Gathering at Vintage Air for the first day of travel on the Street Rodder Magazine Road Tour.

Another view of some of the cars.

Our first stop of the day was to the History Store across the street from the Alamo in downtown San Antonio. An interesting story about the Alamo itself and the battle between the Texans and Mexicans.

From San Antonio headed south to pick up Highway 90 West (not an interstate). Rick Love of Vintage Air told us it was desolate, but it was desolation I had never experienced. This area has had no rain since December or January and even the cacti are shriveled. Uninhabitable is a good description. Rain is not fun in a street rod (especially if your car happens to be clean), but the land looks so parched and sad, I hope it rains for them.

How flat is it, you ask?

This is looking out the rear window seconds later. As you can guess, our road tour participants were quite spread out. We were behind some, in front of others.

Highway 90 West travels along the Mexican border quite closely at times, but for many, many miles, there is a dusty, rocky road running parallel to Highway 90 for the border patrol vehicles, searching for illegals. Suddenly, there was a stop sign ahead and we had to stop. I/Dorothy had this sudden fear that perhaps we had taken the wrong road and were crossing into Mexico! The 2 men assured me that we were indeed in Texas. When he asked if we were both American, Paul said, “No, I’m Canadian.” (The Border Patrol person hadn’t noticed the Ontario plates.) He asked to see our passports! I told him we were used to Canadian customs, and could I take a picture. Sure!

The Border Patrol Station to the right of the car (men were on the left side).

This is a view of the road used by the Border Patrol vehicles.

This road goes on and on…

Another view from the windshield – many miles were like this.

Another view from the rear window. Where is everyone??

We were advised to get gas in Del Rio, but we didn’t really need it then, so drove on. Afterall, we can just get it at the next gas station! Not only did we NOT see any gas stations, we didn’t see much of anything (see previous pictures). Finally… in Sanderson, Texas a gas station, but it was CLOSED. Another road tour participant also pulled up, tried the pump and it worked. It seems you can still get gas by using your credit card when there is no attendant. It’s not like that where we come from – I don’t think. It was only regular gas, but we couldn’t be choosey. Our 12 US gallon tank took 10.5 gallons. We had driven 181 miles. The next station we saw was in Alpine, about 80 miles away, where we spent the night. There’s nothing for a couple hundred miles and then BOOM, a Hampton Inn. Had a great meal at Buffalo Rose here in Alpine, too. Perhaps it is similar to someone from Texas coming to Northern Ontario in January and being amazed at the desolation and cold.