Back from the Bible Belt

**pic of my lovely bride inside the walls of the Alamo**click for full size picture

Back from deep in the heart of Texas where the temp this time of year is not quite as hot as I experienced in the Persian gulf last year but it was close.

I plan on writing about my experience to the "whole other country" throughout the week.

One of the last things we did there was visit the Alamo.

I have to say that my first impression when walking into the initial building inside the walls of the Alamo was disgust.

It was a veritable chachki celebration. Our eyes were assaulted by Alamo teddy bears, Alamo golf balls, coon skin caps, army men and countless other trinkets that turned this shrine into a festival of crap.

My wife then tried to take a picture of one of the paintings on the wall and was stopped by an armed security guard as though we were still in some sort of shrine. I was getting angrier by the minute. My son wanted to buy a gun (of course) but I would not let him...out of protest.

The rest of the Alamo however was pretty cool, no trinkets to be found (except being carried around by those who visited the first building) and was an awesome history lesson. I'd go back in a heartbeat, but would prefer winter, when the temp is below 104.

I really wish they'd make the trinket building the LAST thing you visit, rather than the first and that it was OUTSIDE the walls not using one of the historic buildings for such junk.