Onward toward Laredo, TX…

Saturday we left Alpine and the beautiful Texas mountain region as early as we ever leave. We did so for two reasons. One was the cold front that was coming through early in the morning with 20 mph winds. These winds would provide a nice tailwind all the way past Dryden, Tx. before they would dissipate. Secondly, Texas A&M and Alabama kicked off their college football game at 2:30 pm.

The drive was really peaceful as we saw less than 20 vehicles on the 200 mile drive down highway 90 and most of those were border patrol trucks. We pulled into the Trav-L RV Park just outside of Del Rio around 12:30 pm. Plenty of time for lunch before kickoff.

I am sure that if you follow college football I won’t have to tell you who won the game.  If you don’t then you should know that the Fightin’ Texas Aggies kicked some ‘Bama butt. Alabama was ranked number 1 and lost by 5 points… Actually Bama’ could have easily won the game so saying Texas A&M kicked their butt may be a bit extreme since we may have been lucky to get the win. But, a win is a win and when you upset number 1 in the nation and the defending national champion there is cause to celebrate… and so we did…

The next morning rolled around and we left Del Rio around 10:00 am again running from the cold front. We planned to get some diesel at Walmart but when we pulled in it became obvious that there was no way the short hose would make it to our rig no matter what we did. So we pulled out and figured we could find another diesel spot further into town only to encounter a Veteran's Day Parade… Instead of getting angry about the delay we simply put our emergency flashers on, turned off the engine and enjoyed the 45 minute procession celebrating our veterans…  It gave me time to pause and reflect upon my father’s service during World War II and the Korean Conflict. Thanks Dad for your service! I also served but was stateside during the Vietnam Conflict as I was stationed in Ellsworth Air Force Base working on our nuclear arsenal of minutemen missiles.

School bands and floats drifted by as we enjoyed the show. Even our favorite grocery store in Texas, HEB, had a float go by… As the parade passed by we headed on down the state highway 277 to state highway 83 and finally on into Laredo on Interstate 35. It was interesting to drive through this area rich in oil and gas known as the Eagle Ford Shale. This oil boom has brought lots of temporary workers in the area and as a result “RV Parks” and oil support service businesses are popping up everywhere. We are now tucked into our site where we will stay for a few days at Lake Casa Blanca International State Park. We finally got far enough south that the cold front will not bother us too much at all…