San Antonio

it's early friday morning here in San Antonio. This place is pretty cool, the river walk is pretty sweet.

this is a picture that I took on the 'loop' of the Riverwalk. The loop is basically a channel, a "U" shaped waterway averaging 7 feet deep that is sort of plugged into the San Antonio River. The water level is controlled via locks on both ends. The purpose of the channel was/is to prevent flooding. Apparently there were two 'disasterous' floods in the 20's that only killed 50 people and caused 'millions' of dollars worth of damage. I don't want to talk about something you could look up on the net yourself, but I will tell you this. In San Antonio, the people here just act like this waterway appeared! It was dug, by people and machines. If you know what the WPA is, well that is how this project was funded. The WPA sent workers here to construct the channel which was the idea on an architect named Hugman. It was highly criticized because of a few reasons. one, the wpa was highly scrutinized because it provided money for projects that weren't necessarily necessary. A fine blend of need and want, blended with a healthy dose of coercion is what I think brought this riverwalk to fruition. I'm getting sick of bartenders and roving historians putting emphasis on the whole 50 deaths and the whole 'millions' of dollars worth of damage so they feel better about something. If you have two 'MAJOR' floods and that's all that happens then just shut up, because we all know that is nothing. Anyway, eneough ranting.

I do want to put out there something that I think you should all know. If anyone has the urge to fly all the way to italy to visit Venice, just come here. It's basically the same, except that in Venice you get several things.

• Rude People


• Smells AWFUL


• Dirty, trash in canals


• Pigeon shit in St. Marks Square


• Overpriced Everything


• Graffiti that reads "venice hates Amercia" <-- Spelled wrong yes


• Hotels that won't bring ice to your room


• Seafood that falls on the street and then goes to your plate


• Guys selling fake Fendi bags on every corner, worse then the beaches in Cancun with sunglasses and beads


• Not to mention free boat rides to islands around venice then not giving you a ride home until you buy a 1200 dollar glass bowl.


• Venice is sinking into the sea, so obviously it was chosen by God to not exist any longer.

Austin to San Antonio is only about 70 miles, so it was a relatively short trip. ALong the way I stopped at 'The Natural Bride Caverns' and took an hour long tour. The room here is the largest room on the tour, the cieling was almost 120' high. The formations are composed of calcium carbonate and grow at an average rate of one inch every 100 years, so imagine that this would have to be millions of years old. The formation on the left of this photo is called 'The Kings Throne' - you can sort of see there he would sit at the bottom - I didn't see it, and I especially didn't see the 'Ice Cream Cone' to the right incase he gets hungry. it was really interesting seeing all this, I didn't feel safe AT ALL! They may convince some of the visitors that it is completely safe. There are 'vertical cracks' in the ceiling, 'not to be confused with faults' - c'mon buddy, its a crack in the rock, which is sedimentary, so don't tell me that sooner or later this cave is coming down. I had fun - there was a stop ont he tour where the guide took a photo, sort of like on a roller coaster and he kept grouping me with the two old women behind me as a 'family of three' so at picture time i said I was just a family of one from New Jersey and he looked at me like I was a criminal. I'm really getting sick of that crap, the 'New Joisey' shit, I hear it all the time, so if I dno't really like the people I just tell them I'm from Canada.

Today is going to be really fun. I'm headed to Wurst Fest with the hotel bartender Petra - she's from Germany. The slogan for Wurst Fest is 'The Ten Day Salute to Sausage' ----I"M THERE.

check it wout http://www.wurstfest.com the town is about 30 minutes away from here, and I'm driving so I'm not going to be able to drink much beer. The police down here are copies of Walker, Texas Ranger, so I'm not fussin around with the law when it comes to boozin' - especially with Jersey tags. I have so much to write, but I also have so much to do - so I'm going to get lost for now and hopefully check back later or tomorrow. I appreciate comments too - just so I know somebody is reading this thing!