Lake Amistad

Brad overlooking the Pecos River

Friendship - that's what amistad means in Spanish.  After months in the desert, it's nice to be on a lake for a change.  Lake Amistad is a reservoir.  We are near the city of Del Rio where three rivers meet:  the Devils River and the Pecos River meet the Rio Grande, which is dammed to form Lake Amistad and the Amistad National Recreation Area.  There is fishing, waterskiing, swimming (obviously no aligators here), boating, camping and archery-only hunting (yuck!).  There are four camping areas, separated by miles.  We arrive on Sunday night and find picnicers in the camping spots!  So I manipulatively guilt some picnicers into vacating the best spot in the San Pedro camping area.  It's right on the lake with access to a small beach area.  Hey!  They didn't pay for the use of the spot!  There's a picnic area right across from this camping spot.  Yes, I like to get my way.  We camp here for four days and enjoy beautiful sunset and cool breezes.

Marilyn enjoying our campsite beach

Our campsite at San Pedro, Lake Amistad

We take the opportunity to replenish our groceries (can you say "Welcome to Walmart"?), and relax on the beach for a full day.  There are several American Coot ducks here, probably three dozen, and I also see an armadillo drinking from the lake.  I follow him to get his picture and he doesn't even notice my presence.  After a couple of days of shopping and sitting on the beach, Brad and I take a short hike along the Pecos River.  The cliffs here are about 300 feet high, the water is a refreshing green (not an algae green), and it's cold (of course, it's winter).  Again from this hiking trail, we can see the Rio Grande to the south - this is where the Pecos dumps in the Rio, and Mexico is across the other side of the Rio.  And everywhere else is nothing but arid desert.  The Border Patrol vehicles and officers are everywhere; we've been through so many checkpoints, each one with a drug-sniffing dog which is taken around the perimeter of our truck and trailer.  Can you imagine if the Canadian-U.S. border was so heavily patrolled?  It's, what, some 3,000 miles long?  Jeez, if someone here had a grudge against you, all they'd have to do is plant some drugs in your vehicle and you'd have a lot of 'splainin' to do!

Anyway, the hike is very short, but the view of the river is pretty.  Tomorrow we head for Corpus Christie and the Gulf Coast.  Can't wait to get to the beach, just to see something different than desert!