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laptop. It runs CHKDSK, a slow disk checking process, almost every time the system boots. I get error messages and application errors that I never got before. It's a mess. But my laptop is Y2K compliant!
This SNAFU with my ATM card left me in an ugly mood. We spent two hours waiting for a Ft. Stockton bank to get the transfer. We visited historic Ft. Stockton but found it woefully lacking. Perhaps we've seen too many fantastic things to be impressed with a couple of stone buildings still left standing from the 1800s. I expected a stockade fence with a lookout tower, not five acres of dust and school children. They didn't even have a water fountain.
West Texas is ugly! I've found the landscape throughout the southwest to be interesting, often pretty, and sometimes repetitive. But West Texas is just ugly. At first thought I wondered why anyone would live there. Then I realized that no one does live there. Interstates 10 and 20 intersected with no sign of a Cracker Barrel, a McDonald's, or even a gasoline station. Nothing. The winds across the plains are less than the winds in Kansas but they still were substantial.
We drove to San Antonio this evening. About a hundred and fifty miles west of San Antonio trees suddenly appeared on the landscape. I think we're about to start seeing East Coast landscapes now. Once we checked into the hotel we walked a couple of blocks to a hamburger shop. We passed the Alamo on our walk. A reception was being held in the courtyard. Outside the Alamo, horse-drawn carriages await to escort people around the historic district.
My sister, Carol, flew into town for the weekend. None of us has ever been to San Antonio. Carol has some coupons for a free stay at the Residence Inn next to the Alamo. I'm not sure what there is to do in San Antonio, other than visit the Alamo and shop along the River Walk. It's a lovely town. We seem to be next to everything touristy in this hotel. The Tower of the Americas is close. There's an Imax theater next door with a film about the Alamo. We're right next to River Walk. Ricky Martin is scheduled to appear at the Alamo Dome tomorrow night, about a quarter mile from here.
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