Southwest Texas via US-90

What a great road!

Left San Antonio this morning on US-90. It was freeway for a few miles but then switched to a 2-lane blacktop with speed limits from 55 to 70. I kept it at 55-65 most of the way. I left a bit early and I had plenty of time to get to Alpine.

This road is mostly southwestern landscape with all the big-sky openness that goes with that. Temp in San Antonio was a pleasant 57 degrees so I dressed for summer. A few miles down the road the sky started to cloud up and the temp dropped a bit. It was cooler but still not cold so I kept going.

Hondo was my first gas stop. I saw this place across the tracks and turned around to take a pic when a freight train decided to go by. It was a long one. Ten minutes later, I crossed the tracks and took this.



Since the border is so close to US-90, it gets patrolled heavily by the Border Patrol. I saw a lot of these guys.



Merrilou and I have been to Del Rio before. It hasn't changed. It's still a small town dominated by national chains. The temp had warmed up nicely by the time I got here.



Who would have thought there would be this much water in SW Texas! (Amistad)



90 has a lot of open stretches. Gave me lots of time to think.



It's funny, I brought my mp3 player on this trip and it's loaded with all my favorite music, including a couple gigs of the blues. I listened to it for a few hours on the first day but realized it was just cluttering up my head so I put it away and haven't used it since. Still carrying a ton of spare batteries though [grin].

Merrilou will recognize the Pecos River. Work was being done on the bridge. It was one lane with signal lights to control traffic across.



Every once in awhile, 90 threw up some gentle sweepers.



Sanderson was my second gas stop.



A few Hell's Angels pulled into the gas station with me. They were from the Hobbs chapter.

Saw a lot of these. (For you, 'lou.)



Marathon wasn't a gas stop but it was a very small town with lots of character.





Finally got to Alpine. It's fairly big for a small town and it's a college town to boot.







Tomorrow I get home. The rest of the trip will be all freeway once I hit Van Horn. I really doubt I'll take any more pics but I'll try to post up something here just to complete the blog.