Friday

OK - Terry will take this one:

Leaving Austin with a full stomach courtesy of the local franchise Cajun eatery Jazz and saying goodbye to our new found friends from Ontario, Canada and Milwaukee, USA we trekked South on I-35 to San Antonio. Here are a couple of shots of the restaurant Jazz, inside and out:

The inside is pretty spacious. You can see where the bands play to the left of the shot.


The outside is pretty hip too. In case no one knew, Lance Armstrong is from Austin.


Charlie: Jazz has the best jambalaya I've ever tasted. Two years ago when I was here, I had a triple order! (it's only listed as an appetizer) Everything was great until I needed to use the bathroom:


Seriously, we're not sure what this is a picture of. Approaching it from afar it looked like a sunrise. The dark part at the bottom are trees/field. The flame was easily 50 to 60 feet high. There was fog/low clouds that were reflecting the light for miles. It was actually scary as we got closer. (it was about 3:30 am when this picture was taken) It was creepy and cool at the same time.

The return will be a bit longer in terms of miles, but will take us through cities we have never been to before… namely New Orleans, location of the delta of the great Mississippi.

In San Antonio, we visited the famed Alamo. A sacred location to Americans and especially Texans, this is considered the birthplace of Texas freedom. Texas was its own country before joining the Union. For thirteen days, a handful of brave Texans held the missionary turned strategic entrenchment. They did not surrender and all died for the freedom of Texas.

On the door of the Alamo, is an inscription which was moving in a simple Texas-like way.
It reads:

Be Silent, Friend
Here Heroes Died
To Blaze a Trail
For Other Men.

Here are some shots of the Alamo to remember...





Outside of the Alamo (we could not go inside for it was around 9:30 pm CST) we saw a monument erected in 1936 commemorating 100 years since the great sacrifice. It has names of the people from the battle including Dave Crockett.

After we got back into the car, I sent off a post card of the original Planet of the Apes movie (c. 1960s) to my brother. While circling around the post office, I caught drift of several Wi-Fi spots, but could not connect; people are getting more techno-savvy.

So, we got onto I-37 North, got onto Loop-410 and onto I-10 East. I-10 East goes to
Jacksonville, Florida, but we plan to turn up in New Orleans for Atlanta. On the way is Houston and then we will pretty much drive through the length of Louisiana.

-Terry

Charlie: I'm just going to add that I am uploading this blog entry from a Starbucks in New Orleans. Looking out of the window at Decatur Street, we this:


We are going to take some pictures around Bourbon Street now and then we will be en route to Mobile, Alabama (no Bob Dylan jokes please!)

.:C:.