24 February 2019 Memories

Sunday morning we watched our church service on line and then headed out to find some good Mexican food since it was Mexican Food Sunday! Afterwards, we drove around Del Rio so Leslie could spark her memories of coming here with here parents when she was younger. Her father had a medical equipment store in Del Rio and they owned a trailer outside of town where they stayed when they came down from Odessa. But the real reason was to go fishing on Lake Amistad! We wandered down to the international border crossing to Mexico, and yes there is a border barrier on the US side of the Rio Grande. But it only went a mile east of the crossing and you could see a path where people were going around the end of the barrior. To the west it went for several miles but not all the way to the dam. 

We then went west of town and found the mobile home park Leslie remembered and drove around until we found the Benson Family Singlewide!  It looked so much smaller than she remembered, the sites were on top of each other and truly crammed together.  When the family started there in early 1980s it was a brand new mobile home and RV park.  There was plenty of wide space between sites, new little trees and mostly white gravel with some green grass between each site.  Del Rio , although it has grown, remains somewhat impoverished.  Let’s just say a lot of fishing was enjoyed on the lake!  There are still old cars and trucks driving down the roads.  Buildings vacant in the 1980s are still vacant and look abandoned today.  West of town, there are some new home developments.  One of them was very lavish with large elaborate homes overlooking a pretty lake view.  Speculation was that the small town of Del Rio would eventually flourish with the airforce base and influx of large corporate factories moving just across the border for the cheaper labor.  Somehow the mark was missed and that never happened.  It’s disappointing because of the love the Benson family has for this area.

Del Rio Border Barrier

BensonFamily Single wide!