Sunday, 1 Apr 2012 - San Antonio, Tx

Wildflowers of Texas

Texas Bluebells and Pink ???

Some people collect spoons, I collect pics of cop cars.

Hot day, cold beer and a patio. Life is good.

We bid farewell to South Padre Island and as much as we've loved our holiday, we are both anxious to get back on the road (me) and get home (Wayne). It was a scorcher today and by the time the van was packed, we were both looking at the ocean and wishing we had time for one more swim.

Wayne loves jigsaw puzzles, which is why I think he's so darn good at packing a car. Everything fit in nice and snug and our new fancy-dancy plug-in cooler was filled with cold drinks and lunchables. We enjoy stopping at some of the beautiful rest stops and making our own lunch so this cooler eliminates the messy ice packs etc....a good investment I think. We stopped at a rest area overlooking a beautiful valley and had a great lunch. Once again, we congratulated ourselves on making the decision to not eat in restaurants for lunch.

It wasn't going to be a long drive today as San Antonio is about 5 hrs from SPI. Once we'd been on the road for a couple of hours I noticed that the cactus were in full bloom and then a bit further on the wildflower show started. I'll have to spend some time on the internet to try and identify them but it was a spectacular sight. We were on the Interstate and the colour was up each side of the highway as well as all along the grassy divide. Fortunately the old highway ran parallel to the Interstate so we got off for a while so that we could stop and take pictures. It was the sheer numbers and varieties of flowers that blew me away....huge patches of white poppies and purple thistles; small deep purple flowers; another that looked like a wild geranium that was mauve with a darker mauve line through the petals;yellow, orange, blue, pink....it was endless and honestly, one of the most amazing things I've ever seen.  I'll never forget the sight. Of course there was still a destination to be made and we had to continue driving or I would have stayed all day. I was also treading VERY CAREFULLY as the snakes are also around and some of the grass was deep.

We got to the Best Western downtown, just 2 blocks from the Riverwalk. It was over 90 degrees and we waited until the sun went down before heading there for supper. It's an Easter holiday week in Mexico and they traditionally head to SPI and into Texas for their vacation so the Riverwalk was quite busy. We sat outside on a patio to eat and then did a walk-about before heading back to the hotel.  I started talking to a woman while waiting for Wayne to pay the bill and in the space of 15 minutes we'd traded life stories and shared a cigarette. We've met so many nice people and half the fun of these holidays is finding out where people come from and what they think makes them special.

Tomorrow we continue North to Austin and Dallas/Fort Worth and we'll try to make some short detours to see if the wildflowers are out there as well. The weather is supposed to continue to be hot....I could never be here in the summer as I get 'wild dog hot' at a certain temperature and can't cope at all. I'm not sure how they manage except to stay inside in the air conditioning once the thermometer hits 100 degrees...which is the norm during the summer.

It was a great day and we won't have much trouble sleeping tonight. Hope all is well there and until next time, love and hugs to all.