Texas. The Lone Star State. The home of cowboy country. At least, thats what I was expecting before I got to San Antonio. It turns out that Texas is actually a mix of 2 distinct cultures. There is the familiar, Walker Texas Ranger, wild west northern Texas, and San Antonio is right in the center of the far more Mexican southern Texas. We landed at San Antonio International at 2:00PM, and the first thing we noticed was the heat-even now in September, the temperature climbs into the mid 30s. However, this heat is balanced out by a fanatical devotion to air conditioning. It is impossible to know how to dress down here-its incredibly hot outside, but as soon as you step inside your trying desperately to find a coat, or some wood to start a fire. We in Winnipeg are proud of our ability to handle extreme temperature ranges, but these people go from 30 above to 30 below instantly when they step inside, and seem completely fine with it. Its like their not completely human...

Despite the Mexican flair of San Antonio, its impossible to forget that your in Texas-from our Ford Mustang Rental car, to the hundreds of steakhouses around our hotel, to the fact that elderly mall security guards here are armed with Glock pistols, everything is quite different from home. Oh-one final note-although I havent seen any yet, the AAA Guidebook did mention turantulas living in Texas. In other words, trying to squash a spider out here is a bit more of a 2 way battle than it is in most other places. Maybe this is why mall security guards are armed...