Texas - A Tale of Two Cities

Our trip is slowly winding to a close and we are heading to Las Vegas where I will fly home to Switzerland. We had the opportunity to spend a day in San Antonio and really enjoyed ourselves. We took public transportation from our RV park to the Riverwalk area. The driver was very helpful and let us know exactly where we needed to get off the bus and where we should pick up the bus for the return trip. We visited the Alamo and had dinner at one of the Riverwalk restaurants. It was so romantic sitting outside enjoying our dinner but the cooler temperatures drove us inside for a final drink. Finding the bus for our return trip was a little complicated but a nice young man helped us out. He was on the same bus and apparently heard us discussing where we needed to get off for our RV park. Amazingly we didn't realize we were at our stop - luckily the young man asked the bus driver to wait and told us we needed to hurry up and get off! It was a really positive experience and we look forward to going there again in the future.

Unfortunately our experience in El Paso was less than positive. We had hoped to stay overnight there and had located an RV park on the Internet. Upon reaching the RV park, we realized it was located in the middle of nowhere. So we decided we would drive into the city proper and look for a dog-friendly hotel. Although it is listed as the second oldest city in the country, there was - at least in our mind - nothing appealing about the place. It is overwhelmingly industrial. Add to this the fact that there are currently US travel advisories in place due to the proximity to Juarez, Mexico. It just had a negative vibe for us so we decided to travel farther. This proved to be a good decision because as we continued to drive a perfect view of the fence along the US / Mexico border came into view. It is truly shocking when you see it for the first time. Plus, as there is a Brooks Brothers outlet almost directly across from the poverty of Juarez, it forces you to face why people continue to try and across the border - legally or illegally. Very sad indeed.