Day 14 – “And the Mission Bells Were Ringing…”

San Fernando Cathedral

Today we took a tour bus to see San Antonio.  The tour started with visits to two Spanish missions, Mission San José and Mission Concepción.  Both had fallen into disrepair after the Spanish pulled out in the late 1700s but both are now restored and run by the National Park Service.  Next we stopped at San Fernando Cathedral, which is in the center of San Antonio and then to a third mission, Mission San Antonio de Valero (better known as the Alamo).  It was from San Fernando Cathedral tower that Santa Anna raised the red flag signaling that “no quarter” would be given to the defenders of the Alamo.

Riverwalk

We made one more stop at a sunken Japanese garden before returning to the Riverwalk for our boat ride and dinner.  The Riverwalk area was started as a flood control project in the 20s but now has grown into a “must see” tourist attraction.  I don't think there is anything else quite like it in the U.S.  The Riverwalk has several miles of walking paths and a large number of restaurants and hotels lining both sides. San Antonio is currently expanding the area to reach down to Mission park, adding several additional miles of trails.

Riverwalk boat

One thing we have learned on this trip is that Texas history, like most history in general, is made up of a lot of legends and not so much fact.  We heard the history of the Alamo from two tour guides today and earlier from a book on tape and all three are slightly different in the details.  Apparently people back in those days liked to embellish the truth so much that no one knows the real story now.  The lives and deaths of Crockett, Bowie and Travis are pretty much a mixture of unknowns and conflicting myths and legends.  Still, all in all, it makes for a very compelling story.

Day 13 – “And rose, my rose of San Antone”

"Remember the Alamo"

Today was an R&R day for us, relatively speaking.  We had a 90 minute drive from Austin to San Antonio, got to the hotel early and we did our wash in the afternoon, as planned.  San Antonio is the furthest point on our trip and we have driven about 2300 miles so far.  

Our hotel is very centrally located and only two blocks from the Riverwalk, so we ate Mexican there and took a walk.  We also took a quick walk to see the Alamo (see photo), but our planned Riverwalk cruise in the evening was cancelled by lightening in the area.  Not a problem as we can do it tomorrow.

Day 12 – “Lone Star State of Mind”

Austin City Limits

Today we spent a relaxing Sunday with Steve, who was down with Megan for a wedding yesterday and he was able to work from the Austin office on Monday, giving us the whole day together so we got to spend what was probably a typical Austin weekend day.  We drove out to Travis Lake to see the lake, then walked up to Mount Bonnell to get a good view of Austin (see photo) and the Colorado river which runs through town.  The river and surrounding area is a recreation center for the people of Austin and being a sunny day, everyone was taking advantage of the weather and there were a lot of kayaks out floating down the river.  We then went down to South Congress to do a bit of shopping  in the unique and more than slightly quirky stores there. 

Jeanne and John in a "Lone Star State of Mind"

We had dinner at The Salt Lick, which is roughly 20 miles outside of town.  It is “the” spot for barbecue in Austin but is quite different from la Barbecue where we ate yesterday.  While la Barbecue feels like eating in someone’s backyard, The Salt Lick is a Texas-sized restaurant with huge parking lot and maybe a thousand diners.  It was naturally more of an assembly line operation but the food was still very good.

Bats at Congress Avenue Bridge

To close the evening and keeping in the theme of “Keep Austin Weird”, we went to watch the bats under the Congress Avenue Bridge.  Every evening large crowds gather on the bridge at sunset to watch the millions of bats who hang under the bridge in the daytime take off for their evening flight to who knows where.  When they leave, they actually form a thin black cloud that you can see in the distance heading east from the bridge and thankfully away from the spectators.  It would have been really exciting if they went the other direction.

Day 11 – “The Eyes of Texas…

Beef Brisket with Chipotle Slaw

…Are Upon You” is the University of Texas fight song and we reached the halfway point of our trip in Austin, home to the University of Texas.  The unofficial slogan of Austin is “Keep Austin Weird” and we didn’t see anything to dispute that.  It seems to be a town full of young people and old hippies, not exactly the combo you think of when you think of Texas. 

What Austin has is a lively food and music scene, centered around Sixth Street and it has more live music bars on one street than any place I have been to.  In the evening, we went to Esther’s comedy club on Sixth for distinctly Texas take on Saturday Night Live humor.  The Five Flags over Texas skit with Rick Perry talking about Texas succeeding from the Union and splitting it into five parts was hilarious. The show’s magician was also great, especially when he shot a dog from a cannon through a plate glass window into the street (you had to be there).

Gray-tailed Grackle

We came across two unique things in Austin.  One is barbecued beef brisket (see photo).  Austin is famous for it and we ate at la Barbecue (formerly JMueller) which is a Mecca of BBQ.  It is basically a food truck surrounded by picnic tables and BBQ smoking equipment.  It has a real down home feel, complete with free beer and live music.  That sandwich was definitely one of the best I have ever eaten.  I’m going to be dreaming of it for a while.

Another unique thing is the black bird in the picture.  It is a gray-tailed Grackle and they are all around Austin.  We have never seen one like that before and it is a really loud bird that seems to be a cross between a crow and a road runner.  Very strange looking.

Day 10 – “Mammas Don't Let Your Babies…”

“…Grow Up to Be Cowboys.” We spent the day in Fort Worth, a quintessential Texas cowtown.  For 20 years after the end of the civil war, herds of cattle were driven up the old Chisholm Trail through Fort Worth to Abilene, Kansas, where they were shipped by rail back east for processing.  Those cattle drives gave birth to the cowboy in America and when the railroad came to Fort Worth and the cattle drives ended, Fort Worth remained a key meat processing center.

Fort Worth is about a 50 minute drive from our hotel, and we passed by the George Bush Presidential Library (no security today), Six Flags Over Texas, Cowboys Stadium and the Rangers ballpark, the last three all in Arlington.  Fort Worth is a modern city these days and we started with a visit to the Kimbell Museum. The Kimbell is a small museum but it has a surprisingly good collection. 

Texas Longhorns

In the afternoon we went to the Fort Worth Stockyards.  The stockyard was a sprawling area of cattle, hog and sheep pens and meat processing plants, but today is a tourist area with lots of stores, restaurants and Billy Bob’s, the world’s largest bar.  It also has the world’s first indoor rodeo.  We witnessed a longhorn cattle drive down the main street of the stockyard and stayed for the evening rodeo.  The rodeo is always great fun. The team roping event is amazing.  One cowboy ropes the head and a second ropes the “heels”.  That really doesn’t even seem possible.  The cash scramble is also fun.  They send a bunch of young kids from the audience to take a ribbon from a heifer’s tail for a cash prize.  Of course a heifer can easily drag a single kid so it isn't as easy as it seems.

Day 8 – "I still believe in a place called Hope." – Bill Clinton

Little Rock Central High School

Today we had a bit of long drive. We started in Memphis in the rain and mid-40’s and got to Dallas with clear skies and 70 degrees. The trip took us about 10 hours, but we made a couple of touring stops along the way, plus we detoured into Oklahoma for about an hour.  Two reasons for the side trip.  The main reason was that Jeanne had never been to Oklahoma.  The second was that we got to cross the Red River, twice.  The Red River is quite pretty with scenic bends, kind of meandering along.  It was, however, not in the least red.

We stopped at two National Park Service sites while in Arkansas.  The first was Central High School in Little Rock (see photo).  In the fall of 1957 Central High (see photo) was the center of desegregation violence when nine African-American high school students tried to attend the previously all-white high school.  In the end, President Eisenhower was compelled to use federal troops to restore order and allow the school to be integrated.  This was the beginning of the end for segregation in America, thank goodness.  Central High, by the way, is still a functioning high school.

Bill Clinton's bed in Hope, Arkansas

Our second stop was much a lighter one.  We stopped in Hope, Arkansas, to tour Bill Clinton’s boyhood home.  He actually lived in that house until he was four and I found that we had one thing in common besides being about the same age.  He was also a big Hopalong Cassidy fan (TV series in the mid-50’s) as a boy.  I didn't have the bedspread that he had, but we both had the same photo of Hopalong Cassiday with his horse.

Day 9 – “All My Ex’s Live in Texas”

Southfork Ranch

Well maybe all the ex’s don’t live in Texas, but 4 ex-presidents were in Dallas today along with President Obama to dedicate the Bush Presidential Library at SMU. Our invitation was lost in the mail so we tried to drive by for a look, but no luck. Too much security.

We started the day with a tour of Southfork Ranch, famous from the TV show “Dallas”. Yeah, we know it is a bit hokey but it’s still a Dallas icon even though it is really in Parker, Texas. Exteriors of the show were shot there, but everything else was done in a studio in California.  

Dealey Plaza from Texas School Book Deposit

Next we drove downtown to another Dallas icon, the Texas School Book Depository. Sorry, but after being there I don’t see how the shots could have come from the grassy knoll. The angle is very bad. That said, the shots from the 6th floor wouldn't have been that easy either, especially the last one (see photo). They even have x's in the road where Kennedy was hit so you can judge for yourself. Looks like it will just have to remain a mystery. Side comment – we just realized that we are also on kind of an unplanned “assassination tour”.  Now we might have to visit the state capitol in Baton Rouge (Huey Long in case you were wondering).

We toured the Dallas Art Museum in the afternoon. It has very strange floor plan and a wide range of art objects but as we judge largely by their collection of impressionists, not that great. It was free. Tex-Mex for dinner with sopapillas for dessert. We haven’t had sopapillas for years and years. They are so good!

Day 7 – Memphis Soul

Sun Studio

I’m not exactly sure what Memphis Soul is but I’m pretty sure we experienced it today through both music and food. Our day started with two music related tours. The first was the Sun Records studio on Union Street, kind of at the edge of the downtown area. Sun Records was at its peak in the mid-50s and is the place where Elvis was discovered and did his first recordings. They also recorded Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins, Johnny Cash, plus a lot of blues and Rock-a-Billy musicians. It was really pretty cool to stand in the actual recording studio where so many of the hits of the 50s were recorded. Our next stop was Stax Records, home to a lot of soul recording artists such as Otis Redding, Rufus Thomas, Isaac Hayes and many, many others. The tour was interesting but I think we preferred the Sun tour a little more because it was a little more in our time-frame.  

Isaac Hayes' Gold Plated Cadillac at Stax Records

Lunch today was at Gus’s downtown to sample their spicy chicken. The chicken was not as spicy as other places we have been, but for me it was the perfect blend. Absolutely delicious, tender and juicy.  After some time back at the hotel, we went to Charles Vergos' Rendezvous for dinner and to try their famous barbecue ribs. Rendezvous is one of the classic rib joints in Memphis and is pretty much hidden down an alley across from the Peabody Hotel.  Those were without a doubt the best dry rub ribs I have every tasted.  Even Jeanne, who isn’t a big fan of ribs, loved them. To top the evening, we went to the Orpheum Theater for a play. The Orpheum is one of the few remaining grand old theaters from the 20s. It an amazing place to see a play and we were very lucky to be in town when the touring company of “Memphis” was playing.

Day 6 – "Walking in Memphis"

Lorraine Motel In Memphis

We drove 4 hours to Memphis, checked-in early and had lunch at Corky’s on Poplar.  They were conveniently near our hotel and known for pulled pork which we both enjoyed.  After lunch, we went to the National Civil Rights museum which turned out to be very interesting.  The centerpiece is the Lorraine Motel where Dr. Martin Luther King was killed in 1968.  You get to stand on the balcony on the exact spot where he was shot and also look into his room, which was left exactly as it was on that day, complete with newspapers on the bed and cigarettes in the ashtray.  Part of the museum is across the street and includes exhibits in the boarding house where James Earl Ray stayed under an assumed name.  You can look through the window where he fired the fatal shot and very much visualize the scene (see photo – white wreath is were Dr. King was standing and his room is to the left, with the curtains open).  All in all it was pretty shocking but it is still part of our history.  

Next we drove downtown to watch the ducks’ parade at the Peabody Hotel. Crowded and a bit overrated, but it is one of the iconic things that Memphis is known for and you kind of have to do it.  In the evening we went walking on Beale Street and to B.B. King’s restaurant for some food and listen to blues.  The house band (B.B. King’s All Stars) was playing and they were great.  They even played some of the famous “Memphis soul” music with a couple of Sam and Dave numbers.

Day 3-5 – Mt. Juliet

Three days spent with the family.

Day 2 – Drive to Nashville, TN

Gran and Jeanne

We did the second leg of the trip from Philadelphia to Nashville (actually Mount Juliet) in a little under 6 hours, including a stop at the Russell Stover candy outlet outside of Knoxville where we bought this super-sized Mother’s Day gift.  Truthfully there is a lot more box than there is candy!

Day 1 – Drive to Wytheville, VA

Big Pencil!!!

We packed the car and left around 9 am for our approximately 450 mile drive to Wytheville, VA, which took about 7 hours.  The drive was uneventful and we have made it many times, but we had a nice German meal for dinner in Wytheville at the Matterhorn Restaurant.  We took a drive around Wytheville after dinner where we ran across this office supply store with the giant pencil in the center of town.