So I finally made it to The Alamo. As soon as I checked into my hotel, I changed into my running clothes and ran to this must see San Antonio attraction. It’s a quaint building amounting to not much of anything. This is a picture of me at the entrance.

I said earlier, that possibly god wanted me to see it. This could have been, because standing out a short way from it was a religious fanatic handing out money. You didn’t realize what his mission was at first. When I happened upon him he was trying to get an audience by offering one dollar bills to anyone who could answer his questions. The first few were innocuous enough – What do you call a baby elephant (a calf which I answered and got a buck), what was the first word said on the moon (Houston) and various other trivia questions.

Eventually he started offering the big money in the form of a five dollar bill. This he would give to anyone if he could prove to the audience he was a good person. A young male among his posse of friends decided to take up the challenge. Little did he know that he would be peppered with sophistic questions that only a religious freak would ask. The first question was “Did you ever lie?” Of course the answer was yes, to which he asked the young man “And people who lie are called….” whereupon he got the man to answer “liars”.

He then got him to admit that he has used the lord’s name in vain and has had lascivious thoughts about women. After recounting these facts and calling into question his moral integrity there was no question that this was a man who was destined to burn in hell. The poor sap. He never saw this coming and you could just feel how much he wanted to get away. Perhaps he didn’t leave immediately, because he still held out hope he would get the 5 bucks.

After this little treat, I decided to go run the River Walk; something that JKRunning told me I should do. It was actually quite pleasant and just the ticket for an easy recovery run. I took it very easy and stopped plenty of times to take some pictures. I was in a pretty good mood, which I think was helped by the overcast skies and the smell of rain in the air. The fragrance of the river was also very pleasant. Hopefully, I’ll get to do this run a couple of more times while I am here. Perhaps I can even swim in it, since the pool in my hotel is completely unacceptable for swimming laps.

I am on my way to San Antonio, Texas by way of a change of planes in Dallas. I’ve been to San Antonio once before. I had no interest in seeing it then and I have no interest in seeing it now. I did feel as though on my first trip, I should have visited The Alamo. I didn’t, so perhaps this is god’s way of giving me a second chance to see a major historic sight. Hopefully it is not to far from my hotel and I can take an easy run to it.

Just a few minutes ago, I went through the metal detectors to get to the gate. I had to practically strip down to my underwear (thank goodness I didn’t as I am not wearing any) to pass through it. After I got through the metal detector I went to collect my belongings from the x-ray machine. I had just finished putting my laptop in my bag when I noticed someone else doing the same thing. I noticed that this other person’s laptop had the “standby” light blinking and thought could that be mine as I always keep my laptop on standby. I quickly asked the guy if that was his laptop and we realized that we had each others. Had I not noticed, he would have left with mine and I would have left with his. What a disaster that would have been. I guess I am blessed with a heightened sense of perception.

Thankfully, I have minimally soreness from yesterday’s Brooklyn Half. It would have been very uncomfortable to sit for the next 5 hours traveling, if my legs were stiff and sore. Even my toenail that started to bleed during yesterday’s race isn’t bothering me. I forgot to mention that in yesterday’s entry. During the race, it felt like I had made a hole in the sock of my left foot around my middle toe. The feeling of my toes sticking to the sole of my shoe was very annoying. When I got home I realized that the nail had cut into the flesh causing it to bleed. I must remember to make sure my toenails are short before I do another long run.