Then: Rio Grande City (sneak peek) ~ 50 miles

Once we reached Edinburg, we decided to take a quick drive over to Rio Grande City (about an hour west). And it's much prettier than I expected, lots of short brushy trees, and lots of open farmlands. I like how spacious it seemed compared to some of the other cities we drove through that are much more urban. If you looked at the Flickr pics at http://flickr.com/photos/mrchriscornwell/sets/72157603902424841/, you may have thought, as I did, that Rio Grande City looked like a ghost town. Most of those pictures were taken in the historic downtown, which is only a couple of blocks in the middle of lots of stores that look like you could be in Anytown USA. It's not a trendy area, for sure, but it was more... modern?... than I expected. We noticed that they are very liberal with the city limits. Rio Grande City stretched for a few miles as we headed west toward Roma. The middle school at which I interviewed (and may have been hired?) is on the outskirts of town, in what looks like an area of a lot of new development: a hospital, the newer h.s. to replace the one in town?, a small shopping mall, some suburbs... Then there's a lot of open space, fields, treed areas, all around. I guess it's right on the Rio Grande River but we couldn't actually see the river from the main street and didn't head south to try to find it (next trip). Haven seen the city, it actually is making me feel hopeful that I get the job here.

this is the road I need to travel...


it gets more rural as we drive to Rio Grande City, more farmlands


here's where I may end up


and it looks like any other city in the U.S., same stores, etc


seemed to have more space, more open green space, than I expected




looks like a bit of new construction happening in the city


on the back roads


the middle school at which I interviewed

the historic downtown

Totals:

Mileage from Bend, Oregon to Rio Grande City, Texas (including ALL driving, even within cities, within Arches Nat'l Park): 2,465 miles

$$ on Gas: about $445
Best Price: San Antonio & Edinburg: $3.83/gal
Worst Price: Snowville UT: $3.99/gal but for some reason there was a ton of state & fed tax added on so the actual price was like $4.20/gal
Times that I successfully pumped gas: 10 (see, I can learn new tricks ;) I didn't even sit in my car & wait these times, like I have on other trips out of state, wondering why the stations had such slow service)


And with that, this traveling phase of my journey ends, and a new phase begins!