One quick story before I head out of town.

The closing ceremonies for the International Conference went on a little longer than expected so my plans on visiting the Alamo seemed to be disappearing. I couldn't give up though. At the last minuet I jumped in a van with some friends and headed downtown. The plan was to drive there, visit the Alamo, and then take a cab to the airport. It was still 3:15 and I should have enough time to get to the airport within an hour and 20 minutes. My flight was scheduled to leave at 5:35, so I had to allow the hour for security and boarding.

I seemed good at first.

The van was a passenger van which had no air conditioning or seats for the eight of us sprawled on the floor. We all know how it feels to be an illegal alien being smuggeled across the border.

Time was still on my side. Traffic was light and we made it downtown in perfect time. Everything was working perfectly. Until we tried parking our van in a garage. We were too tall. Then when we tried an open lot it seems we were also too wide for what they had to offer. We circled twice when I noticed it was now ten minutes before 4. I decided to have them drop me off a nearby street corner an go on my own to the Alamo while they continued the search for parking.

Of course sitting on a hard steel floor for 35 minutes will do one little wonderful thing; make you leg go to sleep. Picture, if you will, me limping my way down Commerce St, dragging my suitcase and sweating the scorching Texas sun. I love traveling!

I made it to the Alamo at exactly 4PM. Which was also perfect because I had arranged with my son to watch for me on a nearby live web cam which streamed live images 24 hours a day of the Alamo. I rushed up to the curb across from where I figured the camera to be. I was an interesting sight standing on the sidewalk waving to an empty building.

I turned from there and got closer to the Alamo and had a fellow tourist take my picture to prove I had been there. That done I rushed to the curb to find a cab. My other friends had shown up and yelled goodbyes to me from across the square. Not a single cab stopped so I walked two blocks over to a hotel to get a cab and made it to the airport in perfect time.

Not quite a Fodors recommended trip plan, but it worked!