Packing and transfers, San Antonio

Thursday evening after work, along with packing for the trip to San Antonio, we hauled a load of yard sale items to Norman so he could market them for us while we were traveling. I had loaded most of the items onto a trailer Tuesday when I was off but we still had a few big items to complete the load and get it over to Bowie. As I sit here this morning, I am not sure how well we did in the yard sale but I do know that Norman and Grandma gave away the bed that Victoria had taken there to be sold. It was continuing proof that business ventures with the Thaxton’s never pan out well for us. When we got back to the farm, it did not take long to pack.

Mama and I spent Friday and Saturday on a trip to San Antonio with Jake. It was a really good trip. As with all such trips, it cost more than we had anticipated but we did not really put ourselves on a budget for the trip. We did some things we would not have done had Jake not been with us, like the Wax Museum and a short movie about the Alamo, but we had fun. We got to San Antonio a little after 1 pm Friday and started on a walking tour of the River Walk very soon after we arrived. We were not able to check into our hotel until 4 pm so we had a few hours to mosey through the shops and look over the restaurant choices. We did eventually get to the hotel and rested a short while before heading back out. Most of Friday was spent getting our bearings, shopping and getting a plan together for the next day. We were out until a little after 9 pm. We were all pretty worn out.

Saturday morning, we went to a panaderia near the hotel and had a wonderful breakfast before we headed to the Alamo. Everything was within walking distance – four blocks at the most – from the hotel which made it nice for us. We had valet parked the car so we did not have to worry about it or fight for a spot in the very crowded area around the Alamo. When we finished at the Alamo, we headed to the IMAX Theater to see the 45-minute movie about the Alamo. Mama and I felt like it was a good way for Jake to get a feel for the history of the story and understand the reverence showed to the remains of the old fort. By the time we finished the movie, it was time to check out of the hotel and get headed home.

Driving home was the worst part of the trip. It took nearly eight hours to make the 5 ½ hour drive. There were major vehicle accidents at three different spots on the interstate. I seemed like we were in bumper-to-bumper traffic much of the way home. Mama managed to navigate us around each of them but we were not the only ones on the road who looked for an alternate route, so even though the freeway was very slow, the alternate route was quickly choked with stop and go traffic as well. One wreck that slowed the entire intestate was not even on the interstate but everyone wanting to rubber-neck the scene slowed up traffic for about twenty minutes. The last of the three wrecks we wormed our way around looked like it was a very bad one. The vehicle was completely destroyed. All the doors had been cut off, all the glass was gone and the hood was lying beside the remains of the wreck. It was hard to imagine how anyone could have survived. Because of the impatience after cars cleared each of the chokepoints we were nearly involved in an accident; it was a very near miss. Irritated drivers were cutting back and forth trying to get out in front – only to get to the next jam. Mama did not have kind words for the inattentive driver that almost hit us. We were not in a hurry so it well worked out in the end, but it was a brutal drive back home.

I fly out today and will not be back in the office until Friday.