In this excerpt from the work "The Two JRB's Tour Guide of Val Verde and Coahuila",

our tourguides Dr. John Romulus Brinkley and Judge Roy Bean talk about

BIKING

        Dr. Brinkley sums it up: "Isn't that creekwalk just too beautiful? Fun for the whole family. And then you can bike downtown to South Del Rio from teh creek in a couple of minutes and eat, shop, or get an Ice Cream Cone from a real old fashion Soda Fountain. Del Rio's climate's just aboput perfect for biking, low humidity so you never feel all sweaty, the weather almost always sunny, the weather reports are always pessimistic. In fact, we rarely have what I'd call real weather, all year round. We get some years, on average, about 378 days of sunshine or more, feels llike, due to the intensity. But if you carry a spray bottle and soak your shirt, the air temperature, let's say like at 110 degrees, will feel like a cool 70 degrees for ten or fifteen minutes, depending on your velocity and wind speed. Of course, around here it's easy to bike to the creek and then it feels so good to fall in and swim around a while in beautiful cool clean 72 degree water, then get out and bike away, soaked to the skin, cool as a cucumber, for another half-hour before you'd need to fall into the creek again or run under someone's hose. But I'm only talking about summer, the maybe eight months from April through November of intense summer that we get here."

        "You like summers 'round here, don't ja, Brinkley?"

        Like Mark Twain would have said, 'The Best Summer I ever had was Winter in Del Rio', I'm sure he'd like it here better than San Francisco."

        "The whole town's jes' cute as a button. We gots 'bout a zillion strange birds here-bouts, too."

        "With all the Desert Oasis water around here, in Amistad Reservoir, the Rio Grande, the Pecos River, the Devil's River, the San Felipe Creek, Rio Las Vacas, Presa Centenario, Parque Balneario de los Novillos, and other rivers south of us in Mexico, this area's a route for migrating birds and especially the Monarch Butterfly. Take into account that we live on the North-South border of most weather systems moving west across North America, and so we have a mix of climate zones here, from temperate to Tropical. You notice Del Rio can grow plants from just about anywhere? There's Maples and Sycamore alongside Bamboo and Banana, Live Oaks festooned with epiphytes alongside plants from Madagascar that look like they're from outer space. We can grow most any cactus known to modern botany. And the flowering trees and shrubs! Mexican Bird of Paradise, Catalpa, Jasmine, Wisteria, you name it, we can grow it. Just add water."

        "Yer forgettin' to add dirt, too."

        "Ok. But there's areas that have dirt now, after so many years of irrigation. I like biking along the Canal system. There's trees about as old as the canals, from the 1860s. You've biked San Felipe and South Del Rio, Judge?"

        "Yer likely ta see houses built outta rock, wood, adobe, shingle, fancy bricks and tile from Saltillo Mexico, an' them pre-fabricated panels made ta look like wood or brick or whatever. They gots round houses, little storybook houses, or huge mansions with pillars, some two-story houses with balconeys all around upstairs, houses with servants quarters out back, and houses with covered places ta put yer car out of the sun, and the most of 'ems small. Somer tiny."

        "You notice they don't go in much for big windows, though. Sunlight's too intense. Arouind here they don't much care for big picture windows, like in other places."

        "What's the point of looking out? It's always sunny with clear blue skies. You wanna a big picture, get yer butt outside and go for a bikeride, you can see the horizon all the way to tomorrow."

        "Why Judge, I didn't know you were such a big fan of riding bike. Isn't it great to bike in a town were you can get to anywhere in about fifteen minutes. Even to Mexico."

        "Yer not listenin', Brink. I says YOU go outside and look around. I'll jes' mosey down the street to my favorite shade, right behind that blinkin' Budweiser sign."

Round Mountain (Loma de la Cruz)

on the San Felipe Creek

Biking

Ciudad ACUÑA

and beyond...

        Judge Roy Bean adds: "That's right, Doc.We got cross-country trails behind the watertanks, and if you're really a rough rider, you could bike across the border and try your luck on Acuña's potholed streets. Or for the just plain crazy, bike across and keep heading West, past Santa Eulalia where the pavement runs out, clear across the Sierra Del Burro, which from here looks like the Sleeping Lady Mountains ya know da place where dat big shady thunderhead stretches outta most afternoons, and way on over to Big Bend National Park. I don't believe anyone's done biked that yet. Probably a couple hunnert miles, I reckon. No water. That's the problem. Road like ta beat the tar outta yer car real bad, all limestone rock and caliche dust with lots of canyons ta skirt around. Them that's makin'a livin' back there, big ranchers and people livin' in Ejidos, they all gots ta have a big ol' nasty used pickup truck "

        "And remember Judge, the Mexican bus system will take your bike underneath, without a special box or anything, for jsut two dollarrs more. Bike across the border,find the bus station, and in six hours you could be biking in Cuatro Cienegas, the Galapagos of North America!"

"Brinkley, no one's ever gonna accuse you a' being modest."

 

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This excerpt from the work "The Two JRB's Tour Guide of Val Verde and Coahuila", where the ghosts of "Doctor" Brinkley and Judge Roy Bean lead us around West Texas and Mexico for some great Coahuilan desert snorkeling. Might soon be released as a hardcover coffee table book, part of a publication on CD-ROM and with high-resolution multi-media; photographs, sound and music, filmclips, artwork, and textual ruminations.

Contact System Administrator for more information.

All content and images Copyright © 2002 Mark Plimsoll. All rights reserved.

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