Well we finally made it to Texas.  We have spent the last couple of days driving through this vast state until reaching El Paso.  It is hard to believe how cold it has been- from my sources I have heard that it was warmer in Toronto than here!  At one point it was only 4 degrees C (40 F)  today and I could almost feel the snow in the air.  It seems like ages ago that we were in Houston where is was in the high 70's.  Because of the rainy, cool weather we never made it to Austin or San Antonio.  We drove from Houston yesterday morning to Del Rio, Texas.    We were hoping that by reaching  West Texas we would be in warmer, drier weather.    I don't think we have ever "raced" through Texas before!

We stopped  just outside of Del Rio this morning to take this photo.    You can see the cloud coverage (which got nastier).  I liked seeing the two bridges side by side- one for cars and the other for trains.  

I loved this view of the Pecos River.  The river empties into the Rio Grande near this location (Del Rio).  You can see how dark and threatening the clouds were looking.   A short time after this stop, the rain became very heavy- almost hail like.  Fortunately it didn't last too long.

Here is a slightly different view of the same area- this time looking west.  You can see the road in the distance.   From this angle the weather looked even more menacing.

We stopped in Langtry, where Judge Roy Bean practised a "type" of law West of the Pecos.  After the railway and the highway moved, the town's population pretty much dwindled.  Many of the old houses now look like the one above.  

We stopped in Sanderson for a short walk.  This town did not look very healthy either.  There were also a lot of abandoned houses and businesses.

We stopped in Fort Stockton for another walk and lunch.  We ended up walking around the old fort and taking a peak in the guard house.  This is where prisoners were kept in chains, often in solitary confinement.

On the Fort's grounds there is this old wagon which was used in two John Wayne movies: Undefeated and Comancheros. Neither movies were actually filmed here so I'm not sure how the wagon ended up here.

Here are the old railway  tracks in Fort Stockton.  I liked  the bright red caboose.

I liked this little water fall outside of the visitor's center in Fort Stockton.  As you have probably guessed, I love photographing water (and bridges) !

When we stopped at McDonalds for lunch, Ralph spotted this man-made bike in the parking lot.  It is ridden by an ex-marine(who has lost one half a lung)  from NYC.  The bike has a sign on it saying it has ridden 3800 miles and still going.  

I had to include this image just to show that there is actually sunshine in Texas!  At last we found it.   You can see the scrub dessert in West Texas.  By this time we were driving on I-10, maybe 1 1/2 hours east of El Paso where it finally warmed up to about 15 C (or around 60 F).

I will end with this  sunset.  As we drove into El Paso, I could see the pollution so I guessed it would be a nice sunset.  This was taken just behind the hotel where  you can see the mountains in the distance.