Across The USA by Dodge
Chapter 17
Sunday July 26th, 1992 - Thursday July 30th 1992
Skipping ahead a while to San Antonio, I went and saw a pro bowlers tournament there (it's amazing how good they are -- I've got a ways to go, as they say over there) as well as all the other attractions including the Alamo, a Ripley's Believe It Or Not and Theatre of Wax (which were virtually identical to those on the Gold Coast), the Witte Museum, Pioneer Hall and the Lone Star Brewery.
The Alamo is an amazing place. Everyone is most respectful, you can't wear a hat inside for example, and the displays in the old chapel are excellent. There's not much left of the original Alamo but a display in an old building outside is quite good with wax figures and the history of the battle.
I wandered through the Plaza and River Centre which is a huge shopping complex with nice architecture and a very serene setting. There's an Imax Theatre and I saw "The Alamo - The Price of Freedom" and bought some souvenirs (mainly for myself, mind you) from cool shops like Art Explosion.
The Lone Star Brewery features the Buckhorn Hall of Fins, Feathers and Horns, the old Buckhorn Saloon, a Hall of Texas Wax Museum and O Henry's house. Basically it's a massive collected of stuffed animals.
Trivia time: this is the place where the term "happy hour" was invented. The bloke that owned the saloon was a hunter who collected animals from all around the world plus the antlers of deer. Every Friday afternoon he offered free beer to anybody who bought him in a set of antlers -- this became happy hour. His wife collected rattlesnake rattles and also offered free beer for those. She used the rattles for artistic purposes, making some brilliant mosaics, some of which were on display.
San Antonio is a nice city with the downtown area situated on a river -- it's called the San Antonio River, surely they could have thought of something a little more original than that. There's the Paseo del Rio (river walk) which meanders alongside the river (that's stating the obvious) with its stone paths linking a number of restaurants, malls and museums and La Villita which was the original settlement. I wandered along the Paseo del Rio for a few hours one day -- it was real serene walk.
The PBA tournament was the Columbia 300 Open and did the players throw some 300 games! There were 14 in all and just showed how brilliant these guys are. It's pretty amazing seeing all the famous names in person. Like I walked into the Bowl and was standing there watching Dave Arnold practice and looked at the guy standing next to me -- Hey you're David Ozio.
The names were there in numbers -- Amleto Monacelli, Marshall Holman, Walter Ray Williams, Chris Warren, Brian Voss, Randy Pedersen, Mike Aulby et al.
Chapter 18
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