Day 2.4: El Paso, TX to San Antonio, TX

We woke up at 7am to get an early start, beginning with thirty minutes on the treadmill in the hotel’s fitness center. We went to the hotel breakfast and proactively made lunch to take with us so that we wouldn’t have to stop on our drive - a lackluster peanut butter and banana sandwich for Abe and a blueberry bagel with cream cheese for Arielle. As we drove, we once again made the mistake of letting our gas tank run to empty, panicking for about 33 miles to reach the next station. Miraculously, we made it and our odometer even hit 400 miles exactly, a sight we thought we would never see (and did not capture in the below photo, taken a few tense minutes later).

While we hope to see it again, we would like it to come with less anxiety. Puzzlingly, after filling up the tank, our light came on much sooner on the next drive, and we only made it to about 300 miles even though we were driving on cruise control the same speed the whole time.

We made it to San Antonio around 6:15pm and made a stop at CVS before heading to Green’s Vegetarian Cuisine, which also happens to be certified kosher. We had dinner with Miguel, a member of the local Conservative synagogue, Agudas Achim, who is an ethicist, and his wife Roble. He and Arielle had plenty to talk about, and the spouses enjoyed themselves too. Arielle ordered a combination of appetizers: the fried pickles, which were delicious, fried cauliflower with barbecue sauce (which only Abe ate), and nachos, which were awesome. Abe ordered the eggplant parmesan, which was quite tasty.

After a lovely conversation, we said goodbye and then went over to Baskin Robbins, where Arielle got three different flavors in a single scoop - Winter White Chocolate, Love Potion #31, and Mint Chocolate Chip. Abe got a single scoop of just one flavor, the World Class Chocolate.

We drove about fifteen minutes to our hotel, and marveled at the number of turnarounds and loops that exist on the roads of this city. We pulled in to the Drury Inn and Suites San Antonio - North Oak, adjacent to the Drury Plaza Abe had stayed at on his previous visit to the city back in November 2016. We had missed the free dinner offered earlier but still got to visit the hot tub before it closed, which was very hot and nice. We went to sleep with plans for yet another early start the next morning.

Approximate number of miles covered: 562