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Published: July 21st 2010
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Our last night in Santa Fe was spent at a New Mexican restaurant recommended by the campground owners. The food was very cheap and really tasty. Proper spicy green chili and salsa-what they call Christmas on the side and they gave us sopapillas for free whcih is a new Mexican pastry dessert that you cover in honey-yum! We told them it was the best Mexican food we had had and they said 'The best NEW Mexican food'!
After that we went into Santa Fe for a last walk around and there was a great vibe about the place. There was a 'new'Mexican style band of women singing and dancing and we watched them for quite a while. It really was a great atmosphere and our time there flew by. The people were really friendly and we even met a couple who had lived in San Fran and were moving east. They had the most beautiful mountain dogs!
The next day we crawled out of the tent early for a long drive ahead. Our aim-to make it as close to San Antonio as possible-a 13 hour drive in total. We had to stop off at Roswell and find out more
about the UFO mystery! We went to the museum and spent an hour reading up on all the reports of what happened in 1947. It really was interesting, can't really say for sure that there was definitely a UFO crash but the US government really did cover up SOMETHING!! We reckon it was probably more to with the Cold War, but who knows!! The truth is out there...
We reached Texas and its big, long roads of nothingness! It was sooo hot and our lack of air-con made for a very uncomfortable journey. The only thing to look at was the machines getting the oil (like in Dallas) that were everywhere. We finally stopped off at a motel outside Fort Stockton but as it was so expensive, we decided to camp. It was out of principle really, as we went to one motel and they said $50, and 5 minutes later she would only give it to us for $55! Cheeky thing! So we paid $10 and camped outside another motel ha ha! We were both bitten alive by mosquies that night though and didn't get much sleep as we were right beside the highway! But we felt good
for our budget-mindedness!
We set off early the next morning and headed for San Antonio and after manoeuvring through all the spaghetti junctions, we eventually found our hotel. We spent the day visiting the Alamo with Davey Crockett's memorial and went along the Riverwalk. It was so hot we had to take advantage of the happy hour specials along here. It was so pretty and really nice to chill out by the river. The next day it was like all our Christmasses had come at once when we did a Wyndam Vacation (time share) tour and got given $75 worth of goodies! $50 for dinner, a riverboat cruise and our parking paid for! Well worth it and we had a great dinner in the Rainforest cafe-3 course luxury!! The tour rep was a bit suspicious of our motives considering we really are 2 unemployed travellers but we played the game well and I think we almost convinced ourselves we were going to buy the timeshare!
The next day we set off for Austin, about an hour north of San Antonio. The hotel looked great at first and we spent a couple of hours poolside chilling out. Then we
headed into Austin and stopped off at the State Capitol, fully furnished with pics of all the governors, including old George W. It was interesting to see the State Capitol and get a feel for 'Texas'. It really is what you think-big, brash, loud and proud. The stereotypes seem pretty true-they all say 'yàll', seem to spit when they talk and don't really seem to know much of what happens outside of Texas!
The hotel in Austin deserves a mention for being the worst yet-dirty towels, the gym was out of order, the laundry was out of order and the drinks machine was out of order. Plus the whole first night it sounded like there were about 50 people in the car park (where our car was) screeching tyres and causing trouble. So don't stay in the North Austin Plaza Hotel and Suites!
Austin, itself, was great for the live music and we had a great night out in a number of different bars listening to jazz and country. Sixth street was alive and there was a real buzz. However, during the day, the city was pretty dead. This does seem to be the case in a lot
of US cities where people shop and eat in the suburbs and there isn't much life in the centre-or 'downtown'as they say.
So, having had our fill of the Lone star state (and loving all the country music connections) we headed for the Pelican state-Louisiana of course! We found a KOA (campground) in a place called Scott near Lafayette and had enough time to chill out and make tea before it got dark. And, of course, make a start the 1.5 lt bottle of wine I got for $6.47! The campsite was a bit creepy though and there were lots of cat-like animals hanging around our tent-god knows what they were! Didn't get much sleep as it was so hot and sticky and the tent didn't get any cooler all night. We were up about 7am in the morning just because it was so hot by that stage! No rush for the showers, mind you, as we seemed to be the only campers about!
We passed through Baton Rouge the next morning and headed straight for New Orleans. We were looking forward to checking out the gumbo and jambalaya-will let you know how we get on!
Lots
of love from us xxxx
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Gillian
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Hi
Operator, won't you put me on through.... love the pics, especially the Roswell one - not seen you for a while Debs, but you've really CHANGED ;) xxxx