Alamo, River Walk, and Biking the Mission Trail

October 26 - 30, 2013 

Saturday the 26th we basically hung out at a local hospital emergency room waiting for Patty to be seen for a simple cyst.  Patty had the cyst treated with antibiotics a couple of times and it keeps coming back.  This is supposed to be somewhat normal for diabetics.  

We had originally gone to an Urgent Care facility and found it to be closed.  The sign on the door told us to go to the South West Hospital Emergency department so that is what we did. We were there for 5.5 hours!  They did, to our surprise, cut out the cyst.  So plans for going to Walmart were put on hold for another time. 

We got back in time to make fajitas with the Mexican marinated beef we bought in Austin.  It was on the list as one of the 10 best great dinners!

Making the Fajitas

Grilling peppers and onions with our homemade Fajita seasoning.

Keeping the tortillas warm on top of the vegetables while the marinated meat cooks.

Sunday the 27th we just hung out all day and relaxed.  We started to make plans for our next stop and the stop after that.  The last stop will be where we will put the rig and truck in storage while we travel up north for the Holidays.  The storage place needs to be near the Brownsville Airport so we can use a taxi to get there.  

We really didn't get anywhere on the site planning though. We however did manage to make a dinner of salad and over cooked grilled chicken.  I thought the chicken pieces were thighs but turned out to be boneless skinless breasts.  In my experience, you need some fat to grille with especially with white meat chicken.  The breasts should have been marinated.  Anyway, one of the breasts was so over cooked it disappeared!

Monday the 28th we went into San Antonio to visit the Alamo and the River Walk area.  We were a little disappointed in the Alamo as most of it is gone now.  However, we did learn a lot more about the history of Texas.  

Alamo mission.  This is what everyone thinks of when they think of the Alamo.

The long barracks.  This is where most of the soldiers were killed.  This and the mission is basically all that is left of the 4.5 acre site.  It's mostly been paved over with roads and shops.

Very cool tree just behind the barracks wall. It is a live oak tree put there in 1905.

Alamo monument to who suffered there.

Anyway, after leaving the Alamo we got a quick appetizer and a glass of wine at the oldest Saloon in San Antonio, the Buckhorn. 

Then down to the River Walk we went.  The main part of the River Walk is about 2.5 miles of shopping and restaurants along a canal system that is used for flood control.  The real cool thing is that the canal is all below the main city street.

The River Walk was a fun afternoon thing to do.  We walked most of the square and then took a river boat around again and up one of the newer sides called the museum reach. 

Cool restaurant along the River Walk.

Theater along the River Walk.

Cool hotel along the River Walk.

Tower of the Americas in the background.

Mural done for the 1968 World's fair depicting western history both Indian and European.

Nice walkways to the street.

San Antonio has done a really great job building this.  We were amazed that the River Walk has been in the making for many years and started out as a flood prevention plan for the city.  The River Walk idea started in the 1920s with most of the work being done in the 30s and 40’s!  I would have thought that is was just done in the past 20 years. 

We ended up at the oldest restaurant on the River Walk which happens to be Mexican.  We were there for happy hour and had several small margaritas.  

Happy Hour at Rio Rio.

Customers and waiters feed the ducks in the canal causing a frenzy of duck activity.

I fed this one and she was my friend.  Note the big bass in the water to the right.

Now she is right next to me at our table.

I forgot she was there until she bit my ass through the chair to get my attention!

We debated the idea of staying and having dinner at a fish and chips place but in the end we decided to head back to the RV.  We were still really full from the lunch we had at Buckhorn and didn't want to spend money on dinner we weren't hungry for.  We got home and had grilled ham and cheese with soup for dinner.

On the 29th , Tuesday, we headed off for the Mission Trail for some biking. We have not been on our bikes since we left Iron River MI in the UP almost 2 months ago.  We got our water ready and I aired up the tires and off we went.  We started the trail at the Espada Mission just outside the I 410 Beltway that circles San Antonio. The trail is now part of the enlarged River Walk called the Mission Reach.  We didn't go this far, but you can bike or hike all of the way to the Alamo in downtown San Antonio 12 miles away for a round trip of 24 miles.  We just went as far as the last mission before entering the city which was 7.5 miles one way.

This Mission Espada church is still holding service and was built in the 1600s.

The trail took us past 4 old Spanish missions that dated from the same era as the Alamo, the mid to late 1600s.  The trail is all concrete and is wide enough for you ride side by side most of the way.  The trail has only been open for a couple of months so there are still a lot of workers still working on final touches.

Start of the mission trail  heading left

One of many very nice bridges on this trail that are just for hiking and biking!  Note that is Patty up ahead.

Hiking/Biking bridge over the San Antonio River.

End of the End of the 3 hour bike and mission tour.  The truck AC is on high too!

Even though the temperatures were in the mid-80s and the humidity was similar, we had a good bike ride.  Since we haven't ridden for a couple of months we were pretty tired and ready for AC at the end of the trip.  As for the missions, seen one, seen them all.

We were now ready for a burger on the BBQ.  I think we were sleeping in front of the TV by 10pm.

The next couple of days it is supposed to rain so we will be doing planning and some more relaxing.  Wednesday the 30th we did settle on our next camping place and made a reservation starting this Friday the 1st of November.  WOW, November!  We are staying just 40 minutes away at a resort called the Riverside Ranch.  This will be our first “resort” since leaving Florida at the first of June.  It is an adult clothing optional resort which is our other life choice besides RVing.  We don't talk about the clothing optional stuff too much on the blog.  We will however share all of the fun and events. 

Today we have a new neighbor who has a 2014 Sanibel 3501.  Ours is a 2013 Sanibel 3500.  The main difference is that the 3501 has a residential refrigerator and an inverter to feed it from battery.  There are a few other differences but those are just from being a year newer. That makes 2 Sanibels in just the past couple of weeks.

Our site is on the right.

Wednesday evening we took a walk around the campground to just check it out.  

Nature trail around the campground.

The last part of the natural trail was washed out by the heavy rain last May.

As we were walking by the stream that runs through here we got a call from the owner.  She wanted us to know that the weather people are calling for up to 5 inches of rain overnight and that we were in a flood zone. Yikes!  She told us that in May the prediction was for a 20% chance of rain and they got 10 inches which flooded the entire campground with 8 feet of water.  So this time she is not taking any chances by warning us.  It is real easy to get to higher ground if needed, just up the short entrance road.  If needed we could be hitched up and moving within 5-10 minutes.  Just disconnect the utilities and throw everything in the back of the truck, hitch up and leave.

We watched the weather throughout the night but it never rained real hard for very long.  It did rain most of the night and there were a few good downpours but they lasted just a couple of minutes.  The only thing that worried me was that we were in valley with a stream in it and we didn't really know if heavy rain close by could cause this area to flood anyway.

Well, nothing happened with the rain, here anyway.  Seems that most of the rain went to the area between us and Austin. There were reports of up to 8 inches of rain and several roads closed.  I went out to the stream this morning and it was up maybe 2 feet from yesterday.  It would need to be triple that to affect us.

Tomorrow we are planning the Walmart trip for a few food items and some liquor for the following week at the resort.

Pretty much sums up Texas about law and order!

Stay tuned!