by Joni Hauck
(NOTE: Clicking on most photos will show larger view.)

Texas West

Wednesday May 12th

As we leave Houston the sky is threatening. Eerie dark clouds are hanging overhead. It's so dark it seems like nighttime. We are hoping to get around the city before the rain begins. As we go over the bridge, we can feel the wind knocking the Big Kahuna around. The rain begins, huge drops pelting the windshield. The rain comes faster and faster until we can barely see and traffic slows to a crawl on the 10 lane highway. We still have 2 miles to go to reach the safer, more comfortable Route 10.

The sky is now a solid grey. Lightening flashes all around us, almost blinding as it illuminates the dreary sky. A tractor trailer trying to get on the interstate pulls over into our lane, cutting us off. If it's possible, the rain is falling even harder and the wipers struggle to keep up. We are tempted to pull over but that seems to be more dangerous then to continue to creep along with the traffic. The Kahuna feels like a boat as the water splashes out behind us in a wake. Fred is tense as his hands grip the wheel and he struggles to peer through the windshield.

We finally reach Route 10 and pull off at the first exit. The exit road is flooded and now we travel as a boat with the wake so high we can see it out our side windows. We pull off into a grassy spot to wait out the storm. Our 3 hour drive to San Antonio just turned into 4-1/2 hours.

The rest of the trip seemed uneventful after our scary beginning and we arrived in San Antonio with enough time to go to the Alamo before it closed. The history and stories of the men who fought at the Alamo is fascinating. I learned (Fred already knew) about William Travis, Jim Bowie and Davy Crockett's part in the Battle of the Alamo. Ironically, The Battle of the Alamo was on TV that night. The John Wayne version is not historically accurate, but interesting nonetheless. Fred fought his own battle of the Alamo with zillions of school kids who were touring the same time we were. Unlike the men in the original battle, he survived.

We then headed for the famous San Antonio River Walk Area. We ate dinner at the Texas Roadhouse on the RiverWalk and I ordered the Chicken Fried Steak which is a speciality of Texas. The waitress warned me that it was big, but I didn't know it would be so huge that it would hang over the ends of the plate. Imagine steak with Kentucky Fried chicken batter, deep fried, served with thick white gravy, mashed potatoes and corn. That was my supper and I did a number on it. It tasted good while I was eating it. Fred felt sick watching me eat it and I paid later for being such a glutton. I couldn't get the vision of what I had eaten out of my mind and felt nauseous into the next day.

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Thursday May 13th

The Breakfast Nazi was at the Days Inn. He sternly watched over the breakfast crowd and if you didn't get your donut correctly, he did it for you.

We explored San Antonio by car and on foot today. We started off the morning by driving The Mission Trail. This route connects the four missions and hallelujah, the signs were great. We did not get lost one time. Are we still in Texas?

Amazingly, these preserved missions do not charge admission. They are run by the National Park Service.

The missions are very much a part of Texas history. The Franciscans (friars) were sent over from Spain in the mid 1900's to set up missions and convert the Indians to Christianity. Their purpose was a combination of church and state. The colonization of the Indians at the missions protected Spain's domination of land from encroachment by the French trying to expand from Louisiana. For the Indians, the missions gave them protection from their enemies (other tribes). Amazingly, the church at each mission has an active parish that attends Sunday services.

Mission Concepcion has the oldest unrestored stone church in the United States. A bride was in the courtyard posing for her wedding portrait.

At the Mission of San Jose, we arrived at the same time as two busses of elementary school children. They all wore t-shirts they had painted themselves showing what Texas meant to them. How clever of their teachers to have them design t-shirts for their field trip.

After we arrived back in downtown San Antonio, we explored the city on foot using the 2.6 mile Texas Star Trail as a guide. We walked the entire route and then some.

I was in search of a Notary as I had to have my signature on the Dept. of Transportation form notarized before I could send it to Penna. Once again, thanks Dad for sending my old license so at least I had proof of who I was. After inquiring at a lawyers office, a bank, and the courthouse for a Notary, I was finally directed to Mail Boxes Etc. Hip Hip Hooray. I can now send the form to PA where I'm sure they will rush to process it. (not!) Hint to everyone-save your old license in case you lose your current one.

Anyway, back to the Texas Star Trail. We stopped at the Spanish Governors House originally built in 1749. It had been restored and furnished with antique pieces from that period. All the furniture was dark and heavy; but also beautiful.

Another stop along the way for us was at the Tower of Americas. We went to the lounge, which is located 750 feet up with a spectacular view of the city. The tower, located in HemisFar Park, was built when San Antonio hosted the World's Fair in 1968. Also in the park was The Cottage Garden Gift Shop. I purchased a picture frame with pressed flowers inside. Outside the gift shop, a beautiful garden with brick and mulch paths was a joy to behold. There were hundreds of different plants all identified and maintained by the Master Gardeners of San Antonio. We got lots of ideas for our yard. I sure do miss digging in the flower beds.

At the San Antonio Convention Center, we discovered a United States map on the walkway. It is the biggest map we have ever seen. Texas looked huge. We spent about 20 minutes there goofing around. We walked our route starting in PA and wow, we sure are covering some ground. We were both amazed at how far we are going to be driving. Sometimes the fact that we are actually on this trip seems like a fantasy.

We eventually ended up back at the RiverWalk at Champions which is a sports bar. The crowd was going crazy watching the San Antonio Spurs in the play-off game. We met Harry who was originally from Cherry Hill, NJ. He is a Redskins fan and told us how tough it is to be in Dallas territory. Everyone in Texas goes nuts over the Cowboys.

Fred was wearing his old (I have threatened to throw it out) Wharf Rat t-shirt (a fine establishment at Inner Harbor), and a couple originally from Baltimore started talking to him. Cathy and her husband worked at the Wharf Rat and decided one day that they wanted to move somewhere else so they got out a map and picked San Antonio. They still have connections in Baltimore and are going to help us get a hotel. Cathy also offered to give Fred a new Wharf Rat t-shirt.

On the way back, we stopped at Nasty McNurty's an Irish Pub. The piano player impressed Fred with his skill. He could play anything. We met two women from York who were in San Antonio on vacation.

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Friday May 14th

Our Days Inn provided a free continental breakfast, but we didn't realize we would have to deal with the Breakfast Natzi. This guy stood behind the counter, arms crossed, with a stern look on his face. Fred got a donut and laid the tongs down beside the container and the Breakfast Natzi immediately picked them up and put them on top of the container. We got a kick out of watching him.

Today our drive from San Antonio to Fort Stockton was on Route 10. Fort Stockton is a little more than half way to our final destination of El Paso. There is not much on the map between San Antonio and El Paso.

We arrived in Fort Stockton and stopped at the Super 8 to inquire about a room. The place kind of weirded us out, so we continued on down the road to the Best Western. Their rooms were $15.00 more, but included a made-to-order breakfast plus free washer and dryer.

After a long day in the car, we needed to run so we set off to look for historic downtown. After driving around for 20 minutes, we never found a downtown, so we just parked and started running. After our run, we drove around searching for a local place to go to eat dinner later and found nothing! Fort Stockton's big claim to fame is having The World's Largest Roadrunner. He is 11 feet tall and 22 feet long.

We did our laundry in the free machines and ate dinner at the restaurant at the hotel. It was delicious-pineapple ham, mashed potatoes and green beans.

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Saturday May 15th

Back in the saddle again for our drive to El Paso. Route 10 we are beginning to know and love you. The roadway is cut out of huge hills that appear to be all rock. It looked like someone took a hatchet and chopped straight down through a huge rock laying it open. As we looked to our left and right, we saw layers and layers of stratified rock. Other times we saw flat land, but always with brown stony mountains in the background. The terrain of west Texas is more mountainous than we thought.

Farther along, we saw groups of short, gnarled trees. We surmised they might be fruit trees because of their stubby stature, but we didn't see any fruit. These trees were growing together in groups interspersed with what looked like pasture land. This went on for miles and miles and it was fenced in, so we assumed we are driving past ranches.

Just to get a break from the highway driving, we stopped at Fort Lancaster which is in the middle of nowhere. For $2.00 we viewed a museum on the history of the fort plus a couple of piles of rocks out back However, there was a pretty good view of the surrounding countryside.

We arrived at our Comfort Inn in El Paso at noon. We passed through another time zone so we are now in mountain time.

After being couped up in the car for 4 hours, we decided to go hiking. Information on El Paso recreation was limited but I managed to find a little blurb about the Mac Kellington Canyon. It was indeed a canyon and the only way to hike was up.

We took the wrong trail and it ended after about 10 minutes. We kept hiking up through the scrub avoiding the cactus and keeping a wary eye out for snakes. Fortunately, neither of us fell because that would have been extremely painful. We finally spotted a stone pathway just off to our left. Following the pathway was much easier and our trip down was not as treacherous.

We spent about two hours driving and walking around the city. The bridge to Mexico was filled with people walking from the U.S. back to Mexico. One street up, a group of fashionable ladies with packages were hitchhiking. They had been shopping on the U.S. side of the border and didn't want to walk back across the bridge. It was an interesting site.

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Sunday May 16th

After brunch at Applebee's (we missed our hotel free breakfast), we headed out for golf. The course we played, Painted Dunes, is rated the #4 municipal course in the U.S. by Golf Digest and has a ranking of 4-1/2 stars. This was a true dessert course with the mountains visible from every hole. The fast and tricky greens, along with the scrubby sandy rough and strong wind made the course extremely challenging. However, the wildlife made us forget our game as we watched adorable, fuzzy, baby bunny's playing in the tall grass. We were also fascinated to see a roadrunner. He was only 2 feet high, certainly no match for Paisano Pete.

Painted Dunes is the site of a U.S. Open qualifying tournament which is being held tomorrow. We also heard that George Cloony had been there last month to play. He likes to play there because he can do so quietly. Painted Dunes is located about 20 miles outside of El Paso and is an incredible bargain at only $20.00. Plus, they allow walking anytime.

On the way back from the golf course, with Mexican music on the radio, we searched for a place to have dinner. Sometimes we get lucky, but just like Fort Stockton, we struck out in El Paso. We did not find anywhere local to eat.

Pizza and a movie in our room ended the evening.

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