Is the Alamo REALLY that small?

my take was a little different than most

After 3500 miles and stops in Alabama, Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona, my son and I finally made it to Nevada. And what a trip we had!! Both he and I were able to cross off a couple Bucket List items! One of them was quite by happenstance.

Originally, we were going to spend some time with friends in Arizona. However, their daughter contracted COVID so that left us with an extra day on the drive. But, where should we go? What should we do?

We went to the Alamo in San Antonio, Texas!!

This one was definitely a bucket list item for me. All the years I’ve spent in Texas (I have family there) or traveling through Texas, this was the first time I made it all the way down to the Alamo.

It’s funny because every person I talked to about the trip asked me if I thought it was smaller than expected. Ironically, I thought it was bigger!

All my life people have always told me how underwhelmed they were with the size of the Alamo. So, my expectations were pretty low going in. Lol.

If you haven’t been, the church grounds is basically all that’s left of the original fort. But, there’s a beautiful garden in the back where a cast of characters do demonstrations and answer questions about the history of the grounds, the infamous battle and future plans for the area. They even had people showing what life was like back in the 1800’s!

For me, far and away the coolest thing I learned at the Alamo was about a tiny little bug that lives on the Prickly Pear Cactus.

It’s called the Cochineal bug and they live in the small barnacle looking things on the paddles of the Prickly Pear Cactus. Going back even before the ‘old west’ days, these bugs were harvested and crushed into a paste to make red dyes for everything from food to clothing. We still use them today! Maybe that’s why red food coloring has such a distinct taste?

Here’s a fascinating article about the bugs and how they are used in dying fabrics. 😀

Next stop on our cross country drive was another HUGE Bucket List item for me. The White Sands National Park in New Mexico!! It was even better than I imagined!

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