Around the USA in 80 motels and 123 days - Texas into New Mexico

[AndyGB]

A reminder that this post is taken from a journal written by my DW (Laura) but entered here by me (Andy), hence the slightly tortured grammar !

Written 1:45pm Mon 4th May – Laundromat – San Antonio

Saturday evening we went to Texas Roadhouse for a steak dinner. The steaks were lovely, I had mine medium well done with mash, green beans and gravy – very tasty. Andy had a massive ribeye steak and Hannibal posed in his little cowboy hat for some ‘Texas’ photos.

Sunday we left Houston and headed for San Antonio and more sunshine. We got to the motel around 2:30pm and were able to walk from there to the river walk and then along the river walk to downtown. We had dinner in a Tex-Mex restaurant on the riverside where a duck got very friendly with Andy !

(She wasn’t my type). Unfortunately we had a bad night with people shouting and swearing outside our room which meant Andy was very tired this morning.

Rain was forecast so we set off early, around 9am to get ahead of it. We walked in to town on the other side of the river walk and then on to The Alamo.

The Alamo was very interesting as I’d heard of it but knew very little about it. It was, surprisingly, free to enter, running on donations and gift shop sales. We first went into the shrine (the church at the centre of the mission which had a small number of displays about the missions history, the battle and the events leading up to it along with exhibits of old weapons. Then saw a short film, then the museum which had more information and finally the gift shop. We were hoping to find a little ‘Davy Crockett’ hat for Hannibal, but unfortunately couldn’t. ( Hats had to be removed in the shrine and there were volunteers inside ensuring the rules were followed and that nobody touched/leaned against the walls. It is obviously very important, almost a religious experience for some of the people there. It was interesting to follow the Davy Crockett story, which we started at the Tennessee state museum with his days there before he left and headed west, having lost his bid to be elected to congress saying “You may all go to hell and I will go to Texas” ).

After the Alamo we went to a nearby shopping mall for a drink and a wander and then went back along the river walk to the motel before heading here for the laundry as the machines in the motel didn’t work.

Written 3:45pm Wed 6th May – Quality Inn - Dallas

After we finished the laundry on Sunday we went for a meal at Chillies which was in a posher suburb of San Antonio. We had a much better sleep than the previous night. Tuesday we drove on the interstate to Dallas as it was quite a long drive. Andy’s phone lost its GPS signal for quite a while which was a bit worrying but we stopped at Starbucks for a coffee (and the inevitable banana nut bread) and he got it working again. We stopped a bit later for lunch at a cracker barrel where we both had roast beef sandwiches , mash potatoes and brown gravy and arrived at the motel just before 3pm. We had a little drive out to downtown Dallas to have a look and then stopped at Walmart to pick up some snacks for teas.

Today we went to The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza, in the book depository from where JFK was shot.

We were given audio tours, it was pretty busy and we were there for 2 ½ hours. We then went up to the 7th floor from where you could take photos just above where Lee Harvey Oswald fired from ((Kennedy's car was just about under the green signs having just turned left when he was hit))

then walked down to Dealey Plaza and the ‘grassy knoll’

before heading to the JFK memorial (not at all what we were expecting). We stopped for lunch at a Corner Bakery where we had chilli served in a bread bowl. Then made our way back to the motel.

Written 8:45am Sat 9th May – Travellodge – Amarillo

Thursday morning we left Dallas and headed north to Oklahoma City. Just after we arrived at the motel there was a massive storm with really loud thunder that shook the building. The motel clerk had been very friendly when checking in, chatting about our trip etc. When the storm cleared we drove to a nearby Italian restaurant where again the staff were really friendly. It wasn’t very busy, probably because of the storm, but we had a very tasty and reasonable meal including mussels, calamari and tiramisu.

Friday morning we drove into Oklahoma City and to the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum.

To start with I thought it was going to be a bit boring, just western inspired art, but the further we got into it the more there was to see. There were sections on various aspects of cowboy life, but also Rodeo and western films (and a lot of saddles !), also a section made up to look like a 1900 western cattle town.

We ended up being there a couple of hours and then headed west to Amarillo. As we drove the weather worsened until we were driving through a full on thunderstorm. We got to Amarillo just before 6pm by which time the sun had come out and drove to a nearby BBQ restaurant for dinner where we both had ribs which came with mash, onion rings, fried onion, coleslaw, apricot sauce, pickles, beans and Texas toast. We were very full !

Written 8:15am - Sun 10th May - Econolodge - Albuquerque

Quite a busy day yesterday. We left the motel in Amarillo and drove to it’s ‘historic route 66’ but there wasn’t much to see. We then drove across some very flat country where you could see for mile upon mile, out of Texas and in to New Mexico. We stopped in Fort Sumner, at the Old Fort Sumner museum

which was a very eclectic collection of all sorts, especially Billy The Kid memorabilia and saw Billy The Kids grave.

It piqued Andy’s interest enough to buy a book in the gift shop. It was too early to spend the night there and it was a one-motel town, so we drove on to Santa Rosa where there were a few motels but it was still early so we walked around the deserted town square

had lunch in a local Mexican restaurant (fish & chips !) and then drove on to Albuquerque. We booked into this motel then Andy went out to buy a kebab from a local place we found on google maps, but got a bit lost so instead came back with some stuff from Walmart.

Index

[Twinkletoes47]

Really enjoying your trip report 😀

[Gill247]

Really enjoying reading all about your adventures - a road trip around the U.S. is a dream of mine, how amazing you got to spend so much time on your travels. Look forward to reading more!