Visitors from Cowtown!

"Happy New Year!" to you, dear reader!

The Year of Our Lord 2006 ended nicely for me -- see comments (additions) I made to my two Christmas traditions postings. But the nicest year-end happening was a visit to San Antonio from a friend of mine from my Fort Worth years: Rob Scofield.

Back in Fort Worth (late 1970s) Rob and I and our wives were part of a married couple Bible study at our seminary, Brite Divinity School. We took turns hosting the Friday-evening gathering, and fellow seminarians, observing this movable meeting and not knowing what we were about, gave us the nickname of "Spooks"! So we call one another that, and even had a "Spooks Reunion" during the Disciples of Christ General Assembly that was held in San Antonio in the early 1980s.

Rob is now serving as Pastor of a church in Fort Worth (after being at a church in Kentucky), Hillside-Memorial Christian Church which sits on the South Freeway (IH 35W heading toward Waco). A young member of the church, Josh Resch, was injured in a bomb explosion in Iraq, and was in Brook Army Hospital here. Rob and several church members had come down to S.A. to visit the valiant, hospitalized soldier. They stayed in my church, Alamo Heights Christian, which has facilities for such overnight usage and often hosts groups. And surprise, surprise! Josh got released on the last Friday of the year!

Still, they wanted to see some of the Alamo City -- but now with their soldier-boy. (I do NOT say this in any less than full admiration and respect for PFC Resch' service and sacrifice to our country! Indeed, when I first met the soldier-boy at AHCC, I respectfully saluted him!) So after having breakfast with them in a café across the street from the church, I guided them to downtown and a good parking spot. Parking spots were at a premium downtown, due to the Alamo Bowl going on Saturday afternoon, but we still found good spots for all their vehicles.

Rob and I strolled westward thru downtown from The Alamo, spending quite some time just sitting in the Hyatt Regency on The Riverwalk, simply talking. Then we resumed our hike toward El Mercado (the Mexican Marketplace). As we strolled we continued talking, and I would occasionally drop some tidbit of info on some building or historical spot we'd be passing. (I'm certain that the square mile of San Antonio that includes The Alamo, Riverwalk, Main Plaza and the Spanish Governors Palace has GOT to HAVE THE MOST historical markers of any square mile in these Untied States! I'd put it up against even any square mile of DC!)

At El Mercado Rob and I had a snack, while enjoying a live musical show, in mostly Spanish with some English. Such shows, which often feature children of all ages, are common on almost any given weekend of the year in El Mercado, at the very least in the "food court" area of the so-called "farmers market" building on the west side of the complex. Rob noticed how much I was enjoying the Mexican music and culture, and commented how I looked like I felt "at home" in S.A., or some similar observation. True this!

We two then walked back, by a different route, to where the cars were parked. I gave each driver instructions for how to exit downtown S.A. onto IH 37 to go home. Either by IH 35 thru Austin and Waco or by US 281 thru the Texas Hill Country. I've gone both ways between the "Alamo City" and "Cowtown". You know, I wouldn't have minded riding with them, to go back and see Fort Worth again -- "Where the West begins"! After all, Cowtown was my intro to the Lone Star State!