May 3, 2013 - Del Rio, TX

After are 170 mile drive to Del Rio which is right on Mexico border. They told us not to cross the border so we stayed away. We tour the Laughlin Hertage Foundation, Whitehead Memorial Museum and then a trip to a family own winery in the family since 1919, Val Verde Winery. We tour the winery and then they let us taste every wine they make which was about 12. Bought a few to. We had a free day on Sunday, which was good since we watch the Nascar Race on our outside TV, but made it into a party. Everybody loves Nascar on this tour.

Jan 31, 2013 - Day 199 - to Del Rio, Texas

We left San Antonio behind and headed west toward Big Bend National Park. We spent the night at Del Rio, Texas at Holiday Trav-L-Park. This appears to be a friendly site on the Amistead Lake Recreation Area. The area is a lake created partially by dam sites along the rivers in the area both in Texas and in Mexico. Right now the lake is extremely low. The people we talked to came to the area for the fishing but that is not very good this year with the lake so low. We took a drive to the visitor center to see the information about the history...

Jan 28, 2013 - Glad we don't call this home

We headed north out of Rio Grande Village turning east at Marathon en-route to Del Rio. This was the most desolate part of Texas so far with mile after mile of desert with the odd ranch there for no apparent reason. Most of the 4 or 5 towns we drove through were made up of a handful of empty, run-down & boarded up retail buildings surrounded by a dozen or so small houses and mobile homes that looked like the owner had long since lost his desire to manicure. There was junk lying everywhere with old cars, broken furniture and other household...

Jan 26, 2013 - Laughlin AFB and Ft. Clark

Jan. 26, 2013 We stayed at the twenty site RV park on Laughlin Air Force Base. This base is like a little town. It has a small grocery store, a BX, a bowling alley, a cinema, and a fast food restaurant located on the air field. If you want to know the busiest runway in the USA, it is here as Laughlin trains pilots. After reveille in the morning, the planes would start flying and landing, flying and landing, flying and landing, etc., etc., etc. The best thing about the base (and it was a very nice, small base) was the new gym which we got to...

Jan 26, 2013 - Laughlin AFB and Fort Clark

Jan. 26, 2013 We stayed at the twenty site RV park on Laughlin Air Force Base. This base is like a little town. It has a small grocery store, a BX, a bowling alley, a cinema, and a fast food restaurant located on the air field. If you want to know the busiest runway in the USA, it is here as Laughlin trains pilots. After reveille in the morning, the planes would start flying and landing, flying and landing, flying and landing, etc., etc., etc. The best thing about the base (and it was a very nice, small base) was the new gym which we got...

Jan 9, 2013 - Del Rio, Texas

We had an 'interesting' trip here from Laredo. Most of the country between Laredo and Del Rio is covered by oil fields, and there is a tremendous amount of drilling activity. Lots of heavy equipment off on the sides of the highway out in the fields and new dirt roads going off into the wilderness. We traveled along with mostly 18-wheelers hauling equipment and strange-looking tankers, as well as a lot of oil company light and medium trucks. It rained, and around here they consider an all-day light rain to be a lot of rain. The roads were...

Dec 23, 2012 - Heading Northwest

We had a nice Christmas, missed family but did talk to all of them. We got up on Sat. 22nd and found a big box on our steps, it was full of all kinds of goodies from Jimmy,Sherry,Cody and Kristen, we are still enjoying some of it, sure made our little tree look good. We found a huge murrell on a building in Mission, it was a tribute to Tom Landry who grew up in Mission, Dallas enjoyed seeing it. We left Mission Dec. 26Th heading to Del Rio area, found a campground in Brackettville, 30 miles outside of Del Rio. I wasn't very impressed with...

Apr 1, 2012 - Travel to Del Rio, TX

We left Mission, TX right around 8:30 this morning and traveled 340 miles to Holiday Travel Park in Del Rio. It was a long, hot journey and we didn't arrive here until almost 5:00. It seems to be Construction Season in southwest Texas and it sure did make for a slow go. Also, we took the scenic route and found just about every small town between Mission and Del Rio. Today was Lily's first long trip and she did fairly well. We set up her car seat in the front seat of the Focus and she really liked being able to sit up high so she could see...

Feb 19, 2012 - The Right Reverend Dr. Billy Sol Hargus

For some who don't know my background, I was a radio announcer for 13 of my 35 years of working. Don Imus was an announcer (shock jock) at the time when I was in college trying to learn my trade from the best. Whether you like Imus or not, I do. He had a shtick, a talent no one else had. Good or bad he was unique. Now, Don Imus is still on the radio and a gift to society with his wife who give a significant amount of their fortune to help cancer patients both kids and adults. WHY the title of this blog? Imus, in his irreverence, had a...

Jan 13, 2012 - Seeing More of Del Rio

We really had forgotten how windy it gets here in western Texas and have definitely been reminded during our stay here in Del Rio. My gosh it’s just relentless! We certainly haven’t gotten out much while here other than the obligatory WalMart, HEB and Home Depot runs mixed in with the commissary here at Laughlin AFB. Laughlin Air Force base was activated in 1942 and is now a pilot training base so as one might imagine, it is VERY loud here most of the time. The FamCamp is located out near the airfield at the back portion of the base. The...

Jan 5, 2012 - Safe and Uneventful Drive to Del Rio

Phew, levelers went up without a hitch and we were heading due west right around 9:30 on I-10 and then Hwy 90. Smooth sailing the entire way; minimal traffic even through San Antonio. Truly an uneventful drive through western Texas, lots of scrub brush and farm fields. Definitely see the ill effects of the horrible drought Texas experienced this past year in this part of Texas; far worse than even around San Antonio - really brown. We got to our site without any problems. In fact, are in the same site we stayed in on previous visits through...

Oct 22, 2011 - Del Rio

At the Marathon Motel, the rooms are close to the railway line (as is everything in Marathon) and guests are provided with earplugs to lessen the disturbance of the train whistles in the night - the trains are obliged by law to whistle at every junction. We did hear the trains in the the night but they did not bother us too much. We woke up to a cloudy day but by the time we had packed the car it was fine. We set off and drove 100metres down the road and had breakfast at the only place available in Marathon. We made good time on the highway...