A Love Letter to San Antonio

The Alamo

Dear San Antonio……

We are rapidly running out of time to complete our winter itinerary. 

What we accomplished this year looks slightly different than what we had originally planned….OR-UT (Moab -Check)-Northern NM (Chaco Canyon-Check) - then into Texas, touring down from El Paso via Big Bend National Park to Brownsville to spend January. Simple, clean, adventurous in the exploration of historical sites, and then as we wandered back towards home, a few days in San Antonio, specifically to cross The Alamo off the bucket list.

We got side tracked with the holidays….yes, we know – Thanksgiving and Christmas come around each and every November/December. You can set your calendar on Christmas as it has the good sense to actually have a recurring date, the same date EVERY year…unlike that wishy-washy T-day with it’s third Thursday of November nonsense. Now that we are no longer working it’s hard to track them.  (Mental head slap here)

It’s Feb 1^st when we slide into Hidden Valley RVPark on the outskirts of San Antonio. We have NOT been to Big Bend, nor did we get further south than Del Rio Texas. We are on our way back West and have decided we can do this AND Big Bend NP. But we must stick to the plan, even if out of order.

We have 2 full days to see The Alamo/Riverwalk/some missions AND do our much needed Costco run. Yes, I actually insisted on a visit to Trader Joe’s, even though it was, hmmmm miles across town.  But I digress.

 

Upon settling in, Mike spoke to our site neighbors and was told about “the Tour”.  After discussing this for all of 5 minutes, we decided given our limited time in SA, that taking the tour would be a better idea, save us time and energy, and we would actually SEE more sites on the tour then on our own.

We are not “those” people, you know, 'tour' people. We are more casual in our “what are we going to do here” and then go do that.  That attitude lasted until we discovered that a nice man in a short bus would pick us up at the RV location promptly @ 8am, take us into town (12 mi), deposit us at the tour operator door  and return us by 5pm, another 12 mi drive. Yowser! And for the price of $49.50 per we would see 3 of the 5 missions in SA – (The Alamo included, it is after all, a mission), RiverWalk, the Farmers Market, The Chinese Gardens, and the Buckhorn Bar & Grill and the Texas Ranger Museum.

We returned from our day tour on this cute trolley.

 

Upon arrival in downtown we had to walk through the Cattlemen Stock & Rodeo set up....just prior to the running of the longhorns through downtown San Antonio...we missed it, we were on the bus. Apparently the San Antonio Rodeo began while we were in town....

 

Across the street from the tour ticket office is the beautiful and yet dark memorial to the Alamo. We were surprised to discover how small the mission actually is, Misión San Antonio de Valero-The Alamo battle is remembered for the sacrifices made for freedom, the lost so great.

Additionally we also toured Mission San Jose and Mission Concepcion....both beautiful examples of restoration efforts and historical value.

 Mission San Jose

 

Mission Concepcion

 

Buckhorn Bar and Grill...you could not pay me to eat under all these dead animals - the owners are not losing any sleep around that decision.

 

 

The Texas Ranger Museum

 

Someones 'loaned' collection of badges. However, I must say that the museum for the TX Rangers was informative, even if a bit heavy on the arms end.

 

We also got dropped at the local "trinkets for sale".... disguised as the original Farmers Market....yawn. This could easier be removed for another mission and it wouldn't be missed. Although we did stop at the Chinese Gardens, which was lovely and in bloom (it is February) I am delighted that we can say we have been there.  If just to say I saw the biggest KOI of all time here.

 

So, San Antonio, our day was filled with new sights, sounds and smells (RiverWalk dining) and we  absolutely fell in love with you. So in love, we plan to come back next year and spend more time
 



in your lovely city next year. The above photo is of the Lila Cockrell Theatre viewed from our boat cruise down the San Antonio River (part of the tour). The facade has some 400K tiles that were handmade and tells the history of San Antonio and was built for the 1968 SA World's Fair.

 

Our only regret is that we were not allowed to take any photos inside The Alamo....although a somewhat 'tourista' photographer was posted just outside the front door and as you approached you were stopped, told to smile, photo snapped and a young assistant handed you a card with your "special" photo number and you could buy it on the way out the back door. Seriously SA? Sad. Commerical. And really unnecessary. At least I thought so.

 

Meet David...our SA Alamo Tour bus driver. Native San Anton, has been providing service, history and laughs since the 1980's. Thank you....you made it so fun!

~ Adios amigos