Tuesday, March 17, 2009

Lost - San Antonio style

And how could I be on a trip without getting lost? Doug headed off to a conference, and I headed back to the River Walk, armed with my camera, many, many maps, and my compass. First, I passed these really cute statues, and then headed down the steps to the river. Near our hotel, the river was a little branch off of the main route, and fairly desolate, even in early afternoon.

Here was one of several guys, relaxing, and this one called out to me to take his picture, so I did, thinking he was just being friendly to the tourist with all the junk in her hands. And then some street sense started to kick in, especially as he started to say things that weren't quite intelligible, and I realized that he actually wasn't looking particularly friendly. And I quickly decided to move further down the river and wait for the river taxi some place else.



I walked and walked and walked, and it is definitely a LOT hotter in San Antonio than Grand Forks (like 86 degrees above compared to 30 degrees below that week). At least I started to pass other tourists looking a bit lost and anxious about how and where to catch the River Taxi. The tour boats continued to pass, but the real implications of 25 tour boats on the river to only 2 taxis started to sink in, and I kept on walking. The maps only helped somewhat; it turns out that they are not completely up-to-date about the routes of the River Taxi. I took wrong turns (still along a branch of the river, but off the path of the taxi) and continued to ask directions, only half of which were accurate. Some of the wrong paths involved walking up stairs, crossing a street, and then back down the stairs, and it was definitely disconcerting to see people sitting on the sidewalk--one woman all bruised and explaining something to the police officer that she was "only arrested once prior because the cocaine was mixed with rat poison". About then, I decided it was a much better idea to stow my camera in my purse.

***HINT ***If you're ever in San Antonio, and use the River Taxi, there's actually a phone number printed directly on the all-day pass. Find a table, order a drink, and call the taxi to find out when it's going to pass your spot and just wait for it, unless you really, really want to walk and walk and walk. . . .

After an hour more of walking, I finally got back to the River Center Mall area, exited and headed to the Alamo. The guide books suggested going to the IMAX and watching their video on the Alamo first. Unfortunately, it was already 4:01 pm. . . and they would not seat anyone for the 4:00 pm showing. Another HINT: It's less expensive to just rent the audio tour from the Discovery Channel kiosk in front of the Alamo, unless you really need to sit in the air conditioned IMAX for awhile.



These last two are photos of the Alamo. The history of the Alamo is quite moving and very worth spending much more time at than I allocated. But I had to find my way back to the hotel, and was not confident in the River Taxi at this point.

And rightly not, because once again, I never saw another taxi come by, and settled down to walk and walk and walk. . .



And the strangest thing was that by some fluke, or luck, I came upon a bend in the river that was clearly much, much closer to the hotel than I expected it to be, even though I'd walked past many shops that had looked not at all familiar. I seem to have taken the northern path back, rather than the southern much more-traveled path. And I was back in about 20 minutes instead of the earlier hour to 1 and 1/2 hour journey. Time for a mojito! That evening, a group of us took another journey on the river taxi under the magical night glow of the lights. Ha! I was the navigator! (And I didn't think anyone needed to know about what it took for me to earlier work out the kinks of this voyage!)

Next up, we board Amtrak and head for Fort Worth.

16 comments:

Sharon said...

Great captures and I love your sense of adventure!

Unknown said...

I'm not sure I even know how to use a compass! Good instincts on getting away from the creepy guy :)

pat said...

Oh my--you certainly made the rounds! So glad you were able to find your way around and back. Really like that first shot of the covered walkway at the Alamo. It always amazes me that it is right in the middle of the city!

CindyTykie said...

Great shots of your adventure

shirley said...

That sounds like a lot of walking. That guy looks scary. I stopped talking to random people after I got accosted by two drunk men once. I love all of your pictures and adventures.

Gypsy Girl(Brenda) said...

Wow you sure have been traveling alot lately. I bet it was hot there. How awesome your shots are when there are no people so you can take pictures. Every time we are at the River walk there are at least 1000 other people in our pictures. Didn't you just love the night time taxi.

Maria said...

Love, love the stories.

Anonymous said...

I love your narrative, it makes the great photos even more interesting!

Anonymous said...

Wow Angela. That guy totally looks freaky! PHEW...I am so glad you are ok. The colors are magnificent...despite your wrong turns. I have feeling lost. I just get so panicky.

Reds said...

So sorry you got lost... but that makes for great stories and beautiful photos! :)

Jeanne said...

Angela, you truly have adventures and not always of the fun variety. That guy looks really sinister...I'm glad you are safe.

I'm sorry you had a tough time finding your way around. However, you do have interesting stories to tell!

Love that first photo!

Jess said...

These are so much fun! And I bow to your sense of direction... I would be hopelessly lost in no time! LOL

Dylan said...

Hey lady I suspected the whole "keeping Sheila away from anything shiny or potentially flammable" because your insurance probably has a Sheila clause in it. Anyways I liked the picture of the angry New Orleans fan and I am sure that your touristy attire with the floppy/safari hat, camera, fanny pack, and maps didn't make you stand out what so ever.

Suzy said...

I'm glad your intuition is good! What an adventure!

Ron said...

Angela, that was a great adventure, not like the one I can remember when I visited the Alamo. Of course it was 1968, a one day pass from basic training, and an old building was not the first thing on my priority list.

Becky said...

What gorgeous photos! Well, except for scary guy---ahhh! Sadly, I wouldn't dare venture out by myself because I know I'd get hopelessly lost.
I just saw your note about textures, sorry. I download them as jpg files and just put them on the photo in another layer and play around with the blending mode and opacity and erase back where I don't want the texture to show.