Wow, I can't believe all my gear fits into two suitcases and a gym bag! What a miracle of dimensional manipulation! For a guy just traveling with what he needs, I am hauling an awful lot of stuff around the country.

The Huston/San Antonio area is not quite like I expected. I expected to see a big city, then go down a long, straight lonely road through the desert for three hours with not a sign of life until the next city. Towns and cities would be like lonely oases is the desert. Instead, the whole region is densely populated. Cities sort of thin out into suburbs, which then go into the suburbs of the next city, and you are already in city again. The land is flat, and you can see for very far, and the lights Huston and San Antonio at night are go way off into the horizon. This is quite unlike NYC, where everything compressed together on islands or river banks and build "up". I can easily find where NYC "stops".

I got out and visited some of the old Catholic missionary compounds. They were established decades before the revolution, and they make very good photos. The compounds themselves are ruins, but the churches are still in use and good condition.