TX Vacation 2008 – To San Antonio

Early the next morning, I started my adventure — catching the DART and making my way to Enterprise to pick up the rental car. It was less than 5 miles from the hotel as the crow flies, but according to the trip planner the trip would take 1.5 hours and have one transfer. I found out real quick that my bus route map wasn’t going to cut it. I made it to the downtown area and then missed the transfer point. The bus driver was nice enough to tell me where to catch the right bus. Without him the “quick bus ride” would have turned into several hours. Finally made it to a bus stop a 1/4 of a mile from Enterprise. Enterprise was a busy place. The guy at the front desk said I may have to wait for the size of car that I had reserved — that is unless I would take an SUV. In my mind I was thinking $$$$ in gas cost. I hesitated. He countered with “it’s a Mazda 5, our smallest SUV. It’s hardly the size of a regular SUV.” I agreed and stepped out to find a nice freshly washed Mazda 5 with a whopping 300 actual miles on it. It was real cool. Probably the newest car I’d ever driven. It was perfect.

I headed back to the hotel. We loaded up, checked out, ate a quick breakfast and headed for San Antonio.

We stopped mid-way in Waco, TX to see the Dr. Pepper Museum. It was pretty cool. We poked around the gift shop and sat down by the soda jerk and sipped a genuine Dr. Pepper made with pure cane sugar. Mmmm. Here’s some other pics.

Side note: They say “Everything is bigger in Texas.” Well, everything except for the entrance ramps on all of the highways. Maybe it’s that way in other states or maybe I just don’t get out much. Anyway, I never got used to it on the whole trip.

We finally arrived in San Antonio and checked into the Hill Country Inn & Suites that we reserved through Travelocity. I was pleasantly surprised. It was nice except for the bathroom. The toilet leaked and the shower had a reeeally slow drain.

It was then off to El Mercado in the Market Square and the Riverwalk in downtown San Antonio.

El Mercado and the Market Square was cool if you like cheap Tex-Mex trinkets (which I don’t). We did eat dinner there. That was good.

The Riverwalk was all that people said it was — and more (j/k). I thought it was really cool. From the street you wouldn’t even know it was there, but once you get down to the walk area, it’s like a whole other world of restaurants, art and cool trees. Here’s the pics we took there. And no, I still haven’t been able to figure out how to get decent pictures at night with my camera. The pictures don’t do it justice.

What a long day — an early morning for me, lots of driving, lots of walking and a late night. We all crashed pretty hard back at the hotel.