Day 43: To Del Rio

April 8, 2012

A major storm passed through overnight. To the west I saw lightning an hour before I could hear it. Eventually it started to rain heavily. 1.5 inches (3.8 cm) during the night. Everything outside the trailer was very muddy in the morning. It was hard to load my bike without tracking huge clods of mud into the trailer.

I got on the road a little before 9 AM. The sun was shining and it was extremely humid.

Canyon just east of Langtry. The normally dry wash has water thanks to last night's storm.

After 17 miles I took a long stop at the Pecos river overlook. The Pecos river is very small most of the time. But it has occasional huge storm runoff that washes away anything near the river. Many bridges have been washed out. Here the Pecos river is big because Amistad reservoir backs up into the river.

Pecos river from the bridge. The river is actually quite small, but here it's part of Amistad Reservoir.

I have mixed feelings about crossing the Pecos river. I'm leaving my favorite part of Texas - Trans Pecos Texas - which is relatively unknown to most Texans and has a different culture than most of Texas. The westernmost part of Texas has the rural culture of the western states: conservative, with libertarian tolerance. Most of the rest of Texas is culturally similar to the southeastern Bible belt, with an authoritarian and intolerant version of conservatism led by self-righteous people who feel it's their duty to tell others what to do. Behavior that is regarded to be unacceptably rude in the libertarian western states.

US 90 bridge across the Pecos river. The highest highway bridge in Texas.

A short distance past the Pecos river I turned into Seminole Canyon State Park. I rode down a bike trail to get to the canyon overlooks. Unfortunately last night's rain made the dirt path impractical for a bike with fenders. Half a mile down the trail I could no longer pedal the bike because the space between my tires and fenders was completely packed with mud. I walked a bit farther to the first overlook. A mile farther down the trail is a much better overlook, but I didn't want to walk that far.

The rear wheel locked up completely when walking the bike back to the road. I rocked the bike violently forward and backward to get the wheel to turn. I was successful in freeing the wheel to rotate, but only by breaking the front attachment of the rear fender. Back at the paved park road I removed the wheels and spent a long time scraping mud from the fenders. It was fairly easy to repair the broken front attachment point of the rear fender.

Later I took a long stop at the bar in Comstock. The bar has a cafe, but it's not open today. I had a couple of cold soft drinks instead. The bar had several racist posters on the wall inside. Immediately across the highway is a huge Border Patrol compound. I was told that 300 people work there. That's surely more than the entire population of Comstock. It's depressing to me to see how much taxpayer money is wasted on Border Patrol, and how extremely dependent the border region is on Border Patrol jobs.

It literally makes me sick to know that the U.S. Border Patrol spends 12.8 billion dollars per year on an activity that is exactly zero percent effective. That is, the Border Patrol reduces the number of illegal immigrants by exactly zero percent. If the Border Patrol was able to somehow stop illegal immigration, it would be disastrous for the economies of both the U.S. and Mexico.

The Border Patrol appears to be the only employer in Comstock, Texas.

At the bar I said that I live in a rural area where the main industry is logging. He said that this area is mostly a ranching economy, but I replied that it looks to me like the main employment is Border Patrol, not ranching. He agreed.

I mentioned how sad it is that the government spends so much money on something so ineffective. He said the Border Patrol is ineffective because they aren't allowed to do what really works. I assume he meant that the Border Patrol isn't allowed to shoot border-crossers on sight. Instead Border Patrol agents are required to apprehend border-crossers and return them to Mexico, where they immediately try again.

Working as a Border Patrol agent is the second-most dehumanizing job that I can think of. Corrections Officer (in a prison) still wins the award for the most-dehumanizing job.

Rare sign that acknowledges the existence of a city in Mexico. The dirt track along the fence on the right is heavily used by the Border Patrol.

Traffic increased significantly as I got near Del Rio. It's the biggest town I've seen since Las Cruces. It's Easter Sunday and seemingly everybody is out at the recreation areas at Amistad reservoir. Around here, "recreation" means driving a huge truck towing a huge power boat on a trailer. The recreation areas literally stink because of all the power boats and RV's running generators. Not my kind of recreation.

Amistad reservoir appears in the desert.

Amistad (Friendship) reservoir is one of two international reservoirs on the Rio Grande. No doubt the main water supply for Del Rio and Ciudad Acuña. I saw very little irrigated agriculture.

It's odd to see so much water in such an arid place.

The high temperature was only 83F but the humidity was still high. Much more humid that I would expect for such an arid place.

I arrived in Del Rio at 6 PM. It was a long day because of a 10 mph headwind. I got a room for $45 at Motel 6.

In Del Rio I saw the first natural green grass since California. The climate is becoming steadily less arid as I travel east.

Overall, this was not a good day. I didn't appreciate the humidity, headwind, flatter terrain, Border Patrol, or the traffic near Del Rio. And I had a disastrous detour into Seminole Canyon State Park. My right gluteous muscle is sore, so I plan to take the day off tomorrow.

Distance: 67.4 mi. (108 km)

Climbing: 1870 ft. (567 m)

Average Speed: 10.3 mph (16.5 km/h)

Today's ride: 67 miles (108 km)
Total: 2,302 miles (3,705 km)

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