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Davy Crockett and others
Texas,
the state where everything is bigger and better and speed limits on the roads
are higher. Today we were entering another "first state" where neither of us had
been before. All the way on the trip I had been looking forward to coming to
Texas, so I could take some pictures of real Longhorn cattle, as we see in
Western movies, but it became one big disappointment.
The day was another transpĺort day where we were going all the way to San
Antonio in Texas, without wanting to see anything in particular. We left
Carlsbad early and continued south on U.S. 285. 35 miles later we were in Texas.
Not that the landscape changed much, but the speed limit on the highway
increased from 60 miles per hour to 70, and there were several oil pumps along
the way. We saw no cows though, neither Texas Longhorns nor any other breed. The
next day we saw a cow, but it was just an ordinary cow. I therefore managed to
drive 1,000 miles through Texas without seeing a single longhorn cow. The
picture to the left, I have borrowed from Wikipedia.
Near the town of Fort Stockton we met with I-10, and followed it eas at 80 miles
per hour, the highest speed we were allowed on any interstate this trip. It's
actually the highest speed allowed anywhere in the United States, except for
some short stretches of I-15 in Utah, where the 80 miles limit is tested. In
fact, it's legally allowed in Texas to have an 85 miles speed limit, but so far
no counties have introduced this limit. We continued east with a nice speed and
we onlys topped three times between Fort Stockton and San Antonio. The
first time so that I could get a cup of coffee on a cafe, at the same time
changing driver, one time to eat lunch at a rest area and the last time to get
gas in the city of Boerne, just 30 miles outside San Antonio. The singer, model
and actress Hilary Duff is originally from this town, as are three other
actresses, Ann B. Davis, Susan Howard and Summer Glau. Not bad for a town of
only 10,000 inhabitants. The gas station and a barbershop across the road, was
what we saw of the town before we continued the last few miles to San Antonio,
goal of the day.
Here we found a suitable hotel, and not too expensive. In fact the it proved to
be the cheapest hotel we have ever stayed at during the entire trip. Only 59,
including tax. It turned out that even if the hotel was located in an area with
small industry and craft shops, it was only about 5 miles from the "historic
downtown" of San Antonio. After having brought our baggage to the room, we
tested the internet, but found it wasn't very efficient, so twe didnřt upload
any pictures to the internet in San Antonio, like we hadn't in Carlsbad.
Instead
we drove to downtown to take a look at the Alamo, the famous mission station,
that a certain Mexican general and politician besieged for 13 days in 1836. The
general had the interesting name 'Antonio de Padua María Severino López de
Santa Anna y Pérez de Lebron' but are usually only referred to as Santa
Anna. Among the besieged, who were all killed in the final battle on March 5th
and 6th 1836, were celebrities like Lieutenant Colonel in the U.S. Army, William
B. Travis, the military commander of the forces at Alamon, Colonel of the Texas
Militia, James Bowie, the guy with the knife, who was commanding the volunteers.
Among these volunteers were the famous former politician, congressman and
presidential candidate besides soldier, trapper and marksman, Davy Crockett, who
had arrived in town on February 3rd. We soon found the place, but had to drive
around a while to find a place to park the car, but finally we succeeded. From
the parking lot, we walked to the Alamo mission station.
There is not much left of what waw there in 1836. Only what was originally the
chapel and a single building used as barracks before and during. The chapel is
now a "shrine" of the 189 who died during the siege. There are memorial plagues
with the names of all of those killed in the battle, including one Charles Zanco,
a Dane from Randers. Zanco traveled to America with his father, Frederick in
1834. He was a painter and made one of the first versions of an independent
Texas flag. He was a lieutenant in the Texas' artillery during the War of
Independence against Mexico, and during the Alamo siege he was assistant to
Major Evans, the fort's weapons officer. Later (in 1851) his father, Frederick
Zanco, received 1,500 acres of land in northeast Texas, as a reward for
his son sacrifice, as Charles had no other heirs. Heirs of the other who died
were awarded similar plots,like Davy Crockettes widow, Elizabeth, who received
land near what is now the town of Acton, not far from Dallas. Here she is buried
in what is today Acton State Historic Site the smallest state park in Texas. The
252 square feet park only contains the graves of Elizabeth, one of Davys sons
and his wife.
When we had seen enough of the shrine, we also visited the barracks, which today
is a museum that tells the story of San Antonio and The Alamo. We jmissed the
souvenir shop, and instead returned to the car through a major shopping mall
with air conditioning - it was hot that afternoon. With a few problems we
redeemed the car from the parking lot, but not as much trouble as the guy in
front of us, who twice had to "call" hotline to get an explanation of how the
machine worked.
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