American Roadtrip Tauranga residents Kay and Mike Travelling America on a Harley Davidson

After a 12 hour endurance ride spanning 812kms in 40 degrees and umpteen bottles of Powerade we arrived in San Ontonio around 7pm.

Exhausted and no accommodation booked we wandered up to the first hotel, where they wanted to charge us $37 for parking per night.

Mike said "you have to be joking" and walked across the road to the next hotel and negotiated parking for $14 per night.

Our hotel was situated on the San Ontonio River bordered by lush gardens and trees.

The San Ontonio River winds its way through downtown, creating the world famous Riverwalk.

We caught a water taxi and had a tour of the beautiful river with many hotels, restaurants and shops bordering the river.

The Alamo, the city's first mission established in 1718, is the most famous spot in Texas where 189 brave Texans and Tejanos fought and died in the struggle for Texas Independence in 1836.

Booked in for three nights, we heard about a town called Fredricksburg about 80 miles away worth visiting, we checked out early and headed west.

A German-Texas historic district with over 80 points of historic interest.

We only had time to visit the National Museum of the Pacific War during WW2, which covered six acres.

It was the most amazing and interesting museum, I was in awe and learnt so much, it was so moving listening to a mother's letter she wrote to President Roosevelt, asking if was true her five sons had been killed on one of the ships, after that tragedy, siblings were not allowed to serve on the same ship.

El Paso was our next stop close to the Mexican border we were stopped by security border patrols, as we were not US citizens we were ordered to show our passports.

The sniffer dogs were checking for drugs and photos were not allowed - we didn't argue.

We were told by a lovely local girl about a great restaurant to go to. On arriving to a packed restaurant with a long waiting list we headed to the bar, Mike bought Deb and I a margarita each, the bartender asked small or big, Mike of course asked for big, that was an understatement, the glass was the size of a goldfish bowl, that round of drinks of $35US lasted Deb and I all night.

We felt like we were in Mexico, the band was great and we were entertained by two elderly couples dancing the cha cha and the salsa while we waited for our table, they were incredible.

We were told the city was quite safe but if we drove downtown and crossed over the border into Mexico, we would most likely be robbed at the first set of lights. One week left of our adventure is suddenly upon us, until then.