Texas is sooooo big, it takes days to drive through it

We drop straight down from Oklahoma City, right through the middle of Texas, on I 35, known in the old days as the "Chisholm Trail" the trail that they brought the cattle up from San Antonio to Kansas

We are traveling with Chuck and Jerry, who we met up with in Branson, they will leave us after San Antonio and go west to Yuma, Arizona, their wintering place

Jerry is holding Pepe, they have another Chihuahua, Paco

We follow Chuck and Jerry to Waco, spend the night get up early and go past Austin, the capital of Texas, in to San Antonio

The first thing we do is check out the Texas BBQ, they are so proud of it and rightly so

It was good, really good! Cute little plastic bag with the onions and pickles too. Washington needs a drive thru BBQ, we've even seen Chinese and pizza drive thru's

In the early 1700's Mission's were built to convert the Indians into tax paying members of "New Spain", counting the Alamo, San Antonio has 5  missions and San Jose is known as the

 "Queen of the Missions"

All of these missions helped establish San Antonio and in 1920 the founding fathers recognized this and have worked hard to restore these missions

San Jose Mission is the largest of all the Missions, there are fields around it with paths taking you around huge yucca plants,  there is an active parish there now

Mission Conception was one of the Missions on the San Antonio River, the Indians were being attacked by the Europeans, so they would join these missions for protection, all they had to do is learn Spanish and Latin and convert to Catholicism

The Alamo was one of these missions,  Davy Crockett, and Jim Bowie (of the knife fame) were some of the people fighting the Spanish in their failed stand against the Spaniards, the Alamo means Cottonwood. Hard to imagine people yelling "Remember the Cottonwood!"

The Alamo is a small block behind those trees in the middle of San Antonio downtown, the Daughters of the Republic of Texas take care of  it now and is open and free for anyone to stroll through it

This tree in the court yard is 138 years old

The Alamo was the first mission on the San Antonio River

I thought it was funny that bordering the back side of the Alamo was this hotel, named for one of those who gave his life in the battle, Davy Crockett

San Antonio has a "Space Needle" just like Seattle

What it does have that sets it apart from all the other cities is the River Walk

The water canal is set a little lower than the rest of the buildings downtown, but it takes a leisurely stroll through the downtown area

Although the water level is only 4 feet deep, the flat bottom boats will take you on a ride for about $8

You can eat at one of the many restaurants with outside tables or just stroll down the walkway, next to the water, the River Walk has been there for a long time

We've enjoyed our few days in San Antonio and tomorrow Cindy and I will go to the farthest south in Texas you can go, to the Gulf and South Padre Islands