1-10 American Road Trip: Texas

The day began sunny, hot and ripe with expectation. We were planning to see the Alamo. I was still slightly shaken up by our bad experience in New Orleans where there was potentially a predator lurking in our bedroom while we were sleeping. So I stepped out onto our balcony for some fresh air, while Ashley got ready for our day. The view was of the I-10, the road we had already driven over 1000 miles on, but the sky was cloudless and already deep blue so early in the morning.

Then we headed downstairs for our breakfast, which I cannot recommend the Holiday Inn in San Antonio enough, as they even had two waffle makers. We headed into town, a five minutes distance, and parked our car near the Alamo.

In case you were wondering, the Alamo is absolutely real! This lovely man who worked their as a professional tour guide said that before he moved to Texas he had thought the Alamo was only a myth. But no, it is real and in fact its perimeters used to spread to encompass a significant part of the old town and the San Antonio River. The river has no been transformed into the renowned River Walk, which is a gorgeously designed patio-walk along both sides of the river embankment that is decked out with open-air restaurants, fountains, flowers, trees, bars, and every other wish your heart could desire.

We were there so early in the morning that we felt like we had the whole river walk all to ourselves, but Ashley was particularly taken with the walkway, even saying later that it was her favorite part of the whole trip.

Once the Alamo officially opened we headed back to take a tour with our wallets ready...only to discover that an unguided tour of the building is 100% free. This was such a welcome surprise after paying 20 dollars to do a tour of the raised cemetery in New Orleans that I decided then and there that San Antonio was good. A very good place, everyone should go. We weren't allowed to take photos inside of the Alamo itself (it is very similar to many other old, stone churches--but one cool feature is that it has all the names engraved of the people who fought in the battle of the Alamo, alongside where they were from--some came as far and wide as Germany, England and South America). but we did manage to take some lovely photos of the outside courtyards and buildings.

Every image looks better in that kind of lighting, wouldn't you agree?

After we had had our fill of the Alamo we said goodbye to San Antonio and headed back onto the open road.

We drove for hours out into the desert again until we saw signs that indicated there were caverns in about 100 miles called The Caverns of Sonora. We decided to stop and see what they were all about.

Eventually we saw the exit and drove for about ten miles down this kind of road, in this kind of landscape...

We had no idea what to expect but when we arrived at the caverns, it was a bit like someone's private ranch. There was a giant white, slightly mangy dog wandering about listlessly, a truck parked here, a beat up car there, a lone tee-pee erected and a few haphazard ranch like buildings, one of them being a shop.

When we finally found another human being, she seemed very kind and friendly but distressed that we would miss a tour of the caverns because she only had one guide working that day and they would not be back for at least another hour. Ashley and I said we could not wait around that long, having to get back to the road like in On The Road.

However, we did have a little wander around the outside of the place where we spotted some deer.

Some spectacular views.

And then the saddest thing, we found a puppy in a cage with absolutely no water, at all, to drink. A tiny, tiny Australian Shepherd named May.

We pet May and she licked us and cried. We found a water hose and filled the bone dry tray that was in her cage. No one seemed to be paying her any attention and it was heartbreaking. I wanted so badly to find a way to take her with me, but sadly I don't know where I am going either. If you're ever at The Caverns of Sonora, please ask about May. I don't want her to end up neglected like I sense, intuitively, she will be, if the other mangy dog that we saw wandering around is any indication of what might happen to her.

We reluctantly left May and headed back onto the road, without seeing any caverns. We drove all day through desert, rock, heat and sun.

It was a lot of flat land. Eventually we made it to El Paso, where we enjoyed some of the best tacos I have ever had in my entire life. The name of the place is Rivas Taco Shop. You need to go now.

I got two carne asada tacos and one extra spicy shrimp taco with a side of refried beans. It was heavenly. And look how they wrapped the limes in little baggies! Also, beware the spicy shrimp tacos..it was possibly too hot.

A pretty amazing thing happened for Ashley in El Paso. She unexpectedly received a Facebook message request from her Step-Father whom she had not heard from in about 20 years but had coincidentally been talking a lot about on our trip as that is who she lived with when she lived in Texas with her mom as a child. She had told me that she missed him but did not know how to get in touch. And here we were literally in Texas (though a day's drive now away from where he lived) and he was reaching out to her. It was as if fate was at play. Ashley went to respond to him, nervously, while we were eating our tacos and she accidentally pushed video chat. The two of them ended up chatting for over an hour and it was the sweetest, most touching re-connection to be witness too. They had clearly both been trying to get in touch for years and I was really glad that they were able to do it while Ashley was on her trip.