A Blast Furnace Called San Antonio

San Antonio was just as hot Friday as our two previous visits to this multi-ethnic city--96 in the shade. As always we start at the Alamo to see if the score has changed. Sadly it hasn't. Crockett, Bowie and the boys are still on the losing side. It's remarkable to think that this tiny little mission had such an enormous impact on American history. The two additional commanders besides Bowie and Crocket were both from South Carolina. It was rumored at the time that Col. Travis was run out of SC at gun point by the father of a young lady that he had deflowered. As far as I know Bonham had not distinguished himself in the alleyways of Charleston.

On a previous visit to San Antonio we visited six or seven other missions. They are little more than adobe huts serving as chapels for the Indians that were dragged kicking and screaming into Christianity. The Alamo is the only mission that I'm aware of being largely restored. Of great interest to me is to take note that about 9 of 10 visitors are Latinos.

After leaving the Alamo we spent several hours on the River Walk. This area is truly magnificent. It would be a sin for any visitor to this city to fail to visit this area. It is about 4 1/2 miles of meandering river highlighted by water boat tours and walking tours. Every major hotel chain is represented by attractive buildings that open onto the sidewalks along the river. Beautiful flowers are everywhere, mariachi bands are playing in the many dozens of restaurants and pubs, bloody marys and margaritas flow like water, and everyone seems genuinely happy.

At the end of the day Pat and I realized that neither one of us had much of a rememberance of which garage we had parked in. Since there appears to be a parking garage on every street corner in the downtown area, asking directions was a futile gesture. As we only had one bloody mary each with our lunch we could not blame it on liquid refreshments. After spending the better part of an hour finding our garage I think we learned our lesson well.

Saturday morning we drove from San Antonio to Carlsbad, NM. About 500 miles of the trip was in West Texas which has no distinguishing features except cactus, scattered oil wells and what I would characterize as the most desolate spot in the United Staes that I have ever visited. There are parts of I-10 that run dozens of miles as straight as an arrow. If I may borrow a well-worn phrase, it looked like a moonscape.

Sunday we visit Carlbad Caverns. Hopefully there will be well-lighted areas conducive to our cameras.