Day 4 - Marathon to San Antonio

Marathon, Texas has a reputation for the darkest nights in thee whole of the US. After trying to find our way back to the Motel last night without a flashlight, all the Leakers can agree! I found the same to be true when trying to replace the diaphragms of my carburetors this morning at 6am. Would this be the solution to my hot starting problems.....? As it turned out, even if it didn't solve the car's problems, it did produce the side effect of an effective alarm call for anyone close by. When I fired up the engine after the repair, exhaust smoke went through my open door, and set off the smoke detector! Fortunately, this did not result in the local fire brigade showing up....

One of the lessons we have learned on this trip is that you shouldn't take anything for granted. The only Gas station within 50 miles doesn't open until 9am? It only servers regular gas - no premium? As a result, we set out eastwards on US-90 with some fear that some of us wouldn't make it the 55 miles to the nearest open gas station.

Mist and fog as we drive into the sun on US-90 in search of fuel...

When we reached Sanderson we found fuel, and Mike was able to put 20 gallons into his Series 3, so he must have been soooo close to running dry. The  US-90 road eastwards towards San Antonio proved to be less featureless than we had anticipated. One of the aspects that I found interesting was the frequent cuttings the road made through what must be undulating ground. At each cutting, the rock strata were clearly exposed.

Exposed rock strata on US-90

After around 250 miles, we stopped for lunch at What-a-Burger in Uvalde. At this point I should mention that my lovely wife, Debbie, has commented that she enjoys the photos on the blog, but asked why I am not in any of them? I think that she may suspect that I'm not really here at all! So, from now on, my fellow Leakers have offered to supply photos that offer incontrovertible evidence that I am on the trip...

Lunch at What--a-Burger in Uvalde. David is the chubby one with the grey (OK - white) beard

In the parking lot at What-a-Burger. David's bonnet is open to allow heat to escape to improve the chances of it starting...

On the final 100 miles into San Antonio we started to see wild flowers by the roadside. Hopefully a taste of what is to come tomorrow.

I don't know what these yellow flowers are, but they were very pretty. Lots of blue lupines too...

When we reached our destination, we went to visit the San Antonio Mission. There are in fact five missions in San Antonio, and later we drove by several of them. However, we spent most of our time at the Mission San Jose, which was established in 1720.

The Mission San Jose at San Antonio

Inside the Mission

At the mission we experienced our only "break-down" of the day. David's car once again failed to start when it was very hot. Fortunately, by the time we decided to head to our Hotel it started up fine. The mystery continues... In the evening we met for dinner at La Fonda on Main, one of San Antonio's most historic authentic Mexican Restaurants.

Guess who's having what for dinner?

Finally, no trip to San Antonio would be complete without a visit to The Alamo...

The Alamo. And yes, that's David again in front of the gateway!

Tomorrow is the final day of the WTXOL. We travel to Austin and the hill country.