Ah, San Antonio. Texas. We are now at our psychological dividing line between the East and the West. San Antonio. We look up and see a larger sky. We look out and see smaller, sparser trees. East meets West. We are glad to have made it this far. We pulled into the San Antonio KOA yesterday afternoon despite the wind and the traffic and the tight squeeze through a toll booth in Houston. If we hadn’t just waxed our motor home, I’m sure we would have scrapped off some of the grime as we tried to negotiate our way through that toll booth. And to add insult to injury, we had to pay to squeeze through. We did make it through unscathed and unscratched. Whew! There is a big rodeo and livestock show going on in San Antonio, and we are therefore in the overflow camping area. But we have landed and glad to be here.

Of course no visit here would be complete without time spent on the Riverwalk. That was our objective today. We have walked the Riverwalk twice before and this third time did not disappoint. One of the reasons we stay at the KOA is the city bus stops in front and drops us off downtown with easy access to the Riverwalk. We are also reveling in the temperatures here. Today’s high was predicted at 76, and I think it will easily make that. Yesterday was in the 70’s and tomorrow is predicted to be in the 70’s. Glad we made it out of South Carolina and Florida before the deep freeze arrived. Temperatures in the 70’s are much more to our liking.

We look forward to having our first great Mexican or Tex-Mex food when on the Riverwalk. As we walked around, we developed a dilemma: Should we have Mexican, Texas BBQ or a Texas steak? These are tough decisions that we take very seriously. I think it was the glaring and very obvious advertisements for Margaritas that convinced Shannon that Mexican was the way to go. And so we did.

Our trip from South Carolina included a stop in Florida to visit with the A’s and the Horns, both volunteer couples we had met on the road. The Horns were volunteering with us at Waccamaw and had moved to another NWR in Florida about the same time we left Waccamaw. The refuge where they were located manages habitat critical for manatee overwintering. The key ingredient was a hot water spring that kept water temperature at 75-degrees. The manatees congregate near the spring between trips out to the Gulf to feed. It was exciting to see so many manatees. They were not juggling beach balls on their noses or diving through rings, but just the uniqueness of seeing not one but a large group with nursing calves was a thrill.

Not too far away from the Horns were the A’s camped out in their 5^th wheel trying to keep warm. They came all the way from Tennessee seeking warmth in Florida. We understand they had a rude awakening when they went back to Tennessee. Winter has come south. Hope they’re able to keep warm. It was good to be able to visit with them; who knows the next time we will see each other. And, that’s the way it goes with this lifestyle. You visit and enjoy while you can.

We also were able to spend a couple of days with Shannon’s brother, sister-in-law, and nephew in Louisiana. Of course at our first stop in LA before we arrived at Shannon’s brother’s house, we had to sample the local fare, boudin. From our campground we walked to Bobby’s Boudin. It was strictly takeout. We stood in line for a good 15 minutes until we made our way to the counter. That gave us enough time to consult with another customer behind us who was a native and could give us advice so that we didn’t appear to be idiots when we stepped up to the counter. We were nervous waiting in line thinking of stepping up to the Soup Nazi. Anyway, we got some boudin, a boudin ball, a boudin roll up, a pistolette, and a crawfish pie. We passed when it came to the cracklins.

We may have given up the cracklins but we made up for the lack of fat in our diet on Shrove Tuesday, Donut Day, Fastnacht Day, Pancake Day, Fat Tuesday, or Mardi Gras. We introduced Steve, Sharon, and Michael to eating donuts on Fat Tuesday. Of course I also had to have a kolachi with boudin. Ah, life continues to be good…burp.

We had a nice visit with family. Our hearts are in the West, but we have all kinds of family living in the East, well, east of San Antonio. And so to be able to visit and spend time with my family, visit volunteer friends we have made on the road, and to spend time with Shannon’s brother and family who we see way too infrequently, make all the too tight toll booths a little more roomy, the gusts of wind a little more benign, and the traffic just sort of ho hum.