It's been a great trip to San Antonio, quite an impressive city in many ways. Although it is seventh on the list of largest cities in the United States, it does not seem that big. I had lunch with Roger Downing, a former Blade editor who now works at the San Antonio Express-News, who explained that unlike most large metro areas, San Antonio has no suburbs and is not landlocked, so it just keeps spreading out geographically. That is evident when you look at the metropolitan area. While the city is No. 7, the San Antonio metropolitan area is 23rd in rank.

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Roger Downing is doing well at the Express-News. When he quit his management job as news editor of The Blade, he went to Las Vegas. But after 8 months there, he moved back to S.A., his hometown. It turns out the Vegas editor was making Roger's life miserable, and the housing prices in Vegas are sky high. He had worked at the San Antonio paper before and when they offered to also hire his wife, a veteran editor, it made it too good an offer to refuse.
Roger has a lot of realistic ideas about what The Blade needs to do to rebuild from the disastrous labor struggles. He also has a lot of funny stories to share about the people at the Blade and he said he misses Toledo and the paper, and strangely enough I believe he means it.
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The Alamo is not only a national historic site, but it's also a shrine. It is the place where nearly 200 Texas soldiers were killed by Santa Anna's army of 3,000. When you enter the church itself, there are signs asking men to remove their hats, and for people to be quiet as signs of reverence.

The River Walk is truly an amazing place to visit, one of the finest "tourist traps" in the world, and I use that term facetiously. Tourists come here but it's not really a trap, it's more of a gem.
I took a guided boat tour last night and thoroughly enjoyed it. The scenery is beatiful and the tour guide provided a lot of interesting history lessons. The walk opened in 1941 and is an example of how city leaders with vision can really have an impact for generations to come. One of the S. Antonio's biggest industries is tourism, and the River Walk and the Alamo are probably equally responsible for bringing gringos to town.
The river is controlled by floodgates that open up to drain the water when it threatens to flood. In 1921, before the floodgates were installed, the river crested at eight feet above street level and destroyed the downtown, which was stunning to hear when you're in a boat on the river, looking up at a street that is about 20 feet over your head. That must have been some incredible flood.
The soft lights and the greenery on the river make for such a delightful scene. You can sit at a restaurant patio, enjoy a meal and watch the endless parade of people walk by. Then there's the bar area that gets really crazy. About 30 people a year fall into the river, our guide said, most of them in the bar area for obvious reasons, and there is a $500 fine for anyone who falls in.
What if you're pushed?
Maybe it's worth it on hot days, however. San Antonio has been incredibly humid and hot while I was here. I knew it would be warm but the humidity clings to you like a hot towel. Everybody is dripping with sweat. And this was at the end of September. I'm sure it's much worse in mid-summer. I was talking to Mark Pinsky of the Orlando Sentinel, however, and he said it was quite a bit cooler than his hometown. So everything's relative.
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I took a drive up to Fredericksburg yesterday, about an hour northwest of San Antonio. It's where German settlers arrived in the early 19th century. The flatlands of San Antonio quickly turn into rolling hills dotted with ranches and forests. The LBJ ranch is just east of Fredericksburg but I didn't have time to see it.
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Yesterday was really the only free time I had here; the Religion Newsriters Association really jams a lot into the conference and keeps you busy from morning till night. I am coming home with a million story ideas and lots of terrific sources, scholars and experts in areas from politics to megachurches, whom I can call for future reference.
I found the conference extremely inspiring, as well as rejuvenating. I hope to attend next year's in Washington D.C., which will be even more interesting because it will be an election year.
San Antonio
Oct. 1, 2007