[FrankR]

While in basic training (USAF) at Lackland AFB, in 1964, I visited the Alamo...frankly, it was quite a let down.

I thought it was so tiny. Nothing like it looked in the Davy Crockett (Disney Fess Parker) films.

I understand that what it left is just a small portion of the whole fort/mission.

I guess I just had it built up in my teenage mind to be bigger than it actually is.

Same type thing when I was later shipped to Germany. I had visions of getting the plane and seeing bombed-out buildings on a blackened battlefield, with waifs of smoke drifting through the air. But, It (Frankfurt) was a major, sprawling, metropolis, with cars, and lights, and everything.

I needed to stop watching movies, which I did, eventually.

[Slyfox]

When they did the movie about the Alamo with John Wayne, they built a replica of it 100 miles west of San Antonio. I have been to it and it does seem bigger especially with no other buildings surrounding it.

Fun fact: John Wayne and some pals bought that property where they built the Alamo replica and they did a number of westerns there, like Rio Bravo.

First time I flew to Dallas I was expecting tumbleweeds and those swinging bar doors all over the place. I could not believe how green it was.