Remember the Alamo

We made it to Roswell, New Mexico and gained an extra hour as we passed over the time zone into New Mexico. I appreciated that extra hour and was finally able to get 8 hours of sleep. It was wonderful!

da boyz on an original well from the mission days

Yesterday was a driving day - one of our longest ones on this trip. We were up early and visited the Alamo for an hour or so. It is right in the middle of downtown. Not much of the original buildings remain - the church (which is now a shrine) and the Long Barracks (which contains the museum). There are other areas that were reconstructed in the 1920's and it is a quiet place where people can come to sit and reflect. As we walked through the museum, I began to understand the progression of the Texan independent spirit.

Marriage Island

The Riverwalk was right across the street, so we went back over to show Joe the underground canal system and ride the river barge for a 35 minute tour. Our guide told us mostly about the buildings that tower over the river, when they were built, who built them etc. One thing that I thought was interesting was one of the hotels (the Hyatt, I think) was originally planned to be 24 stories, but it ended up only 16 floors because at the original height it would have cast a shadow on the Alamo. The city felt this would be disrespectful, so the hotel agreed to the limited height. They like their Alamo and all that it represents.


On the way out of San Antonio, we stopped at Lulu's Bakery. It is the home of one of the largest cinnamon rolls I've ever seen. It weighs 3 pounds and is the size of someone's head. The boys had seen this place on the Travel Channel's Man v. Food and we decided we had to go get one of these gigantic pastries. The long wait for a table and our desire to get moving, determined the decision to get our cinnamon roll to go. It was all wrapped up and we decided it would be our reward when we arrived in Roswell.


It was a 9.5 hour drive with stops for gas and dinner. We've decided that western Texas is our least favorite place so far on the trip. We stopped at a Pizza Hut in Fort Stockton for dinner. The restaurant was a hopping place, but the waitress and others were not very friendly. Maybe we have gotten so accustomed to the friendly south that it was just a reality check for us, but we remembered our experience in Big Spring, and guess where it's located? Western Texas - just like Fort Stockton, and all of those boring oil wells that go on forever and ever.


The best part of the trip for Joe and Zach is that from Stockton to just outside of Roswell, they got to drive. We were driving on a deserted state highway and  I figured this was the safest place to hand over my keys. They both did okay, but I was very nervous and annoyed Joe especially when we came up on some trucks he had to pass on the little two lane highway. Needless to say, my leg muscles were tight and sore when I finally took over the wheel for the final 50 miles of our trip. They really aren't bad drivers. I'm just a little tense when they are driving. Okay, I'm really tense!


We've got another long drive to Flagstaff. We are having dinner with Chandel and her husband Nate tonight. Chandel was one of my girls from the girls Bible study I led years ago. I'm looking forward to seeing her again! 


We don't have much time really to enjoy Roswell, but we did see the alien shaped lights downtown, and the McDonald's that looks like a UFO as we drove into town. I'm looking for ET, but I don't see him anywhere, although there are plenty of statues of his cousins around town.