I Wonder as I Wander…

We are back in San Antonio—we were here 10 years ago. And, although it has changed a lot—it’s still pretty much the same, especially along the Riverwalk where we spent most of our free time. Although we didn’t have too much free time—Bob was in meetings most days, and with my convention a little over a week away, I was really busy with details for it.

We got here Monday evening, checked into our hotel and went walking along the River to stretch our legs. We found a nice restaurant where we shared an appetizer of crab salad, shrimp, and salmon. Then we split a meal of fish—they even plated the two meals separately—very fancy.

The next days passed in a blur of Bob going off to his meetings (earlier every day it seemed, until his Friday morning one was at 7:30 am). He usually had a couple hours off for lunch, so we would walk down to one of the restaurants along the river, sit outside at one of the tables and enjoy lunch—food always tastes so good when you eat outside! One of our favorite places is Country Line Barbeque—although they serve huge portions. One day I had a BBQ appetizer that included four pork ribs, a HUGE beef rib, smoked turkey, and a good amount of brisket. It was really good—I’ve discovered I really like brisket.

In the evenings, we would walk generally after we ate supper—we went to both ends of the riverwalk. You can only stroll where it’s so busy and through all the restaurants, because it’s so crowded and you just thread your way slowly. But, if you get out to the main river, there aren’t too many people and you can walk seriously. At one end, they are expanding the boardwalk, so they have diverted the river, so it’s dry and they can work on it. There was also an explanation of how they built a tunnel under the river that comes out a lot lower and quite a ways down the river to keep it from flooding the town. They can also close off the loop that goes through where all the hotels and restaurants are—and I guess they do every January, for maintenance. We never took the boat ride this year that explained all that, but since we were walking along the river so much, we heard most of it as the boats would go by.

For the Friday banquet at Bob’s convention, they had something a little different. We loaded into coaches and traveled out to the Knibbe Ranch. This was a working ranch—although we only saw one cow—and he had a saddle on him (you could get your photo taken on this longhorn steer). One of their wranglers came riding him, cracking a whip and twirling a lasso! Real ‘cowboy stuff’—I figure Sandy and Al will cringe if they see a picture of me on a cow—especially since he laid down and people just kept crawling on him (Bob and I included!) We had a wonderful meal of brisket (the Country Line’s was better, but it was still good), catfish, and other southern food. Again, we ate at picnic tables outside. There were about 300 people who went to the ranch.

The ranch must have had an agreement with the Marriott, because the napkins were from the Marriott and we had to sign a release saying we wouldn’t hold the Marriott responsible if we got hurt (falling from the cow!). The ranch was unique, because some archeologists had completed a dig there. At one place on the ranch, there were rocks that formed a fairly steep cliff. The prehistoric people had run buffalo over the cliff as part of their hunting. They found stones that were broke at 90 degree angles--that’s what archeologists look for to decide if there might be artifacts in an area. These people cooked on large flat slabs which they laid right on the fire—after a while the slabs would break from the heat (into right angles), so they would find another slab and set it on top of the last one.

From this area they found many spearheads—this was before the bow and arrow was used. They also found some atlatls—which is the tool the people used to throw their spears farther and harder. Right next to the cliff, they found many buffalo bones, because the people couldn’t move the buffalo—so would butcher it where it fell and haul the meat to the cooking area. It was really interesting. We went to that area on a hay ride, from there we went to a large hill where we could see a long ways in every direction. Just about the time we got up there, the moon came up and it was beautiful—totally full, huge, and bright orange when it came up.

The wife told us about the ranch. It had been in her husband’s family for five generations and started out about 20,000 acres—it’s been divided up because of the descendents. Their operation is breeding cattle and selling the calves. The cattle they have is a breed called Tiger stripe. I guess it’s a cross between Brahmas and White Faced Hereford. The Hereford has a better taste, but can’t survive on sparse grass. The Brahmas are a tough breed that can survive on anything, but are tough meat. So all their cows are this crossbreed—and are striped, which is where they get the name Tiger stripe. They then breed these cows to a Black Angus bull—which they said takes all the Brahma out of them.

They need this tougher breed because they have droughts all the time—some last for 3-4 years. Since the land is hilly and no water, they can’t hay, so the cows have to live off the grazing. I guess when they haven’t had rain—so there’s no grass, they burn the spines off the flat leafed cacti and the cows will eat them.

Saturday morning was Bob’s closing session, which included rolls and juice—so I went along. The speaker was LaDonna Gatlin, who is the younger sister of The Gatlin Brothers. She used to sing with them, until she decided to get married and have a family and leave the traveling behind. She is a great speaker—with a real sense of humor and would break into song quite often. We really laughed through all her talk. She did have a great message that she put to Do, Re, Mi

Do – Do the right thing
Re – Realize your potential by helping others realize theirs.
Mi – Mind your manners
Fa – Failures to fertilizer
So – Solutions begin with me
La – Laugh often
Ti – Time is valuable
And that brings us back to Do – Do the right thing!

We got ticket for the IMAX theatre of the 3D film of Mummies—it was really interesting of how the early Egyptians learned to mummify bodies and how modern scientists are trying to use some of the DNA from them to study diseases like malaria. We also learned about a man who learned to read hieroglyphics and in 1880, he discovered some grave robbers who had some artifacts from pharos—they discovered a burial site that had the mummies of 16 pharos and lots of others. They moved the mummies to a museum in Cairo, and shortly after, the tomb they found them in collapsed—so it was a good thing they moved them.

That evening we went to an ice show Disney’s High School Musical. It was OK, but would have been better if we had a few little girls with us who knew and loved the show. We didn’t know anything about it—in fact, we called Kara to learn what the plot was. There was a family with a little girl about 4 or 5 who sang along with every song. She also ended up with a toy microphone that flashed different colors and a pompom thing that spun with lots of different lights. The show was in the Alamo Dome—where the Spurs play basketball, but it was really empty—they only used half the arena, and none of the balconies, but probably only half the seats were filled.

Our room had a balcony that overlooked the river. We spent a fair amount of time in the evening, sitting out there enjoying the sights and sounds (we could hear the pan flute player from across the way). The sun would hit the balcony about 4 in the afternoon, so we got a little start on our tan.

On Easter Sunday, we attended an Easter Morning Sunrise service that was in the Arneson Theatre which is right on the riverwalk. In fact the stage in on one side of the river and an amphitheatre is on the other side. It's three Lutheran Churches that go together to put on a wonderful service--they have a combined choir, plus trumpets, organs and wonderful music. It was very special!