Day #28: Brackettville, TX- Del Rio, TX. 41.7 Miles

We left the Fort around 8:30am  and filled our water bottles at a convenience store down the street. The road was mostly flat and well paved. Yesterday, as we got closer to the Mexican border, we saw  our first Border Patrol jeeps.  This morning after heading west on route 90 we heard gunshots in the distance and decided to speed up a bit.  We are trying to rank what causes us to accelerate fastest - lightning, dogs, rattlesnakes or gunshots (probably all of the above).  We biked pretty fast and took our first big water break a few miles outside of Del Rio. Suddenly, we saw a fighter jet fly 200 feet over our heads! We then noticed that a few planes were practicing landing and then immediately taking off again... turns out we were right next to the Laughin Air force Base. We thought about our neighbor Rebecca who is currently in the Air Force Academy - may God bless all the men and women who defend our country!  We watched the planes for 20 minutes - our private air show,  then continued on our way. We found the Walmart in Del Rio (we had noticed it on the computer last night) and they were nice about letting us park the bikes near the security office. We picked up some toiletries and protein bars. We took a quick look at the map, and discovered that after Del Rio, lodging options are very spread apart (150 miles or more between motels/ hotels) Mother Nature (the map) had finally caught up with us, and we decided it would be wise to buy a TENT.  We then picked up some bungee cords, a flashlight, and a inflatable pool- raft (the inflatable beds they were selling in the camping section weighed like 15 pounds). We loaded up the bikes with our new stuff (the tent got tied to the top of my bag with the bungee cords) and looked at our map to find a place to eat. We had a very solid lunch and called some hotels to figure out where we were going to stay tonight and some camp grounds that we might stay at tomorrow night. We decided on the Amistad Lake Resort for tonight and sluggishly started biking the remaining 7 miles we needed to go (we now see how big meals really impair one's ability to bike, along with 105 degree temps). We stopped at a National Park Service information center, and the man behind the counter told us we were only 3 miles away from Mexico!! He also confirmed that we were headed to an area with no traditional lodging.  Shortly after leaving the information center we arrived at the Amistad Lake Resort. We asked the woman behind the desk 'what makes this a resort?' to which she replied 'well, it used to be called the Amistad Lake Lodge, but we thought this sounded nicer.' She said its kind of a fishing resort.  In the vending machines they sell hooks and lures instead of potato chips or snickers.  The rooms are clean, the AC is working very well, and we are going to check out the pool soon (the heat of the day is around 3:00pm here so it's still pretty hot out).


In the coming days we will be forced to carry an entire day's worth of water due to the long distances between towns/ places to fill up water. At the Walmart we also bought an AT&T 'pay as you go' phone due to Verizon's non- existent coverage down here. Hopefully this will allow us to be safe while truly having a cycle of a lifetime!!


Thanks for coming along for the ride!


Check out our route at the link below:
Brackettville, TX- Del Rio, TX