February 27 - Sunday
We woke this morning to misty rain and clouds and very high humidity – UGH!. We even used our A/C this afternoon since it was 93 degrees – haven’t seen these temps in a long time.
We made a trip to Wal-Mart to stock up since our supplies were very low. The sales tax here is only 8.25% and most foods are excluded whereas in Benson it was over 12% and included many foods too. One of the hardest things in traveling like we do is to figure out what the sales tax is and on what items. We are so used to Pennsylvania where it is 6% and excludes all foods and clothing. Some areas we have shopped have a state tax, then a county tax, and then a city tax. Some places the county and/or city taxes everything, some areas only certain things AND trying to find out exactly what is and is not taxed is a nightmare. (If someone has it figured out, please email me.)
And the rest of the day, we just hung out – a little run down from our two long travel days. Our one neighbor stopped by for a visit. He was born in Easton, PA and goes back to north central PA every summer. What an interesting gentleman. He told us stories of his life and this area of Texas and the start of this park. We had a nice visit.
February 28 – Monday
Another Road Trip Day – :-))
Our first stop was Lakeland Air Force Base to see if we could get a tour or go to the museum. Andy did his basic training here over 50 years ago. After waiting in line at the visitor’s center, we found out that we would not be going on base today. They give a monthly tour which we missed by 2 weeks. Other than that it is a closed base. Unless we knew someone who could take us thru, we could not get on – very disappointing but we understand. Lots of things have changed since 9/11/01.
So we decided to head to downtown San Antonio and the Alamo.
Our first stop was the River Walk and lunch:
This little guy was on the tree above us singing (and yelling) – believe me, I was keeping a watch on him – LOL:
We only walked a block and then went back to street level. We hope to come down later this week. I am not sure what I expected but this was not it ???? It still was very beautiful and we will have to check it out further.
We walked the two blocks to the Alamo:
The Alamo sits in the middle of downtown San Antonio and it truly is a shrine.
It originally started out as a mission in 1724 and over the next 150 years was used by missionaries, the military – Spanish, Rebel, Mexican, Texan, and US. The most famous battle happened from February 23rd to March 6th, 1836 where over 2500 Mexican soldiers fought against 200 Texan and Tejano volunteers. All of the volunteers lost their lives including three famous men – David Crockett (of Kentucky fame); Jim Bowie (Bowie knife namesake) and William Travis.
The Alamo is considered Hallowed Ground so no pictures are allowed inside the Church and Barracks.
We first went into the Church (seen in the picture above) – awesome.
Then into the “Barracks” in the picture below where we saw a short movie and many exhibits.
Then around the grounds:
This tree is over 100 years old:
The original well:
The irrigation canals inside the compound:
More scenes from inside the walls:
A very interesting place. Here is a link for more information:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alamo_Mission_in_San_Antonio
And it is definitely spring in San Antonio:
We made it back in time for Happy Hour and met some wonderful people here. I really like this park – :-))).
March 1 – Tuesday
Just a hang out day enjoying the beautiful weather – :-)))))
Spring is here!!!
Also wanted to give you a health update. I am off the antibiotics now for 3 weeks – and so far so good. I am still on the antihistamines. I do feel pressure and sometimes pain in my face but not like before. So hopefully this is it. It will be interesting as I get further east to see if it was allergies.. Thank you all for your well wishes – :-)))
