The BIG USA Road Trip. June 2012. Part 1

June 8th. So, here we are in San Antonio, TX. 7am local time, noon at home. Coffee creamer? what's that all about? It's certainly not pleasant in tea, that's for sure. I think it might mean having coffee at breakfast while I'm in the Land of the Free - non-dairy creamer just doesn't cut it in morning tea. I disabled most things on my iPhone when we left England, so I don't know the outside temperature, but I'm guessing it's HOT. We drove through several torrential thunderstorms on the longer-than-expected journey from Houston to San Antonio yesterday. But I'm getting ahead of myself. We left home at 4am, having got up at 3am. Mark is a stickler for getting to places early. We arrived at the Purple long stay parking at around 6am. Didn't get off to a good start, it was raining hard, the suitcases had shifted inside the boot and when Kirsty opened the boot to help get the cases out, one of them fell out on to her foot, combine that with stepping back into a puddle in espadrilles and it wasn't that good a start. The flight was reasonable. I still hate long haul, no...I hate flying full stop. I did enough of it in my childhood and youth but now its all rush and stress and take your shoes off and security things. PAH! pain in the ass. BA World traveller Plus is better than economy, we got seats in the front part of WTP, bulkhead so plenty of leg room and some spare empty seats to spread out a bit. The crockery is pot and the cutlery metal but the meal is still shit. chickpea curry UGH. I can't sleep on flights as its too noisy and too cramped, and I was thinking of DVT the whole time so I kept moving my feet and legs and getting up to the loo every hour or so. Watched New Year's Eve the movie. JBJ playing JBJ. Again. We gained a little time so landed a bit early - then it was off through security circus. fingerprints, eye scans, shoes off, shoes on...grumpy surly security guards. Whatever happened to the "special relationship"? Got to the hire car place via a shuttle bus. The car we'd booked wasn't in, so they gave us a big SUV jeep. Got to the exit and they wouldn't let us out as the car didn't match the paperwork! Eventually freed from hire car area, we drove out into torrential rain but humid and hot with it. Welcome to Houston. It took several hours to drive to San Antonio. We stopped for drinks, snacks and comfort break, and it was still thundering and raining. Humidity and heat was a shock when we got out of the car! Arrived at Holiday Inn Riverwalk San Antonio around 8pm local time. Room was decent size, two queen size beds and convenient to riverwalk. Nice view - if you don't look down on to the air con compressors and rooftops. Had dinner at Hard Rock Cafe, which M wasn't happy about as it was so expensive. We were all so tired and frazzled. Went to bed aroound 3am UK time - a long day's travel! ............ June 9th. Up around 7am local time, wasn't easy getting Kirsty to wake up. Hotel room coffee with creamer is not pleasant. We ventured out into the heat & humidity, walked up to the Alamo which I guess everyone has to do when in San Antonio. It was very crowded, and we walked around the gardens at the back too. It's hard to adjust to the humidity. I remembered how it affected me in 1989 when we visited Wayne here. We saw various birds but without a bird book it's impossible to know what they are. We've seen eagle-type things soaring, I seem to recall Wayne saying they were "buzzards" but really called turkey vultures. The app I got on my phone isn't much help as the photos are too small. Despite searching, there is a distinct lack of any wildlife books or bird books anywhere. Had lunch in the BuckHorn Saloon, ribs and burgers etc, and we sampled deep fried Oreos simply because of the Cherry Suede guys. Not impressed. Walked round the Texas Ranger museum, the animal exhibits are a bit sad. Did an open top bus tour round the centre of San Antonio - apparently the owner of the bus company is from Oxford and brought the idea with him, it's very new. Some nice places to see but it also takes you past parking lots and flyovers! Some parts of the city look run down and dilapidated. We got off at a Mexican mercardo, market, place. Lots of stalls all selling the same things. After a rest back at the hotel, we went out for dinner around 7.30. Had Mexican food in a diner/restaurant I think we visited with Wayne. huge frozen margaritas, chili, tacos, quesadillas. HUGE portions, way too much for one. We should have shared one main dish. 3 different Mariachi bands came over and tried to persuade us to pay for them playing for us. Walked back to hotel along riverwalk, and had cold beer back at hotel. the heat is bearable but the humidity even at night is very draining when you're not used to it. I am a bit sunburned, and K has some mozzie bites which are annoying her. ..............