March 18 - Day 18

It was 88 degrees today as we headed straight into the wind.  It made me wonder if standing in front of a car wash dryer would feel any different.  By working hard all day we were able to get 88 miles in and ended up east of Comstock, Texas.

We were pretty close to the Mexican border all day - lots of border patrol officers in the area.  They use a lot of 4x4s, 4-wheelers, planes, helicopters, infrared video, and likely many other devices to try to catch people coming over the border illegally.  One device they use is very low tech, but effective.  They have created sand roads next to the main road (in this case highway 90), then they smooth the road out by dragging tires down it, then patrol the road looking for footprints, if they find any footprints, they follow them.  They have a set of tires tied together with chains about every 5 miles. 

It works really well - here is my footprint, this photo op probably caused a little searching by Border Patrol! 

We went through some nice dry ravines today.

This unique formation that looks like a bull's head was near Langtry, Texas.  The Rio Grande is at the bottom of the formation.

We finally saw some real water today (it hasn't rained here since Labor Day according to the locals in Comstock) - this is the Pesco River - damned up for a recreational area. 

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Tomorrow the plan is to take a short ride into Del Rio (about 25 miles) then rest for the remainder of the day there.