Day 1463

We got up at 7:30, did the pet stuff, had breakfast, and hit the road for San Antonio.  It would have been a nice trip except for several miles of construction on 1626.  Traffic was backed up and barely moving.  I was not a happy camper.

There was another slowdown - stop and go, on I35 once we got to San Antonio.  It lasted for 2 or 3 miles.  The last problem was that the car GPS decided to route us on a 14 mile side trip.  We switched to Ellen's phone and got there.

We had to park several blocks from the Big Boy in the parking lot for the San Antonio observation tower.  We walked over to it and got there about 10.  There were a lot of people there.  I took a ton of pictures.  A fully functioning steam locomotive, especially one that large, is really impressive.  The sound was something, too.  There was a high pitched scream from escaping steam even though it was standing still.

After about a half an hour they let people walk right up to it.  We walked all around it and I took a slew of pictures of different details.  We even got someone to take a picture of both of us.

One interesting note.  Everyone wanted a picture standing in front of the locomotive.  People just naturally took turns.  No one was organizing it.  That's something that would never happen in the Pacific Northwest.  People are too rude up there.

We spent almost 2 hours at the train.  Then we walked back to the tower.  We bought tickets and went to the top.  The view was impressive.  I have a new appreciation for how San Antonio is laid out.  There's a revolving restaurant at the top.  We didn't go there, but we had drinks and an appetizer at the bar.  Our table had a great view of downtown.  The drink and appetizer were really good.

After that we drove back to Austin.  We had to wait a little while on 1626, but only a fraction of the time we did this morning.  On the way home we stopped and picked up the mower pulley.

When we got home I just didn't feel like working on the mower.  So I spent the rest of the afternoon surfing and reading.  I also took the dog to the mailbox.

Dinner was leftovers.  After dinner was TV and reading.