west of the mississippi...... it's nice

We headed out for San Antonio with the truck and car (yep, we are still driving around my amazing buick). We had plenty of time to drive here, so we didn't have to marathon it, which was especially nice for Rhone. I think that he has spent more time in a car seat than most 6 months olds.

We made a detour through Natchez, MS. We stopped at 2 antebellum houses there. The first is Melrose. The house was built in 1849 and still has the slave houses in back. We also stopped at the William Johnson House, he was known as the "Barber of Natchez". William Johnson was born the son of mulatto slave women, but when he was 11 he was emancipated by his owner (who had the same name, what a coincidence). He then learned to be a barber and opened up shop in Natchez. What I found so interesting is that he then hired free blacks and bought slaves to work for him. I had no idea that blacks had also owned slaves- especially those who had once been slaves.

Just outside Melrose- isn't Mississppi green

Melrose- The Cotton Kingdom Estate

A view of the Mississppi

In Louisiana we stopped for some real cajun food, it was pretty delicious. Ben had red beans and rice and I had jambalaya. In Texas, we had to stop off, because a lid was coming off one of the tubs in the truck and this is what we saw:

Who doesn't want to say that they live on Slaughter House Road?

We though Galvaston, TX might be a fun place to spend the second night, so we made the detour to the coast. It was pretty, but it turns out that they are still feeling the affects of Hurricane Ike, so we took some pictures, spent a little time on the beach and stayed closer to Houstin (which by the way has CRAZY traffic).

Ben and Rhone in Galvaston

What used to be the board walk along the beach

We made it to San Antonio safe and sound. Ben and I only lost each other once in traffic, I wasn't able to get over so I was forced to another highway and then we found each other using buildings as a reference- it was actually pretty funny (not as much at the time though). Ben checked in at base and they didn't have any room for us at the hotel so we got to stay downtown at the Marriott for the same price as on base (no complaints here). One night we headed out to see the River Walk- its a fun, but crazy place. Pictures of our house to come soon- that's right we are no longer homeless!

On the River Walk