Texas - The Duval Delta (photos)

Some time back, I was on a business trip that took me from Benavides to Realitos to Concepcion. That looked like a neat bike ride, and so I decided to give it a shot. But ambition got the best of me, so I went ahead and made it a bit longer. I started at my motel in Alice, rode to San Diego, Texas, then to Benavides, to Realitos, to Concepcion, then back up FM 1329 to San Diego, then back to Alice. When I got back in the vicinity of my motel, I had 93 or 94 miles on the odometer, so I rode around there in town until I hit 100 (actually finished with 100.88). This was my second Century Ride and my first unsupported century ride. I rode the entire way in shorts and tee shirt, by the way. This is in Duval County in south Texas, and the route makes a big triangle (plus a line at the top), hence the name.

On the route, I passed maybe 10 or 12 roadside memorials, and I think this was #2 of the lot.
http://i192.photobucket.com/albums/z172/stephenhazelton/DuvalDelta/3853Proc.jpg
The death date is 1977, 31 years ago, and it is still being tended (cleared and with flowers placed). This was typical of several, but some others were no longer being tended to. This was on Hwy 44 between Alice and San Diego.

This was an old building falling into disrepair in San Diego. The whole town's not like this, I just picked this one out.
http://i192.photobucket.com/albums/z172/stephenhazelton/DuvalDelta/3854Proc.jpg

Another roadside memorial on Hwy 359 between San Diego and Benavides.
http://i192.photobucket.com/albums/z172/stephenhazelton/DuvalDelta/3855Proc.jpg
Note the easter eggs hanging from the fence. Note the solar yard lights, which could be bit eerie at night. I saw these on a couple of the memorials.

This is what Hwy 359 looks like. Not much traffic, reasonably good shoulder.
http://i192.photobucket.com/albums/z172/stephenhazelton/DuvalDelta/3857Proc.jpg
When I planned this trip out, I had in mind that it was a perfectly flat century, because it seemed perfectly flat when I drove it. I discovered there are little rises and falls as you go along by bike. They're not big hills, but if you're tired, have some extra weight on the bike, and pedaling into a slight headwind for the first 40 miles, you notice them.

An unexpected site just north of Benavides:
http://i192.photobucket.com/albums/z172/stephenhazelton/DuvalDelta/3858Proc.jpg
The sign said this was a "Wall of Remembrance" or something of the sort. There was a helicopter, an army truck, and some crosses in formation there. Evidently privately owned, as I could hear music playing, indicating someone lived there. The gate was closed at the time, so I snapped some pictures and headed on. The biggest hill I came to on this route was right here, only I went down it instead of up it, so it wasn't any problem.

Some old equipment outside a business on the north side of Benavides:
http://i192.photobucket.com/albums/z172/stephenhazelton/DuvalDelta/3862Proc.jpg
Note the little palm trees, which are probably not native- I associate them more with the coast, which is not that far away from here.

Benavides had several old and dilapidated buildings that just called for pictures. This is the Merchant's Exchange Bank building, the fanciest of them. The round emblems on either side were the head and tail designs from a buffalo nickel (minted 1913-1938 or so, which probably dates the building).
http://i192.photobucket.com/albums/z172/stephenhazelton/DuvalDelta/3866Proc.jpg

People that live in this country might think it's ugly, but it's really pretty neat to me because it's different. I like to look at the different cactuses and stuff as I go.
http://i192.photobucket.com/albums/z172/stephenhazelton/DuvalDelta/3867Proc.jpg
Where I started off in Alice, I was on a "Hurrican Evacuation Route", as it's not that far from the gulf. But by the time you get down here, it's pretty dry. Cactuses are common, mostly prickly pears, and a lot of the creeks are dry.

One of the things missing on this route is shade. I did happen to find one of the little picnic areas and stopped there a few minutes.
http://i192.photobucket.com/albums/z172/stephenhazelton/DuvalDelta/3869Proc.jpg
As you go along, there's lots of little trees, but mostly they're not on the right-of-way. And then the few bigger trees are all at somebody's front yard. So it's hard to find a good shady spot to rest.

This is the essence of the area. I think that's a deer stand in the background, that's a deer fence in the foreground, and hunting seems to be the major tourist draw at this time of year. I guess it wasn't deer season when I was down there before.
http://i192.photobucket.com/albums/z172/stephenhazelton/DuvalDelta/3872Proc.jpg

(continued)

As I pulled into Realitos, I was looking for another rest spot and pulled into this cemetery, thinking it might have some of those little benches. I didn't see any benches, but there were some trees and some low concrete walls to sit on.
http://i192.photobucket.com/albums/z172/stephenhazelton/DuvalDelta/3875Proc.jpg
Evidently, the plots here are cared for by family. Some were well-kept, some were overgrown, and a sign out front offered caretaking services for individual plots.

At Realitos, I headed back east on FM 716. FM 716 has even less traffic than Hwy 359 did. I spotted this Essence-of-Texas shot- barbed wire fence, cactus, and a windmill.
http://i192.photobucket.com/albums/z172/stephenhazelton/DuvalDelta/3876Proc.jpg


Along in here, I also spotted a roadrunner, but didn't have the camera ready. I spotted two or three dead coyotes, and one live roadrunner, if that tells you anything. Beep beep!

There were several abandoned houses along this stretch of road. It must be a pretty desolate area to live in. This was one of them:
http://i192.photobucket.com/albums/z172/stephenhazelton/DuvalDelta/3878Proc.jpg
I noticed some of the houses that looked abandoned had travel trailers outside. Maybe people had shifted from an unusable house to the trailer, or maybe it was just hunters parked there.

I made it on over to Concepcion.
http://i192.photobucket.com/albums/z172/stephenhazelton/DuvalDelta/3879Proc.jpg


I spotted this church in Concepcion. It's an old style, and my first thought was that it's an old church. But I'll bet the little wood-frame building beside it is the old church, and this one is fairly new. Very sharp looking, though.
http://i192.photobucket.com/albums/z172/stephenhazelton/DuvalDelta/3880Proc.jpg

On the way back north on FM 1329, I stopped under some shade trees at this church. It wasn't in a town, just out in the country, with a few houses around. One of the few available shade spots, though!
http://i192.photobucket.com/albums/z172/stephenhazelton/DuvalDelta/3883Proc.jpg

Lessee- some info for future reference:
Roads- Hwy 44 is a 4-lane divided highway. Through Alice, no shoulders with a curb. At the west side of Alice, it has a nice rideable shoulder all the way to San Diego. At San Diego, the shoulder started getting cluttered, so I dropped a block or two south and parallelled the road for a ways. Hwy 359 had decent shoulders, had some rough chipseal near Realitos. FM 716 had narrow shoulders but hardly any traffic, sort of half-rough chipseal if I remember right. The first several miles of FM 1329 heading north were rough chipseal with a good shoulder. Then the rough
chipseal ended, but so did the shoulder. Grass right up to the lane. Fortunately not much traffic, either, though. I did wear a highway-worker-type orange vest and kept my superflash going the whole route, though.

Supplies- Alice is supprisingly well supplied with stores, including a Walmart and numerous others. San Diego has a few convenience stores, fast food places, NAPA store, etc. Benavides had a decent convenience store. In Realitos, I just saw one convenience store. I went in, the store was 4/5 empty shelves, but the guy did have cold Gatorade. I suspect a retiree making extra income. Concepcion had a convenice store/eatery on the east side of town, across from the post office. There's nothing in Rios but houses, and I wasn't actually sure where Rios was when I came to it. There is a convenience store at the cross-roads of FM 1329 and I believe FM 2295. It was a God-send, as I was about out of liquid when I got there. I was there during deer season, and it's possible one or more of these places is only open during deer season. If you depend on getting supplies there, you might want to check ahead of time.

Dogs- had a few dogs half-heartedly chase me, but told them to "Go Home" and that mostly worked. I saw more dogs than anywhere while just riding the streets of Alice, though. Didn't get bit. Saw a couple of large dogs just north of the prison on FM 1329. You know, the kind of dog you'd keep around if you lived down the road from the prison.

Weather- when I rode on December 9th, 2008, it was in the 70-80 range all day, cloudy in the morning, cleared during the day as forecast, winds at 6-8 mph shifting from out of S-SW to out of NW (IE, head wind while riding SW, headwind while riding north later in the day!). But this morning when I got up to leave the motel, it was 39 degrees, with a hard wind blowing. I'm glad I was there yesterday instead of today. This route could be really hot in the summer, and as mentioned above, there is little shade along it.

Pronunciations:
Benavides — ben uh VEE d’s
Concepcion — kuhn sep si ON (si as in see, long O)
Realitos — ree uh LEE t’s
From http://www.texasalmanac.com/images/TownPronunciationGuide.pdf

StephenH you do the most interesting threads here on your travels and you take great pictures. You should have a blog if you don't already.

Keep these coming!

Chris

Dude, you did that on a Worksman? You da MAN! I am speechless...

Care to share your ride time?
How about food and water intake along the way.

Congratulations. This was quite an accomplishment.

"Slow" and "much". I started riding about 7:05 AM, got back to the motel about 5:58 PM. My odometer showed 7:55:18 ride time, 12.7 mph average. I had a flat in San Diego on the way back, fixed it (slow process), got it all back together and was about to ride, and it went flat again. So I probably lost close to an hour there. Pretty much all the way to Realitos, I was doing about 12-13 mph, then from there east with the tailwind was 15-16 mph, back to 12-13 mph on the way north, 14-15 mph from San Diego back to Alice (I had just "rested" an hour while fixing the flat), then 12-13 mph while cruising around town.

I took a gallon jug of Gatorade to start, plus a 24 oz squeeze bottle. As best I recall, I bought 2 drink bottles of about 16 oz each in Benavides, in Realitos, and in Concepcion, and 1- 32 oz bottle and a 12 oz can at the Exxon station, so around 2 gallons total. I ate breakfast at the hotel, took granola bars with me, and bought Reese's cups at two of the stops along the way, took banana chips but never opened the bag.

I have found while hiking that thinner fitter people can drink half of what I do in the same time span, so I don't know that that information is useful for anyone else. Also, a faster rider would presumably require less fluid due to not being out there as long.

man I can't imagine doing that in summer, if you're looking for shade and water in December.

I've passed thru that area a few times heading to Padre... wouldn't consider it a top 10 area for cycling destinations, but if you're there anyway, might as well bring the bike!

thanks for the post.

Great report

Interesting... thanks!