The Alamo

What a cold and dreary day it has been. Dennis & Myrna decided to take the trike and do a bit more touring around. It sounds like they had a good day despite the weather and found themselves a good place to eat the Buffalo Wild Wings Bar & Grill.
Irene and I decided to do the poor man's tour on the city bus as it picked us up across the road from the campground. The bus driver was very helpful and told us where to catch a red trolley so that we didn't have to walk in the rain. It took us right to the Imax theatre where it was showing the Alamo. Our first thing was to get tickets to it and then see it before touring the Alamo ruins. Everything made a lot more sense to us then. After having looked at the Alamo we hopped on a city tour bus which lasted for about an hour and was very interesting. Due to the inclement weather Irene & I were the only passengers so we had our own personal guide. The driver had grown up in an orphanage in the area in the 50's and he knew a lot about the history of San Antonio. To keep us inside Rick and I went to the theatre right beside the Alamo to see a show. It was cold outside!

The Alamo
On February 23, 1836, the arrival of General Antonio López de Santa Anna's army outside San Antonio nearly caught them by surprise. Undaunted, the Texans and Tejanos prepared to defend the Alamo together. The defenders held out for 13 days against Santa Anna's army. William B. Travis, the commander of the Alamo sent forth couriers carrying pleas for help to communities in Texas. On the eighth day of the siege, a band of 32 volunteers from Gonzales arrived, bringing the number of defenders to nearly two hundred. Legend holds that with the possibility of additional help fading, Colonel Travis drew a line on the ground and asked any man willing to stay and fight to step over — all except one did. As the defenders saw it, the Alamo was the key to the defense of Texas, and they were ready to give their lives rather than surrender their position to General Santa Anna. Among the Alamo's garrison were Jim Bowie, renowned knife fighter, and David Crockett, famed frontiersman and former congressman from Tennessee.

The final assault came before daybreak on the morning of March 6, 1836, as columns of Mexican soldiers emerged from the predawn darkness and headed for the Alamo's walls. Cannon and small arms fire from inside the Alamo beat back several attacks. Regrouping, the Mexicans scaled the walls and rushed into the compound. Once inside, they turned a captured cannon on the Long Barrack and church, blasting open the barricaded doors. The desperate struggle continued until the defenders were overwhelmed. By sunrise, the battle had ended and Santa Anna entered the Alamo compound to survey the scene of his victory.
While the facts surrounding the siege of the Alamo continue to be debated, there is no doubt about what the battle has come to symbolize. People worldwide continue to remember the Alamo as a heroic struggle against impossible odds — a place where men made the ultimate sacrifice for freedom. For this reason, the Alamo remains hallowed ground and the Shrine of Texas Liberty.