Despite the fences, helicopters, trucks, motion sensors and cameras, it is apparently not too difficult to cross the Rio Grande unnoticed.  

As I paddled into Laredo at dusk, I saw a group of four people with inner tubes wade and float across the chest-deep river.  

A white Border Patrol truck was parked less than a quarter mile away and did not move.   

I was stumped. I wanted to get to the bridge and put the 42 miles of paddling behind me.  The folks crossing did not see me until they were climbing out on the U.S. side where they crouched below the 10-foot riverbank.  We stared at each other for a moment.   

It was the second group I had seen that day. The first was a gathering of about 40 who were sitting on the Mexican bank on a much wider and deeper reach of the river. The air temperature was in the low 50s and the water was about the same. It was not a good day for a swim.  Some of them tried to hide behind the brush, but the group was so large, there was no point.   

The only member of the group with a jacket, and the fattest, stood up and asked in Spanish if I was fishing.  It’s by far the most common question I’m asked from either bank.  If I say no, the people asking always seem disappointed.   

I did not want to cause problems with fat jacket man so I lied and said I was fishing while I made my way to the gulf.   

He gave me a big smile and a thumbs-up sign. I never stopped paddling. 

Later on, I rounded a river bend to see a man with a pistol strapped to his leg and wearing full camouflage. He was crouched behind a camera and taking photos of me.   

James Boyd is a police officer in Laredo and he never goes to the river unarmed.  He told me he usually carries a rifle as well but did not want to scare me.  He has been following this blog. He decided to take a break from his hobby of shooting photos of whitetail deer along the Rio Grande to take photos of me on the river.  

He is a self-described border rat. He grew up in McAllen and worked as a police officer in Del Rio and Laredo for 20 years.   

“They are just going to think you are a crazy gringo,” he said of folks who see me on the river.  

I gathered he thought the same. Then he said he was envious of the project.     

Between the thumbs-up from the first group and Boyd’s assessment, I felt a bit bolder with the second group.  

The only reason I saw them in the failing light was because I was trying to get a photo of the Laredo skyline.  They were moving quickly and I passed them just as they reached the United States.  

So we looked at each other for a moment.  I motioned that I would be quiet and kept paddling.  

Again, the apparent leader of the group called out to me.  This time he gave the peace sign.  

In less than a minute they were gone, scrambling up the bank and into a white van. I watched them go and then docked my canoe on the Border Patrol boat ramp.

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