Remember The Alamo

Howdy Y'all. Its true, I now have a Texas twang. What can I say but its been a total buzz flying down the highway doing 75 miles an hour on the wrong side of the road. I nearly had to pinch myself. It is totally surreal to look up and see signs telling me that its only 38 miles to Waco, Texas. Then the next one will show 120 miles to Austin, Texas. My Favourite however is San Antonio where I am now camped for the night.

My opinion of Texas driving hasn't improved since we last spoke. The distance I travelled was about 420 kilometres. I did it under 4 hours. That should give you an idea of the average speed. The time includes getting in and out of the heart of two cities one with a population of 7,000,000 and the other with 1,500,000. It leaves little room for error. That being said it is the way of life here and I have to deal with it. 

I think the reason for the craziness is that it is the Labor Day weekend. Most of America has a Monday public holiday. I get the impression that labor itself doesn't have a lot to celebrate here. The restaurant staff I have spoken to make $8.25 per hour and all ask me for a job when I tell them that our guys make $22.00 if they're casual. They soon soften to the idea when I explain to them tipping, or lack therof. The head barman at a restaurant I went to said he earned about $65,000 last year when you included the tips. Its there to be made if you are in the right job.

The other thing I noticed is the plethora of flags. Businesses vie with each other to have the biggest. Also the Texan State flag gets a pretty solid work out along with a few less than official ones.

The flag above is a matter of pride and was originally about the Texas Revolution and refers to message sent to the Mexicans who asked for their cannon back. Now its been appropriated by the gun lobby and is used with abandon to signal their position on gun regulation.

You will notice the similarity to the real Texas flag

They love their guns here that's for sure. Check out this sign that adorns every licensed premises.

I met a woman in the bar last night who had one in her purse. But back to the Texans. In 1836 Texas, then part of Mexico, had a revolution and declared itself to be a nation, The Republic of Texas. It was annexed into the United States in 1844 with the popular approval of the Texans and so its brief time as an independent country came to and end. Texans never tire of telling you that there's is the only state that can fly their state flag at the same height as the United States flag because they were once a country. The implication being that the US is lucky to have them and that Texas is doing them a favour. This part of the world has a strong independent streak. What they conveniently neglect to tell you is that at the time they wanted to join the US.

San Antonio is famous for Davy Crockett and The Alamo. Well as its a long weekend here and accommodaion is hard to come by the best deal I could get was, get this, at the Crockett Hotel and my room looks out over The Alamo. I am actually going to try and visit tomorrow. The lines were over two hours long just to get in and the temperature hit 38 degrees. I should have packed sunscreen. 

I checked in and checked out the San Antonio Riverwalk which is truly spectacular. It is an almost subterranean level of San Antonio. Built below street level along the banks of modified river bed where restaurants, bars, shops, hotels, private apartments and multiple other businesses have their operations fronting the river. It is beautifully landscaped and provides a welcome place of respite from the heat. 

Its massive with elevators and stairs popping up in different parts of the city. I literally walked out the front door of the hotel, across the street into the mall, bought some joggers and descended to the riverwalk. When it was time to come back to the hotel. I ascended some stairs and walked through the city. Its unique in my experience and has to be seen to be beleived.

So I sat and had a burger and margarita for lunch and watched the world go by. Tomorrow I will hopefully get inside The Alamo then its off to Houston (hopefully we don't have a problem) where the plan is to check out Space Centre Houston which I'm told is chock a block full of big boys toys, can't wait.