Outdoor Activities ...
As we travel, we like to pursue some of our interests (such as astronomy and bird watching).
When in Rivera, we use the following websites to find information relevant to Rivera and the surrounding area.
- Weather ...
- Before heading outdoors, you should check the weather:
- The National Weather Service forecast for Rivera
- Astronomy & Satellites ...
- Whether using binoculars, a small telescope or the naked-eye, the Heavens-Above website can help you to find your way around the night-time sky. In addition to detailed sky charts, their website will help you find planets, asteriods, comets, satellites and their tracks across the sky.
- To give accurate results, Heavens-Above requires the latitude and longitude of your location. As a starting point, when we link to Heavens-Above, we pass this GPS location for Rivera:
- 26.412285, -98.970307
- Once you're on the Heavens-Above website, you can improve its accuracy by giving a more precise longitude and latitude as your actual position.
- The Heavens-Above Website, centered on Rivera
- Bird Watching ...
- We enjoy finding new spots for bird watching and we use the eBird website for local sighting reports and to help identify hotspots.
- The eBird website is organized on a county-by-county basis. We have selected Starr County as the starting point when you click on the link below:
- eBird sighting report for Starr County
- Since Rivera is near Zapata County and also Hidalgo County, we have provided a link to their eBird sighting reports:
- eBird sighting report for Zapata County
- eBird sighting report for Hidalgo County
- Waymarking ...
- Looking for somewhere out of the ordinary? Find a unique place and want to share it with others? Then it's time to visit Waymarking.com:
- Waymark.com
Communities Also Named Rivera ...
We found three communities that share the name Rivera.
There is one other community in Texas which is also named Rivera.
Beyond Texas, we know of another two communities that are located throughout in the United States.
- Communities Located In Texas ...
- Communities Elsewhere In North America ...
- California
- New Mexico
- Valencia County
- Although located in Valencia County, we don't know the location within the county.
- For more information, please visit our profile page for the Valencia County community of Rivera.
Curious and Interesting Names Near Rivera ...
As we travel, we always see a community with a name that gives pause. While there are names which are interesting or familiar, some catch our attention or strike our fancy. We always wonder about such a name. If time permits and the community is not too far, we'll usually try to make a side-trip.
- Airport Heights
(8 miles [12.9 km] to the east)- Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Airport Heights have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Airport Heights
- Airport Heights is located in Starr County
- Evergreen
(3 miles [4.8 km] to the west) - Hackberry
(Less than 2 miles to the southwest) - Hilltop
(3 miles [4.8 km] to the east) - Joseph Griggs Colonia
(9 miles [14.5 km] to the east)- Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Joseph Griggs Colonia have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Joseph Griggs Colonia
- Joseph Griggs Colonia is located in Starr County
- Margarita
(Less than 2 miles to the west) - Mitchell
(9 miles [14.5 km] to the east) - Salmon
(7 miles [11.3 km] to the east) - Sunset
(5 miles [8 km] to the west)
How Far From Rivera to ...
We spend a lot of time looking through Gazetteers, Almanacs & Directories that were published in the late 1800's and early 1900's. Many of the Gazetteers include the distance from a community such as Rivera to various places of note, such as the White House.
With a nod to our favorite Gazetteers, the straight-line distance<3> beginning in Rivera and extending to:
- Rio Grande City, which is the Seat of Starr County, lies 9 miles [14.5 km]<3> to the east southeast. If you could walk a straight line from Rivera to Rio Grande City, with an average speed<4> of 2.2 miles [3.5 km] per hour, it would take four to five hours to make the trip. A horse and buggy averaging 3.2 miles [5.1 km] per hour would take a little over three hours.
- Austin, which is the State Capital of Texas, lies 276 miles [444.2 km] to the north northeast (NNE). Driving, with an average speed of 63 miles [101.4 km] per hour, would take four to five hours, a buggy would take 11 days and walking would take 16 days.
- The White House (Washington, DC) is 1,532 miles [2,465.5 km] to the northeast (NE). Driving would take most of three days, a buggy would take 60 days and walking would take 87 days.
- The shortest distance<5> to Jerusalem (specifically the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock) is 7,405 miles [11,917.2 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<6>
- The distance to the Great Mosque of Mecca (specifically the Ka'bah - or Kaaba ) is 8,127 miles [13,079.1 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<7>
- The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 6,002 miles [9,659.3 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<8>
Off-the-Road Links ...
Unfortunately, we don't know of a website for Rivera. If you can help, please contact us through our Feedback Page.
The official website for State of Texas: https://texas.gov/
Footnotes ...
| <1> | If we encounter the name of what might be a community, our methodology is to add that name to our Gazetteer as a placeholder. As we find more information about that community, it will be added to our Gazetteer. Just as a reminder: Our definition of a community is rather broad and includes those places (or areas) where several families lived and had a name which identified that place. For example, you might hear somebody say that they are going over to Bird Creek to see Pete ... Bird Creek is just a gas station and a couple of homes at the crossroads. While it might not be on the map, everybody in the area knows it by that name. Places of interest include buildings at a crossroad, several families clustered in a hollow or maybe the location of a way station. It also includes places like mines, lumber camps, ferry crossings, etc. The community might still exist, is now gone or only existed for just a short period of time. Also keep in mind that Rivera could have been on the original document by mistake, misspelled, the original/alternate name of a community that we've listed elsewhere or was placed in the wrong county. Sometimes a post office or train station would have a different name than the community where it's located, so two names might be referring to the same community - we're working to straighten it all out. |
| <2> | The location has been supplied by the Geographic Names Information System - which is maintained by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). While these values should be definitive, we found that accuracy can vary and you should double-check the location if accuracy is required. |
| <3> | Our distances are not driving distances, but are calculated as a 'straight-line' distance. A straight line distance ignores things like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line from Point A (ie- Rivera) to Point B.Our distance measurements begin at a specific point in Rivera. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 26.4123, Longitude: -98.9703 In this case, the coordinates for Rivera have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS). |
| <4> | While we have tried to pick reasonable speeds, the rate of travel is very theoretical - obstacles like fences, hills, lakes, river crossings and rest stops have been ignored. When we say 'Days' of travel, we're assuming 8 hours of travel per day. |
| <5> | The shortest line can be visualized by stretching a string on a Globe from Point A to Point B - this is known as a Great Circle Route. Where you might expect the shortest route from Rivera to the Middle East to be East and South, the Great Circle Route actually lies to the North and East. |
| <6> | The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 320.35 degrees. |
| <7> | The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 316.164 degrees. |
| <8> | The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 316.064 degrees. |