By 4 o'clock on Friday we had moved our suitcases etc. to the InTown Suites where we are staying for a week and said our farewells to our apartment, the leasing staff and the maintenance staff. The next morning we headed out with the car stuffed to the roof, our seats pushed so far forward that our knees were against the dash and headed off to our next port of call, Traders Village.
Right now it is hot (in the 80s) and we are constantly overheating, sweating and tired. Each day we need to wash out clothes in the tiny hand basin and hang them in the shower to dry - not very efficient because of the humidity in San Antonio.
After a long (but fun) day at Traders Village we are finally emptied of everything except what we are taking on our travels and a few things that we will use between now and then. Our best customers were other traders, it is always fun getting there early and bartering with the other traders. We made friends today, sharing stories and even using our tables and chair that we had just sold. One of the traders admitted in the middle of the afternoon that he thinks he actually spent more (buying some of our stuff) than he made today. Another couple of traders told us about their adventures to casinos and on cruises - they run a stall at Traders Village on the weekends to make money to spend at the casinos, and on cruises, their entertainment money. We also met a lady that we had a lot of trouble conversing with - her Spanish was not like that we have been learning and she was a little shy, quiet and emotional but she bought several items from us and when we gave her some extra items free at the end of the day, she gave me gifts which of course I don't want and tried to gently refuse - she cried and said that she had nothing else to give me and I got another trader (Spanish fluent) to explain to her that we do not have room for her gifts, that we are very grateful but have no room to take them with us. Finally she understood that we were not rejecting her gifts but we could not take them with us because we have no room.
We didn't make a lot of money today but that wasn't really the objective, we did however get to make a veteran very happy by giving him a couple of books about birds and flora. We also got to give some of the leftovers to some of the traders so that they could sell them for themselves at some future time.
So now we are ready for a quiet week here in San Antonio, lunch with friends tomorrow and then some relaxation time until we head towards the border on Friday.
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