Official departure from the Creighton & Melissa B. residence (formally that of Li Farn Tang) at 7:15 p.m. We raced to get to Mark & Mika L's house before 10:00 pm so we could enjoy some delicious Sonoran hot dogs. Unfortunately, we were too late and the stand had closed early as we're now in the cold months. But Mark invoked his internal map of Mexican hot dog stands around town and we followed his backup routes. The 2nd stand was closed too but we struck it rich on the 3rd. The three of us marked twain on the spicy dogs and went back to the house to chat and watch Star Wars III (my favorite of the 2 trilogies). We liked the line where Anakin tells Padme, "our love won't save you, only my new powers can do that." We stayed the night there and Mika most graciously offered us waffles and eggs before we darted off to 8:30 church. She also gave us chocolate-covered twig snacks (the equivalent of lamus bread to the hobbits) and spicy japanese trail mix which didn't taste half as good as it normally does (don't buy 片仮名 brand). A great start to the trip and props to the Mark & Mika B&B establishment.
We left sacrament meeting a few minutes early so we could beat the big church rush, and so Des could practice on the clutch in the parking lot. We stopped for gas at a heavily advertised (a comical amount of billboards) fireworks store. Tempted to buy some $25 leather jackets and genuine moccasins but ended up resisting. I used the stinky torture chamber of a restroom and opted not to wash my hands believing that in the end the trade off of exiting the bathroom sooner would result in less total germs. We're assuming this gas station was somewhere in New Mexico... You do have to pass through NM to get to Texas right?Lunched in El Paso at the Outback. As was to be expected the food was delicious, but Des was infuriated by the exorbitant amount of ice cubes hogging up precious coke-glass volume. This was appropriately accounted for in the tip.
After 11 hrs 50 min of straight-shot, foot-free cruise-control driving we arrived at the $100/night dump of a Motel 6.
San Antonio (12/30/07)
Enjoyed some local breakfast cuisine at the McDonald's and patronized the attached "Red Box" DVD vending machine (these $1 rental machines are ideal for brothers [or sisters] on road trips as you can return them at most McD's around the country). Then we drove into town on Houston St. and parked somewhere near the Alamo. The Alamo wasn't all that impressive in stature or anything but it was fun to walk around and read some snippets of the history of Travis and Santa Anna and Bowie and all that. The weather was ideal too (almost a lack of weather) which made it very enjoyable.After taking in the sights of the Alamo we crossed the street to a place of historical significance which rivals, nay trumps the significance of the Alamo: The Guiness Book of World Records museum. Here we learned about the smallest dog ever, the most drum beats in a minute, and tons of other useless records. I will say I was disappointed not to see a display of probably the most famous GBWR character, the man with the longest finger nails.
Then we just walked around for a bit until we stumbled upon the "Riverwalk". This was much cooler than anticipated. It meanders all over the place and there are lots of cool, breezy cafes and eateries along the banks of the shaded river. We got some pizza and Orange Juliuses and just enjoyed ourselves for a good while before running back to the car to beat the parking meter and be on our way to New Orleans. Despite the negative connotation from the Spurs, San Antonio was much better than we both expected.
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