This morning we drove down to the River Walk in San Antonio. It’s an area bristling with small shops and bistros that runs along the river loop in the middle of town. It was very scenic. As the river area is recessed, it’s well shaded and cool and has a the feel of an oasis in a desert of concrete. Overall downtown San Antonio is quite enjoyable and a must see.

 

I wish I could say the same for the surrounding outskirts. A tremendous amount of urban sprawl and lots of construction. Many elevated highways are being added which detracts from the view. It appears to be typical in Texas to have three lane “secondary roads” on both sides of an interstate.

 

After a visit to the guild district and a quick lunch, we hit the road for a drive thru Texas Hill Country. The landscape quickly opened up to the sagebrush and hills that one usually associates with old serial westerns. Although we didn’t see any cowboys. We tried a brief sojourn to Fredricksburg which is supposed to be some sort of artsy town, but I’m afraid we missed downtown and didn’t really find anything worth pulling over for. Save for the above Terminator Bull that was lurking near Johnson City.

 

We drove out to what was proclaimed to be the “Devil’s Backbone”. The guidebook made it sound like treacherous twisty roads. Save for a couple of 300 yd sections, it was rather a disappointment. Hopefully we can find some better terrain during our next diversions into New Mexico. We think we’re going to nix Alberquque in favor of Santa Fe. We have a small map that the LOST group gave us with some routes of interest.

 

Later that evening in Austin, Doug’s friend Mike picked us up for dinner with his lovely family. Ironically, when we spend the day tooling about in our cars, often when we hit the hotel the thrill of driving has worn off. So chauffeured services are most welcome.

 

Factoid: The Lotus Elise has actually been around since 1996. The original variant (Series 1) was not sold in the US, due to federal regulations. The second generation (ahem, Series 2) was introduced around late 2000. It was later substantially "federalized" and first hit our shores in 2004 as an ‘05 model.