Most of my time in New York City is spent on the Jersey side, therefore most of the photos of the skyline is from across the Hudson. On this trip I had a chance to view Manhattan from the East River.
Scottsboro, Alabama – Did you ever lose your luggage on an airplane and never get it back. It likely ended up here, as they buy all of the unclaimed luggage from the airlines and sell it in essentially a thrift store.
Pawhuska, Oklahoma
Bartlesville, Oklahoma – Phillips 66 Petroleum Company Headquarters
Vinita, Oklahoma – Will Rogers Rodeo
Eastern Oklahoma – Pensacola Dam. A mile long and releasing a lot of water because of the recent rains.
Joplin, Missouri – America’s 2nd largest truck stop.
Southern Missouri – Presumed dead armadillo
Somewhere else in Southern Missouri – Coke Machine Graveyard
Scenes around Cairo, Illinois – At the confluence of the Ohio River and Mississippi River – with flooding.
Evansville, Indiana – Restored Greyhound Bus Station, now a hipster hamburger place. Manhattan prices in small town Indiana.
The interior looked nothing like a bus station.
Evansville, Indiana – County Courthouse
Scenes around Louisville, Kentucky
And after 3 weeks of running around the country – back in Ohio (in Cincinnati). Only 2 hours to home.
Big Bend National Park is one of the more remote parks in the continental United States, but with some effort – we arrived!
The early morning drive down from Marathon provided an excellent sunrise, giving the mountains great coloring.
Eventually we made our way back down to the Rio Grande River Valley.
Our west Texas days constantly provided interesting cacti views.
The Rio Grande in this area is really just a decent size creek, but the kayaks were setting out for the day.
Our first choice for hiking along the river, the Santa Elena Canyon Trail, was closed due to wildfires, so we headed instead for the Boquillas Canyon Trail.
As we made our way along the river an elderly man on the Mexico side serenaded us with songs in an effort to get us to come down to the river bank so he could sell his wares.
The canyon walls continually closed in until we couldn’t go any further unless we went in the river.
We returned to cross the border into Mexico (detailed on the next post) passing more colorful mountains along the way.
With wildfires closing a number of the more popular spots in the park, we chose to go up into the basin and check out the Window View Trail. Again we were treated to interesting vegetation.
Being in the basin we were surrounded on all sides by the mountains.
This view is ‘The Window’.
While it was disappointing that the wildfires impacted the park, there was plenty to see and do for the day.
San Antonio is a great city, full of character. As usual I find the more interesting sights away from the big tourist spots, but the Riverwalk and the Alamo did provide a few interesting views.
As a historic city San Antonio had a decent amount of older homes and buildings in the center of the city.
The King William Historic District is just south of downtown. It has a great collection of restaurants and shops, but the highlights are the beautiful old houses.
As we reached downtown we passed by a couple great old buildings.
A classic clock, which we appear to have caught at high noon.
Nix Hospital s housed in a very fine example of an Art Deco building.
There are still a couple vintage theaters in town.
The Post Office and Court House is located across the plaza from the Alamo.
The Tower Life Building was completed in 1927. This eight sided classic Art Deco skyscraper also housed San Antonio’s first Sears store when first opened.
The Drury Hotel occupies the former Alamo National Bank building. Located along the famed Riverwalk the 24 floor building has many impressive details in the lobby.
We chose instead to stay at the Gunter Hotel, another great old hotel.
The Gunter Hotel is famous for being the location that blues legend Robert Johnson recorded most of the 29 songs he ever recorded. The bar celebrates the fact that he recorded in room 414, by calling themselves the Bar 414.
Despite the fact that Robert was from Mississippi, he was brought to San Antonio by a talent scout for Vocalion Record, Ernie Oertle. A producer from the label, Don Law, set up a recording studio in room 414 and 413 of the Gunter Hotel.
The drawing below is from an album cover of Robert’s music that was re-released in the 1960s depicting this recording session.
This is the room today, with the small white chair in the corner where Robert was sitting, facing the wall for the acoustics. How do I know this? This was our room for the night!!!
When we arrived every cushion was turned on end, every drawer was open. I immediately assumed it was Robert welcoming us! We spent the night hanging out listening to Robert’s music, either his original or the hundreds of covers from the Stones, Clapton and others.
