10 & 11 SEP 2010

We decided to travel towards Houston from New Orleans. We left the city and for miles we drove on the freeway that seemed to be raised above the watery swamps. It seemed funny to be on roads that were raised on pillars as high as needed to keep them above the water and marshes.

The drive to Houston was uneventful although it was long. We were surprised to arrive during rush hour and find the American engineers had been busy building roads that seemed create multiple layers. Wes found sorting all this out a bit stressful since often we would be driving with 5 and 6 lanes of traffic and we needed to focus to be in the right lane. The GPS helped alot, but still we had to pay close attention. We made only one error, and that was a very strange off ramp, immediate left turn to drive under the freeway (2 sets actually) and once through had to turn left again to get on a road that ran parallel to the freeway with an on-ramp lane. We thought the first left was an on-ramp (and it was, but also one lane carried on beside the freeway) so we did not turn but drove through thinking we would find the left turn down the road, we didn’t but not a serious issue. We just turned around and went back. If you have not driven in these conditions, you have no idea of how complicated it can be yet once you see how it is done, not difficult at all. In total we drove over 6 hours today, which we both agree is too much.

We got up on Saturday (11th) [which is my brother Wade’s birthday btw] and decided that we would drive a shorter distance today to San Antonio. On the way we would be going close to the Natural Bridge Caverns and decided they sounded worth visiting. Wow, what a place to go. We did two tours, the first was the Illuminati Tour

and the second was the Discovery

Natural Bridge Caverns are the largest known commercial caverns in the state of Texas. The name was derived from the 20 m (65 foot) natural limestone slab bridge that spans the amphitheater setting of the cavern's entrance. The span was left suspended when a sinkhole collapsed below it. The caverns are still very active and growing. Water flows and drips constantly throughout, are causing the formations to retain a waxy luster that can be seen in few caverns.

The caverns were discovered on March 27, 1960, by students Orion Knox Jr., Preston Knodell, Al Brandt and Joe Cantuv from St. Mary's University. In 1968, speculation on a southern extent to the North Cavern was confirmed when test drilling indicated the presence of a large void beneath the surface. Further explorations have been done and the southern caverns have been discovered and added to the tours.

We had such a great time and enjoyed spending the 2 hours as deep as 186 feet below ground. There is lots of lights and good footing so there is no real sense of danger or concern. The temperature is 70 but with the humidity of 90 plus percent so the actual ‘feel like’ temp is closer to 85-90.

I had not spent any time trying to describe the sights but have created a couple of collages (above) to display some of the pictures I have taken. There are small but if you would like to see more let me know. The formations are so beautiful and very slow development. They figure that stalactites and stalagmites grow at a rate of 1 cubic cm per 100 years so these are very old and very fragile.

We left the caverns to continue on to San Antonio which is only about 20 more miles and find our hotel no problem. One of the things we have been doing is looking for hotel rooms at discount rates through the internet and that has worked well. We have been able to get rooms for not much more than the tent sites would be, and the rooms are air conditioned.

We had read about the Riverwalk and wanted to walk down to it since our hotel is close enough to walk. The San Antonio River Walk (also known as Paseo del Río) is a network of walkways along the banks of the San Antonio River, one story beneath downtown. The Riverwalk is lined by bars, shops and restaurants. There are canal taxis and canal tours happening so the river itself is busy. As part of the water control there is a dam at one end with locks in place to raise and lower the boats. I think that right now the height difference is about 15 – 20 feet but that is only a guess. We were able to watch a canal taxi go through the lock.

While we were downtown (by walking along the Riverwalk) we went to the iMAX to watch the 3D movie ‘Alamo – The Price of Freedom’ which dramatized the story of the Alamo. It was really good. Tomorrow we will visit the Alamo historical site itself. I knew the story of the Alamo of course, but never have been so close to the location and history that impacted Texas so much – to the point of creating a Republic of Texas from 1936 to 1946 when it was annexed to the United States as a state. A lot of history in this area and I look forward to exploring it more tomorrow.   It was fun to hear about David Bowie, David Crocket, etc.

Tonight it is a swim in the pool here, relaxation and sorting out of pictures. More tomorrow.

By the way, here is a picture of the cacti we see growing wild in this area.