Victory or Death

Day 9

Still in Texas

Sites seen: Safelite auto repair, The Alamo, the Riverwalk, Cathedral of San Fernando

We started our day with our mile run in an effort to beat the heat. This was only mildly successful. Then it was showers and pack our lunches quickly so we could get to Safelite for our 9:30 appointment. For those of you wondering, they do send people out to fix the windshield, but the next time they could do that is Monday. We leave here Sunday. So we dropped it off and took a lyft to the Alamo.

I don’t know what I imagined the Alamo would look like but this wasn’t it. (Insert comment from my brother about how I need to study history more…) I guess when I picture it, it’s in the middle of a desert, isolated, and on its own. And maybe it was like that at one time but the city has grown up around it. So you’re walking around in the middle of the city and suddenly there it is.

Once here, we toured the property, hit up the gift shop, and then watched the video. In hindsight, the video should have been first. It was very informative. (Also, during the video, Miss R pulled out her two last baby teeth…I guess she found the video riveting!) The most striking thing for me was the determination of the Texans. There was only around 200 of them fighting a Mexican army of 6,000. But still they fought. Their commander sent letters to surrounding strongholds asking for reinforcement but stated they would fight and it would be victory or death. Unfortunately, it was death for all of them.

Next we took a stroll along the riverwalk. This is a nice little walk along the river and meanders by hotels and restaurants and shops (oh my!). I’m glad we did this early in the day while it was still in the 90s.

Then we went to see the Cathedral of San Fernando. I only took one picture inside and then no more. While I get the impression that most of these people were tourists, it was clear they were there for the religious experience of it all and I did not want to disrupt that for them.

The cathedral was used by the Mexican army in the battle of the Alamo. Santa Anna hoisted a flag from the top saying “no quarter” meaning there would be no prisoners and no one would be spared. If the Texans lost, they would all die.

Our final stop before heading back to the campground to try and beat the heat in the bathwater pool was for ice cream. It was an excellent way to beat the heat for a little while today.

The rest of our afternoon has been spent in the pool. The girls have made some friends while here and they alternate between swimming, playing basketball, and the playground. It’s nice to see them reaching out and meeting new people.

I have also been struck on this trip by how this is an excellent age to do this with the girls. They’re old enough to go off and play with people in the campground, or go ahead into the next room of a museum, and go to the showers and the bathroom by themselves. We have run into a lot of other families traveling with much younger children and this seems like a lot more maintenance. I’m not saying traveling across the country and spending many hours in the car with an 11 and almost 13 year old is a walk in the park, but I do think it could be worse!

We have one more day in Texas tomorrow and, according to my weather app, it is supposed to be hotter than today. Yippee!

Talk to you soon-

Deanna