Dallas and San Antonio

 We liked the George H.W. Bush library.  So we decided to make the trip to Dallas and visit the George W. Bush library. 

While the  events of 911 are a major part of W's  museum.  There was an interesting presentation on the events leading to the decision to invade Iraq.  Each person is presented with the historical events and intelligence reports and is asked to make the choices which led up to the conflict.  Predictably, the attendees made the same choices the President Bush made.  Another the overall theme was the importance of public service.  There are a number of areas aimed at capturing the interest of children.  Public service related themes included Bush's education initiatives; faith-based programs; and the program to combat Aids in Africa.

 Ina noticed the oval office family pictures.  Here along with the daughters Barbara and Jenna is the picture of Bush's Springer Spaniel, Spot.    Spot  was one of Millie's puppies (George Sr's dog).

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 Each presidential library we've visited included the obligatory oval office display.  This one seemed especially well done.

 

  After spending several hours at the Bush library, Ina shopped for Korean groceries at one of the largest asian groceries we've ever seen.

This Super Hmart is somewhat larger than the Hmart in Fairfax, VA. 

 As you can tell I was so excited by the grocery shopping that I just had to sit down and read from my Kindle.

Perhaps an anecdotal measure to the size of the Dallas Korean community is the number of Korean church DVDs on display at the store entrance along with the Korean newspapers and real estate handouts.

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 We also had a pleasant dinner with the school mate of Ina's pastore. Mr Kim, a Dallas area business man, went to high school with Rev. Kang. 

 We only stayed in Dallas for a couple of days due to cold weather - highs only in the 40's and lows reaching 30 degrees at night.  Not exactly snowbird weather.

 The trip southward from Dallas to San Antonio was about 350miles, a rather lengthy days drive for us.  While the traffic was heavy with a lot of trucks, Barney did his usual sleeping act by resting his head on the engine cover.

We've been impressed with Texas highways.  The roads have nearly always wide and smooth.  There also seem to be a very large number of high overpass interchanges. Even the state routes are rival interstate caliber.

 Entering the hill country west of San Antonio was actually quite a relief after hours of
high speed interstate with its heavy auto and semi-truck traffic.

 

 The Thousand Trails campground near Lake Medina turned out to be particularly pleasant with paved roads and parking spots.  The low trees are just right for blocking the winds.  The sites are spaced far enough apart to provide quiet and privacy.  What a change 300 miles makes.  Daytime temps in the mid 60s to 80 degree range with night temps never reaching below 40.

 The low desert junipers seem to be prime habitate for deer.  I've seen a few deer on nearly every dog walk.

We plan to linger here for 4 or 5 days spending at least one day seeing the Alamo and downtown  San Antonio. Then it is on westward toward Big Bend National Park.