More travel stories (Traveling across the U.S. cont'd))

We spent the night in Fort Stockton, Texas only because it was the right distance away from San Antonio, its Riverwalk and a visit to the Alamo. We arrived at the Alamo - now in the middle of the city and surrounded by the outer walls of the fort that once stood there alongside it - just in time to hear the story of how the Texans stood up to the army of Santa Anna and went down in a blaze of glory that led to Texas's independence from Mexico - even though the Texans had sworn allegiance to Mexico in exchange for the cheap land they were given. Here's an interesting site I found on the history of this event: www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/alamo/filmmore/fd.html

The Riverwalk in San Antonio was as lovely as we had imagined and is lined with tall trees, restaurants and shops - a beautiful way to spend an hour or so. Houston is only about two hours away and that was our goal for the night, staying with Larry and Shelly, American friends we met in Italy who own property there in Massa Martana. We toured the Johnson Space Center and they gave us a quick tour around Houston, a city that deserves further exploration. A late lunch at Galveston Bay while the sun was going down and large pleasure craft floated by was one of the highlights. We capped off the day at a local Houston bar listening to the sounds of an Austin band named "Guy Forsyth".

Next stop New Orleans - just a taste of this old city. We spent the afternoon walking around the French Quarter enjoying the lively streets, the plants and flowers spilling down and over the wrought iron balconies and peering into shops filled with voodoo paraphernalia and all sorts of interesting stuff. Lunch at the Gumbo Shop was a must for me and I thoroughly enjoyed every bite of my chicken and anduille sausage gumbo. We grabbed a seat at the Café Du Monde and shared a plate of beignets, those wonderful fried doughnuts covered in powdered sugar and a scrumptious Cafe Au Lait. We took the bus (the streetcar unfortunately is still not up and running its full route since Katrina) to the Garden District and wandered around admiring all the big mansions that line Charles Street.

On the road again the next morning with a planned stop to visit friends from Phoenix, Carrie and Ken who now reside with their two lovely daughters in Piedmont, South Carolina, a short drive from Greenville and its revitalized downtown and river walk.

Thanks to all our friends in Arizona and beyond who treated us to meals and allowed us free and easy access to their homes: Liz and Mike, Diane and Michael, Ann and Bill, Shawn and Stephen, Jeff and Janet, Art and Chris, Maha and Nabil, Dennis and Peggy, Mary and Dick, the gang at P.S. Studios.

Thanks to our family as well for putting us up and putting up with us: our daughter Jessica and son-in-law Nick, my sister Suzanne and nieces Sam and Maddie and our son Chris, his girlfriend Lisa and our precious Kyla. Halloween was a blast (photos to come) and we were even lucky enough to have our granddaughter all to ourselves the day after at the Richmond Children's Museum! Life is good.

Now we're home in Delaware, resting and recuperating from all this travel and glad to be back in our own little corner of the world. It rained yesterday. The storm that was headed up the east coast touched us here too but barely. The trees are still changing colors and fall - with colder temperatures - is definitely here. Yesterday in spite of the weather we went to Dover to a Book Fair and listened to a group discussion on book publishing. Interesting stuff we couldn't pass up. Today we are laying low. Going through the piles of mail that were waiting for us, perusing magazines and catalogs that accumulated. From my studio window I can see the sun going down and neighbors out walking their dogs. Geese are honking and flying overhead, going south I guess. I think I'll go see what I can throw together for dinner.

Thanks for reading. We hope you've found something interesting here. We know it's not Italy but we're still looking for adventures. Stay tuned.

Rosemary & Bob