The trip from Las Cruces, NM to San Antonio was blessedly uneventful, again!  El Paso reminded me of Elizabeth, NJ... for those of you who know this city... well.... need not to say more.

Q was a superb companion!

We did have to do a border check outside El Paso complete with multiple guard dogs, men guards, guns, cameras.  We passed!  No smuggling of food, drugs, people.  Whew.

The landscape turned to very green, slowly rising hills that had very small oil rigs.  The rigs were nestled into the landscape and were barely visible but their little heads were just bobbing up and down and pumping away. This particular field went for miles.  I did wonder the worth of that field.

Right before San Antonio, a quick little stop to stretch the legs and check out the sights!

Onto San Antonio and meeting up with Jackie and Bill Goetz, my step sis and her hubby.  We had cocktails, snacks crashed early as my long days' drive was exhausting and tomorrow was a plan for sight seeing.

By mid morning off to the River Walk and The Alamo.  It was a beautiful day and we had a surprise that Brad (Jackie's favorite only son) and Hailley were driving down from Austin!  They had never met and I'd never met Brad, so this was now leading into the discovery phase of the trip.

We all sat around for a quick little glass of wine, took a very powerful 30 min power nap and headed out to a delicious dinner... YUMMMMM

We told stories of each others' lives, careers, future plans, future trips.  All things family does over dinner, sprinkled with belly laughs and imaginary tarantulas.  Jackie and Bill's home is just lovely: warm, inviting, lush with plants, art, antiques, traveled momentos and slumber ready beds!

Looking forward to the Eley reunion in October!

Q went to a 'dog' hotel for 2 nights and in picking him up he literally resembled a fresh fish out of water!

Next installment will be the Houston adventure and Hartshorn investigation.  I can tell you already, it IS AMAZING!

XXOO