Day 9: Destination - Austin and San Antonio, Texas

Starting Mileage: 9688
Ending Mileage: 9900
Miles Traveled: 212
April 21, 2008

Left Kathy's and headed for Austin to see Brian's friend Jim Faust for a “drive-by” visit. Found his house with no problems up in the Austin foothills, got the tour (niiice house!) and met the dogs, Junior and OD (Other Dog). Sat and chatted for a while—Jim plied us with cold drinks which were very welcomed on this hot and humid day in Texas! Putting our gear back on to get on the motorcycle was HELL.

Next we headed out for San Antonio. Bike needs a new back tire, so Brian contacted a BMW shop in the area. Couldn’t get there before they closed, so set it up for the next day.

The Fiesta Festival was happening at this time--a week's worth of festivities--happening annually. Brian's Dad, John and wife Bea were heading there on a bus tour from South Carolina—to arrive today as well. Our friends Tony and Debbie Diaz from San Jose were also going to be there. One of the festivities was a floating parade along the famous River Walk. John and Bea’s tour had reserved seating along the River Walk for this parade.

John and Bea had rooms at the Marriott and luckily, we were able to get a room there as well. We went to dinner at Rio Rio along with another couple from their tour Saul and Alice. After dinner, they went over to their seating section while we went walking around the area. There was a Dillards’ there and Brian got a new polo shirt. Around the corner, we came across the Alamo—but it was closed due to the festivities. We walked around s’more and found a place up on street level and looked over the concrete railing and saw the crowd seated along the River Walk awaiting the floating parade to begin. We saw Brian’s Dad and Bea down below and waved. We were not allowed to stay on the bridge, so we found another place to overlook the River Walk. The parade started and we watched for a short while and then headed back to the hotel.