After the fiasco of the October trip we did a little more planning relative to Ted's lung problem. Namely we rented an oxygen concentrater for use in the car and at night and had all equipment in the car hooked up pneumatically and electrically. LOX travel tank checked out. Garmin GPS unit installed (and partially checked out0. Webbook checked out. Ready to roll - we hoped.
We went to the Desert Museum at Tuscon, but it was up in the hills and too spread out for Ted to walk around. But we ate at a nice resort in the Tuscon hills (lots of winding narrow roads).
The drive to Dallas was interesting - of sorts. Pretty strong cross winds but not much dust. Losts of big wind farms - props turning and electrons running all over the place. Oil wells, too. Ted even saw a coati mundi road-kill, a first for him. (Look it up!) Peg's son Jay and family (Hope, Caitlin, Jack the dog, obese cat and talkative guinea pig) had moved into a new place in a suburb north of Dallas so we checked that out. While there we went to the Gaylord Hotel 's Snoopy Ice Show. This was an ice sculpture show using sculptors brought over from Harbin, China. Very good - Ted especially liked the clear ice sculptures of the Christmas story. Was cold in the area but we were bundled up - see picture.
The Google lads did a good job on their search program but they should have worked on Blogger when they bought it. Maybe it's just me but it's sort of a pain in the you-know-what - but it's free. Maybe I'll get better as things go on.
The drive to San Antone was fine - good old Garmin. Thanks you guys for the present. I wouldn't be without it now. Might even try to use it in Europe. We stayed at the Hilton and had a river view room. But the place for viewing the river is at water level. Visit it and walk around. Our screw-up here was that we assumed (never assume) that the "Parade" would be Thursday night. We should have known better. We were lucky to get the same room for another day. Meant changing reservations down the line but Peg knows an outfit that will change them for you. We had planned to stay in El Paso and eat at the Dome Restaurant (supposedly an icon) but decided against it from a breathing viewpoint.
We had never seen so many Hispanics - not a racist statement - just a fact. We had Thanksgiving brunch at the Hilton. We are spoiled. It couldn't beat the Brown Palace in Denver, the Cobb Galeria or even the Wigwam in Phoenix. See pics above.
A cold front came through. We were not dressed for the cold. Ted bought a Texas sweatshirt since we were eating out side to see the parade of boats. Our food left something to be desired - I think they recycled the steaks as shoe soles. Parade was sort of disappointing. Maybe if it hadn't been so cold. It was 28 F in the morning when we left.
Drive home uneventful. Sorry we couldn't (or didn't) eat at the Dome. But maybe just as well. Even stronger cross winds going back (while in Texas) and a good bit of dust. Some negatives on this trip but we're glad we did it. As Ted's mother used to say "You don't know what the monkey chews until it spits." How's that for a good ol' Arkansas saying....???
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