above shows it pretty well.

The dam forms a border crossing into Mexico. We drove out on it and parked. All these shots show the lake on the US side.

I took this picture straight out.

Then looked to the left.

And to the right.

Then we started walking toward Mexico. This is the Rio Grande. The near side is the US. The far side is Mexico.

Here you can see some springs flowing into the Rio Grande from the Mexican side.

There's a little Mexican town just beyond the dam.

The river is very pretty and green here.

This is a railroad bridge that parallels US 90. You'll see it again in Part 2.

It used to be a common thing for people to go to the middle and stand with one foot in Mexico and one in the US. Ronald asked the border patrol guy if we could do that and he said it was okay, so that's what Trout is doing.

Interesting that both countries have an eagle. Here I zoomed out to get the flags.

Trout took a picture of Ronald and me. He's still pretty tall.

Here's the Rio Grande meandering on south. The US is on the left of it.

These two vultures didn't seem to be bothered at all by us walking near them. They're not quite as pretty as our red-headed ones here in AZ.

Ronald guided us on to tour Del Rio. Much to our surprise, the oldest winery in Texas is there.

The Val Verde Winery even has a Texas history plaque.

Trout tasted some of their wines and bought a wine and a port and a hat.

Another Spanish lesson. Val Verde means green valley, sort of. Val isn't really an English or a Spanish word.

Next we headed for the area of town along the river known as Vega Verde. That can mean green meadow, but more appropriate for this location is green fertile lowland since it's right on the river.

But wait!!! What's that in the road? I was in the backseat, so I didn't get to see this guy until he crossed over the road, but Trout got to see him very well on the road. It was Trout's first sighting of an armadillo in the wild. Isn't his little pink butt cute?

Okay. Now we can go on.

This road went about 2 miles along the river. Between the river and the road were houses. Many had been rebuilt after the area was flooded. It was flooded because it had rained so much that the lake was full and in danger of coming over the top of the dam. Needless to say these people were warned of the flooding, evacuated and helped with rebuilding after it was all over.

The river is narrow here. Across it is Mexico.

Is that a road in the distance?

This road had a pretty heavy Border Patrol presence on it. Like you will see in Part 2, and can kind of tell here, there are very thick and tall cane breaks along much of it. We could see paths through the cane.

Ronald took us around some other parts of town and then we headed back to the Shack for dinner. They didn't have a place for us to stay, so we stayed at a fisherman's somewhat ramshackle motel not too far from their place. They wouldn't let us pay for a meal, though.

That night we tucked into the motel and were pleasantly surprised to see that No Country for Old Men was on the TV. You may not remember, but it's supposed to take place in Del Rio and this general area of Texas. We thought that was appropriate.

The next morning, January 8th, Ronald took us to his favorite place for breakfast in town. Then we headed on west on US 90. He and we were sad to see us go, but we'll be back.

Part 2 tells about the rest of the journey from Del Rio to home.