SAN ANTONIO

Here we are in San Antonio and it has been a fun time.
We arrived, not knowing it was the start of rodeo season, which is HUGE! Signed up for four nights and ended up staying 11 nights.

First stop was the 'longhorn' cattle drive with real 'cowboys' through the streets of downtown which ended up at the Alamo. What an experience and the 'longhorns' are so majestic in their own way. Barb and I were fortunate to be quoted in the Sunday edition of the San Antonio Express News. We're famous in Texas now!!! Ha! Ha! The website below will take you to the article.

http://www.mysanantonio.com/specials/rodeo/stories/MYSA012708.04A.CattleDrive.27e392a.html

It was amazing to watch the longhorns go through the narrow trailer gate. They knew to twist their heads to fit the horns in ---- but alas some of them got stuck and were very frustrated.



.................and yes there were also 'cowgirls'.

Next stop was the Alamo which is right in the middle of downtown. It was physically smaller than we thought but interesting artifacts and history of the American West. Bought a DVD of the historical facts of the battle and Davy Crockett so now we will be entertained and educated. Of course being of the baby boomer generation aren't Fess Parker and Davy Crockett one and the same.

The 'River Walk' was much more dynamic than we expected -- just a fun place to be. The one picture shows a theater with the stage on one side of the river -- and coliseum seating on the other side. We enjoyed the sights plus getting our walking in too. Yeah!

Went to 'cowboy town' (Bandera), but it wasn't quite what we expected. No horses and a lot of Hogs (Harleys). The drive over was interesting giving us a different view of Texas terrain --more hills.

'Extreme Bulls' was the first night of the Rodeo and it was very much worth the wait. The pictures are a bit blurry because we were up in peanut heaven but you get the idea. They even had a 'rodeo zamboni' come out at intermission to smooth the dirt before the music act came on.

We took a short overnight trip in the car to South Padre Island - a Kite Festival was advertised and sounded like fun. It was truly an event I am glad we didn't pass up. Besides all the "kite laundry" (the kites that are just hanging in the air) there were team kite demonstrations. The choreography was unbelievable ......with the kites going every which way then being able to stop on a dime. We talked to one of the members of the IQuad team ... they go all over the world and fly kites..... sounds like a good job to me. The picture with the pinwheel kite is four separate kites controlled by these four guys, incredible. If you go to their website (teamiquad.com) you will get an idea of how amazing they are.

Our drive into southernmost Texas was interesting with a couple sightings of groups of warthogs, lots of cacti but the most intimidating was the yellow traffic sign as we drove into a rest area that said "Watch out for snakes". Needless to say I didn't dawdle in the restroom.

We are leaving tomorrow and have to say goodbye to our friends, the mutant ninja ducks (as the campground people call them) - they are very friendly but very strange looking. We "winter Texans" (not snow birds) are movin' westward!