GoofyMom's Great American Road Trip to Florida - Page 13 - PassPorter - A Community of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel Forums
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What a great TR! I've just caught up on the last couple of days. Sounds like y'all had some really great adventures (and relaxations ) with Bill and Jan! Bass Pro is one of my favorite stores - I love gawking at all the huge boats, and they have great Women's stuff too -- Columbia sportswear, bathing suits, etc.
Your ride-along with Bill sounded really exciting - so ! And the pictures of Dan swimming near the porpoises - another moment! The sunset on your last day was beautiful, too.
I'm sorry the Bill-n-Jan part is over but looking forward to hearing about more adventures on the road back home.
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We turned on the news as we were getting ready in the morning and heard a little blurb about Tropical Storm Humberto coming and they were expecting maybe a few inches of rain...
We packed up and headed down to the breakfast room of the hotel and ate the free breakfast. We left Houston at 8:35 and it was 82º. The odometer read 78035 which means we drove exactly 1000 km yesterday (621 miles) The GPS said we were 82' above sea level.
Today was going to be a short driving day because one of the secondary goals of this trip was to see San Antonio. We had received some tips about San Antonio from a few PassPorters and we made a reservation at a Drury Inn on the Riverwalk from our room in Houston, and mapped out a route through the city to the hotel on Google Maps so we figured we were set.
And we're off! Of course the flags are at half-staff because it was Sept 11
Instructions for hurricane evacuations
The whole time we were on the road, we played the licence plate game, trying to find new licence plates. We saw everything from Alaska to Hawaii to Canada to New York to California to Mexico. When we noticed the Mexican plate, neither of us could tell at first where it was from. They were passing us, so Dan put the hammer down to catch up to them. And when we were closer I took a picture. Well. That really freaked them out because they slowed down and hung back behind us for a few miles. I'm not saying they had done anything wrong or anything like that (other than speeding) but I guess they figured out that we were harmless Canadian tourists because they passed us again and we never saw them again.
The Mexican truck right about the time we freaked them out
There's a truck stop or something called Buc-ees just before San Antonio and boy, did they advertise! I never got any real good shots of their billboards but some of them were hilarious.
"If you gotta go, go here"
I guess Buc-ee's mascot is a beaver. Kinda hard to tell from the pictures on the billboards.
Almost there. Boy was it overcast. I was afraid that we ere going to have an ugly day for touring.
I don't think you can read this because of the size I have to compress it to to post on the boards, but I've got some notes on the TripTik. "dead armadillo" (self explanatory), "buzzard or vulture - ugly!" (bird sitting on the side of the road) and my personal favourite "BOOGER miner LOL" (some guy in a truck we were passing )
We arrived in San Antonio around 11:00 and got a little lost. There was a detour and it threw us off our route we had mapped out on Google Maps earlier. Eventually we found our way to our Drury Inn downtown and we checked in. The room wasn't ready yet, but we weren't expecting it to be. We got a temporary key so we could park in the parking garage (which is the reason we decided to stay downtown), and headed out to start checking out the River Walk.
Buc-EE's is a mandatory stop for Grumpy and I every time we go to San Antonio. Great Food, clean restrooms, Texas Souvenirs, jams, jellies, pickles, homemade bread, homemade fudge........we usually stop for a breakfast burrito
Hurry Back can't wait to read about your experience in San Antonio, my favorite town in Texas
Buc-EE's is a mandatory stop for Grumpy and I every time we go to San Antonio. Great Food, clean restrooms, Texas Souvenirs, jams, jellies, pickles, homemade bread, homemade fudge........we usually stop for a breakfast burrito
Hurry Back can't wait to read about your experience in San Antonio, my favorite town in Texas
Since we didn't need gas and neither of us "had to go" we just kept on going, but boy that fudge sounds good!!
Alrighty, on to the River Walk, my raison d'etre for wanting to see San Antonio.
We had just missed a downpour, so we picked our way around some puddles and walked around the loop. It was really pretty.
There were lots of interesting things to look at around every corner... fountains, bridges, gardens.
It even had an amphitheatre for performances
It was early in the day so the River Tours weren't busy yet.
This was Rosita's bridge. I loved how pretty everything was
Ok, we have the ducks all lined up in a row. Now what?
This tree looked like it had no bark!
And this was a huge tree!!
Dan didn't like the heat, so we went inside a hotel to cool him down for a minute
A quick look around inside then it was back out to the Riverwalk again. We started to get hungry, so we started slowing down at some of the restaurants that looked interesting. Each restaurant had their menu on display, and many had people trying to "encourage" you to eat there.
Eventually we decided on a Mexican place called Cafe Ole.
We were seated under a nice ceiling fan on the patio, and the waitress brought us chips and salsa before she took our drink orders.
Danno chose a beer
I took the advice of Sheana and our waitress and ordered the premium margarita. And boy was it good!
I had a taco salad (hold the sour cream) and Dan had an enchilada. Pretty tasty food. But the best part was:
The Mariachi Band!!
We called them over and asked them to play for us.
We had asked for a lively song, so they serenaded us with, and forgive me because I don't speak Spanish, so I'll write it phonetically, "One Tunno Mara" (ok. You guys who speak Spanish, I'll give you a minute to stop )
We tipped them, paid our bill and headed back to our room to see if it was ready yet.
On the way back to the hotel we passed this boat, cleaning the water after the storm.
We got checked into our room and we were quite happy with it.
It was a really nice room. High ceilings and the chair in the corner was a recliner. I'll get back to that.
We had specifically requested not to have a River Walk view because we didn't think it was worth the $90 extra but what should we spy when we looked out the window?
Not an unobstructed view, but there it was nonetheless!
Something I didn't know is that there's more to the Alamo than just this one famous building. It was a whole compound.
A relief map of the compound
You can't take any photos inside any of the buildings of course. We looked around at all the displays and it's hard to describe my experience there. I was fascinated. It started to rain again, so we poked around a little in the gift shop and I found a fun shot glass to add to my collection. When the rain let up we checked out some of the grounds.
Marking the original propery line 5 or 6" just outside the wall.
The weather looked like it was going to be iffy for a while, so we headed back the 4 blocks to our hotel, taking the shortcut through the hotel we had been inside earlier on our tour of the River Walk. Dan decided to try out the recliner in our room, and promptly fell asleep. He deemed it successfully napworthy. While he was snoozing, I fired up the laptop and IM'd with Bill for a few minutes. I told him I was surprised that there weren't any bullet holes in the Alamo and he told me he was surprised I didn't see them. Hmmm. Well. We've already established that I'm not the most observant person in the world, so I decided we would have to return to the Alamo and look harder. After all, it's only 5 minutes' walk away so it'd be silly not to.
So after Dan woke up I informed him we were going back. We got there just a few minutes before the Alamo was going to close for the day.
Hm. Still didn't see any. Since there was no time to lose, I cornered a guy who worked there and asked him. He very willingly showed be a couple of spots.
First he showed me this spot near the corner and told me it is supposedly the place where Davy Crockett was executed after the battle. According to legend he had survived, injured and was captured and executed. The "bullet holes" are musket shot.
Then he showed me this spot beside the door.
close up of the ones by the door. These were buck shot.
And with that, they closed the doors and we had to leave.
People leaving after the Alamo was closed.
Hmmm, if the Alamo is closed, that means we have just enough time to get back to our hotel for the beginning of Happy Hour.
Happy Hour at the Drury Inn - free cocktails, wine and beer and snacks
We partook, and then decided to head back around the River Walk again because it was getting busier and we wanted to see what it was like later in the day. Basically, the answer is.... busier and crowded.
We stopped to eat dinner at a fun little pub.
We got the last table available on the patio, and it was kind of removed from the rest of the patio, so that was really cool. We felt like honeymooners or something.
Since I had enjoyed my margarita at lunch so much, I decided to try another one tonight with dinner. I must tell you though, normally I do not drink much tequila -- just in the odd margarita, which I just happened to have a few of on this trip. So tonight's margarita was the Dog Pound or something like that. It was huge and Dan had to share it with me!! He also shared my meal -- I ordered a Fettucine Alfredo with Grilled Chicken, but since we'd just eaten snacks at the hotel, we decided to split dinner.
The river tours were getting busier now!
He was the guy at the pub that was trying to get people to eat in the restaurant. Hey, a guy in a skirt. It worked on us!
We tried to take some photos of the River Walk after dark, because it was really pretty, but it was hard to. The sidewalks were crowded and people would stop unexpectedly, and others would push around you, and it was just basically a zoo. Dan and I don't really do that scene anymore. So we just headed back to our hotel for the night.
Caught up again Donna. So sad your time with Bill and Jan had to end, but as you said, you WILL be back! Can't wait to hear how the rest of the trip goes and you get safely home. As an aside, on 9/11 DH, DS and 6 other manly men were in your neck of the woods, canoing in the Quetico Provincial Park and were unable to get out of their tents for over 30 hours because of rain, cold and 40 MPH sustained winds. All in all I think you guys had better weather!!!
WAHOO you made it to the River Walk and the Alamo, check those off your list..
You saw the buck shot, did you see where the bones are buried in the middle of the Alamo
to hear about the rain...... Hurry back can't wait read more....
Boy I am craving a BucEE's breakfast burrito now and a huge margarita......... I think I will have to make a Road trip to see my DB & DSIL in of all places San Antonio.. ....
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) with Bill and Jan! Bass Pro is one of my favorite stores - I love gawking at all the huge boats, and they have great Women's stuff too -- Columbia sportswear, bathing suits, etc. 
! And the pictures of Dan swimming near the porpoises - another 
but looking forward to hearing about more adventures on the road back home. 
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Pixie Dust
to Canada to New York to California to Mexico. When we noticed the Mexican plate, neither of us could tell at first where it was from. They were passing us, so Dan put the hammer down to catch up to them. And when we were closer I took a picture. 
Well. That really freaked them out because they slowed down and hung back behind us for a few miles. I'm not saying they had done anything wrong or anything like that (other than speeding) but I guess they figured out that we were harmless Canadian tourists because they passed us again and we never saw them again. 
Kinda hard to tell from the pictures on the billboards.
Eventually we found our way to our Drury Inn downtown and we checked in. The room wasn't ready yet, but we weren't expecting it to be. We got a temporary key so we could park in the parking garage (which is the reason we decided to stay downtown), and headed out to start checking out the River Walk.
)
While he was snoozing, I fired up the laptop and IM'd with Bill for a few minutes. I told him I was surprised that there weren't any bullet holes in the Alamo and he told me he was surprised I didn't see them. Hmmm. Well. We've already established that I'm not the most observant person in the world, so I decided we would have to return to the Alamo and look harder. After all, it's only 5 minutes' walk away so it'd be silly not to.
PassPorter Guide Author
to hear about the rain...... Hurry back can't wait read more....
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