April 5th - El Paso to San Antonio, Texas

We were all very sad to have to say goodbye to Kenny, DeeAnne and Ernie after such a short time with them, but our journey across the States is over a very great distance in a comparatively short period of time and, as a result, our stays in each place have to be limited. We managed to have a group photo taken by Maribel, Kenny and DeeAnne's housekeeper.


Today we travelled just under 600 miles across western Texas to San Antonio. After driving 200 miles we reached the small town of Fort Stockton, and it was here that Bob and Thelma decided to take the smaller roads to San Antonio, going via the border town of Del Rio. We, on the other hand, decided to keep to the Interstate 10 and have our lunch at Ozona, where there is a memorial to Davy Crockett.

Crockett died at the Alamo in 1836 during the Texan war of independence against the Mexicans. The Alamo, which is in San Antonio, will be one of the places we will visit tomorrow.

Texas is in two time zones and for the second time on this trip we had to put our watches forward as we entered the Central Time Zone.

After lunch we continued the drive across the increasingly green Texan countryside and wild flowers carpeted the central reservation, and the verges, of the highway.

The last 100 miles into San Antonio was through forested areas, quite a contrast to the desert we had driven through in the morning.

We arrived at Ahmad's house at around 6pm. 560 miles in 9 hours. About half an hour later Bob and Thelma arrived. We were all then treated to some wonderful Iranian cuisine. Once again the hospitality of our rally friends is simply incredible.

We are looking forward to seeing a little of this historic town tomorrow.