Our last week in San Antonio

Our last week was pretty quiet, the weather kept us grounded.
 
Tuesday I had a Dr. appointment with the dermatologist to check my scar, it is coming along fine.  Afterwards we were searching for a post  office and ran across some beautiful old homes, most of them had the historic registry plaque on the front. The cold front is moving away, we got more sun  and less wind.   

Wednesday,  after being cooped up together for most of a week,  we went our separate ways.  Gary dropped me off at a shopping mall while he went to an air museum.  I window shopped but did find a good price on men's jeans, since Gary has lost weight most of his jeans were looking like "grandpa" jeans.  His new ones show off his new found figure.  It was so warm (comparatively) when we got back I washed my car here at the rv park.  A clean car always makes me happy especially when I get to clean it myself, I know call me crazy.

Thursday, Thanksgiving Day, we got up at 6:15 (I hate alarm clocks)we had to be across town by 8:00 to help the Catholic Charities take 43 refugees to the Raul Jimenez dinner.  Raul started this dinner 34 years ago to feed the needy for free.  It has grown over the years, they never turn anyone away, to feeding over 25,000 for free.  We were told that the US allows 70,000 refugees into the country every year.  Catholic Charities of San Antonio took 70.  They get them housing, give $1000 per person to set up their apartments, teach them English, American culture, how to get a job, etc. so they will become self-sufficient.  One thing they drill into their heads, "shower every day".  C.C. had several different nationalities, Cuban, Burmese, Thailand and several others I forgot.  There were a total of 43 refugees that they took by bus down to the convention center for Thanksgiving dinner at 10:30 in the morning, many children, I thought to myself in 50 years those kids will say they came to America when they were just a year or so old.  Besides dinner, the refugees were able to call home free, the Cuban group spent all their time on the phone, I believe some of them took dinner back on the bus with them.  I noticed a Cuban lady crying on the bus on the way home.  Poor thing must have been homesick.  I forgot to mention, very few spoke English.  It was quite an experience plus it helped us not feel so lonely for our family.

Friday, the day we've been looking forward to for weeks.  The boat parade on the Riverwalk.  We were warned there would be heavy traffic.  Well, once we got off the freeway to downtown it took us an hour to get parked.  Gary got a little uptight.  We still had plenty of time, we had reserved seats, so we happened upon a hotel/bar that opened up in 1909.  We had snacks and adult beverage, our server, Jose, took special care of us, he was fun to talk with.  As we were getting ready to leave he wouldn't allow us to pay for our drinks.  The parade was fun, 28 floats decorated by businesses and organizations.  The people we sat next to on both sides were friendly which made it a lot of fun.  After, we decided to go see Jose again  while we waited for traffic to thin out.  The weather was perfect, in the low 60's and no wind.

Saturday we prepared to move, I did laundry and Gary went on a 22 mile bike ride along the mission trail.  Tonight we're going back to the Riverwalk for the last time to see the lights without thousands of people.
No pictures last week, this week lots.  Top to bottom: Convention Hall, placemats made by school kids then laminated; stage; two other volunteers with me; shots of some of the refugees; the dam along the Riverwalk out by the missions; scenes from the parade.

TTFN Gary and Pam

Braunig Lake R V Resort

Sturday, Nov. 17. Our job today is to prepare the coach for it's trip to the repair shop, we developed a leak that needs to be fixed.  We had to defrost the frig, it has to be empty while it is in the shop.  We bought a cooler a few days ago at Wal-Mart to keep our food in, I'd emptied most of the perishables this past week so there wasn't much in there.  It is really hot today, 89 with high humidity.  There is a marathon going on in downtown SA, I heard they had to cancel it mid-way for the safety of the entrants.  It is a good thing we were not able to watch our Oregon football teams play. who were those guys and what did they do with our Ducks?

Monday, Nov. 18th  We were up bright and early to get the coach repaired. Both of us (Luci too) hated to leave Ft. Sam Houston, our home for over a month.  We'd  arranged to stay at the Days Inn, next to the RV park we'll stay at during the rest of our visit here, it is about 8-10 miles south of SA.
Usually check in time is 4:00pm, we were pleased that our suite was open so we could check in at 10:00, I wanted to get the food into the frig as soon as possible.  During the unpacking process we remembered our clothes for Tues. night were still in the closet.  Back to Texas RV Resort.  Gary said they'd started tearing it apart already.  This is a new area for us to explore and a whole new set of geo caches to pick up.  The weather is still hot and humid.  For dinner we lived it up, went to Buffalo Wild Wings for dinner, got to watch some football while we were there.

Tues. Nov. 19th.  We spent the afternoon geocaheing, picked up 11.  We found a LARGE spider along the way, sorry no picture we didn't have the camera with us, Gary did post it on FaceBook.  Nasty looking arachnid.  This is the night we were off to the Majestic Theater to see Celtic Thunder.  The theater was completed in 1929, decorated in Basque theme, you felt as though you were in a Spanish City, the ceiling had clouds that moved and stars in the correct constellations.  In 1989 it was renovated by volunteers to what it is today.  The capacity is 2300, our seats were in the second balcony but  you could hear them just as well as orchestra level.  Gary brought the camera but left the battery in the charger in the coach.  We did take some pix with our phones, I'm not techie enough to get them on the blog.  Celtic Thunder consisted of six guys with musicians, they had beautiful voices.  Gary was a bit disappointed, he was hoping for some Irish dancing.  Before dinner we went down to the Riverwalk for dinner, we took a chance on County Line BBQ.  Yum yum yum.

Wed. Nov. 20th, Gary and I  rode along the Riverwalk visiting three missions, about 10-12 miles.  I did pretty good, I didn't fall down and only had to push my bike up one hill.  Another beautiful day, they say a cold front is coming but they've said that before, their idea of cold was 60.

Thursday, Nov. 21st.  We found out we could pick up the coach a day early, we checked out of the motel about 12:30, we had a few hours to kill before pick up time.  Our lunch was at an old fashioned restaurant, reminded me of Nopps Golden Pheasant in Salem.  Good wholesome, hearty food.  Gas prices have been coming down in the last few weeks, we'd noticed a station near the motel had gone up 6cents overnight so we thought it would be a good idea  to fill up the coach before we took it "home".  The price had gone "up" to $2.99.  Got all set up, we skipped dinner since we'd had such a hearty late lunch.  We enjoyed the evening sitting outside, finding it amazing tomorrow the temps were supposed to  be in the 40's, a 40 degree drop.

Friday, Nov. 22nd, I woke up at 5, it was still warm, about 70, wonderful, I thought maybe we'd dodged the bullet.  Within 15 minutes the wind started blowing, the rain about 10 minutes later.  I couldn't believe how fast the weather changed.  The news had remembrances all day about JFK's assassination 50 years ago, we all remember where we were when we heard the news.  My dad had just died about 3 weeks before so it was especially hard on my mom and me.  The RV park has dinners here every Friday and breakfasts Saturday and Sunday.  We decided to go, met some nice people, one couple from Pittsburgh  were a lot of fun in spite of them being Steeler fans.  They too agreed that we should have won that Super Bowl. Karaoke followed, some of the campers had wonderful voices.

Saturday and Sunday the weather was just plain crappy, high 30's with wind and rain.  Just a week ago it was 89. 

Monday, Nov.25.  The weather is a little better today, not so windy, the rain stopping after lunch.  All three of us had major cabin fever.  Luci went to Lucy's Doggie Day Care and Gary and I went to the movies to see Last Vegas, a real hoot, I would recommend it to anyone.  The theater seats reclined, more comfortable than the one we have in the coach.  Before the movie started I laid back with visions of a nice nap.  Gary was surprised I stayed awake for the whole movie.

No pictures this week, the charger was in the coach (we weren't) and crappy weather.

I hope everyone has a nice Thanksgiving, we will miss spending the day with family and friends.  We will be volunteering for Catholic Charities.

TTFN  Gary and Pam

Our last week at Fort Sam Houston

Veteran's day week-end we hung around the base mostly, staying away from the tourist activities area.  Gary and I did take a long bike ride around the base, atleast long for me.  We did venture out to do some geo cacheing. Of course housekeeping and laundry kept us busy.

Tuesday Nov. 12.  It turned a bit cold and windy, a frigid cold front came down from Canada.  So far it's the coldest weather we've had here.  We figured this would be a good day to go back and see some of the areas we saw from the trolley ride.  Our first stop was Market Square, which has been in operation in the same location for over a century.  It offers an assortment of Hispanic and Southwest wares.  They say you can watch artists at work, since it was so cold I think they were taking the day off.  The  first shop we stopped at Gary found a straw cowboy had he liked, but of course we had to see all the other shops for a better hat or price.  Murphy's law, we went back to the first one he saw.  We then went to the Buckhorn Saloon and Museum several blocks away.  Along the way we visited the Spanish Governor's Palace, the Spanish built in 1722 to guard against the French that wanted to take over the area.  Over the years it changed from residential to commercial.  The city of SA purchased the property in 1930 and restored it into a museum.  The volunteer at the desk said it never was a governors residence.  We found an entrance to the Riverwalk, it was warmer and easier to navigate than the city streets to go to the Buckhorn Saloon and Museum.  We passed the Majestic Theater just a block from the Buckhorn, Gary wanted to go in and see the theater.  They do not offer any tours of, so we bought tickets to the Celtic Thunder for the 19th.  Perfect timing.  At the door of the Buckhorn Saloon a "cowboy" informed us about the museum, he seemed very authentic down to his goatee.  We had lunch and an adult beverage in the saloon before going into the museum.  There must be a couple of hundred dead animals mounted on the walls.  It is the oldest saloon in Texas established in 1881.  For a museum it wasn't too bad, they had a special place for the Texas Rangers, Texan History and even a Bonnie and Clyde gallery including the bullet riddled car they were killed in.

Wed. Nov. 13.  It was still a cool day but perfect for walking.  McCallister Park about 20 minutes from here is huge, probably 2 or 3 times bigger than Minto Brown Park in Salem.  We saw quite a few deer, some of the bucks had large racks of antlers. We picked up 7 geo caches along the way so we saw a lot of the park, they have several soccer fields, a large fenced dog park and quite a bit of natural areas.

Thur. Nov. 14.  The cold front is gone, one night it got down to 34 degrees here in SA.  We went back to McCallister Park, took Luci to the dog park to run some of the "stuffing" out of her.  After we left there we walked trails geo cacheing.  This time beside the deer we saw two foxes.  When they first came out of the brush it scared me, I couldn't tell what kind of animal they were and my first thought was cougar.  The two of them watched us for a while then went back in the brush.  We went to lunch at a Taco Cabana, a large chain of Mexican fast food restaurants.  I don't know if they were good or if I was just hungry after several hours of hiking in the park but I just wolfed them down.

Fri. Nov. 15.  We decided this would be a perfect day for taking the Riverwalk boat trip that runs through the heart of the downtown business district.  Just below street level, it gives you a completely different feel of the city.  The Riverwalk was originally designed for flood control, they have guillotine doors they can close when needed.  Hotels and restaurants line the walk.  Our boat driver was a lot of fun and informative.  The day after Thanksgiving, SA has an annual Christmas parade on the river.  We had to buy tickets for a spot to watch the parade.  You could see all the lights being put up in trees along the way for the Christmas season.  We had snacks an adult beverage at Dick's Last Resort not knowing what we were getting ourselves into.  The waiters hurl insults at you and make crazy hats  with rude wording.  Mine was "As seen on Golden Girls gone wild" and Gary's was "Thank goodness Viagra works better than the Rogaine.  It was fun(?) much better suited to a younger crowd or else I'm sensitive about my age.

Sat. Nov. 16, Back to McAllister Park for Luci to play and more geocacheing.  After we took Luci to a self-service dog wash for her first real bath.  She didn't seem to mind, wagging her tail through most of it including the dryer.  We started to defrost the frig in the coach, it has to be empty when it does to the repair shop.  We will be in a Days Inn south of the city for 4 nights.  Watched some college football, couldn't get the Duck game, watched the Oregon State game, they were doing poorly, ended up turning it off.  Still don't know who won.
  Top to bottom:  Market Square; Riverboat ride; Dick's rude hats; inside Governor's Palace and Buckhorn Saloon

TTFN Gary and Pam

My birthday week

Sunday, Nov., 3,
 Gary asked me what I wanted to do for my birthday.  Wash my car!  It hasn't been washed since we left Salem Sept. 3rd.  As you know I'm fussy about my car, the dirt was driving me crazy.  We went to a Rub a Dub, Gary sprayed and I scrubbed.  By the way it rained the next day.  We decided to go to the Tower of America's, 750 feet tall, built for the 1968 World Fair.  The top rotated 360 every hour, we got there about 5:30 so we were able to see the city in daylight, sunset and dark.  The fun was getting there.  Back in August we bought a car top carrier for the Jeep, two days later I unsuccessfully tried to put it in the garage.  Key word being unsuccessfully, it took Gary about a half an hour to free it.  I absolutely forgot it was there, all I wanted to do was vacuum the inside.  We looked for a parking spot near the Tower, deciding to park in the Hyatt's parking garage.  We cleared the first 6'8" bar, as we descended the garage roof got lower. We heard a scrape, about that time a parking attendant came to our rescue and allowed us to park in a no parking area.  Gary said he remembered it was there but....Dinner was excellent, a Chart House restaurant.  The food was excellent, expensive but worth every cent.  I got several calls from friends and family.
Monday, Nov. 4,  We had a pretty quiet day, went to Wal-Mart for a storage bin, we brought way too many winter clothes.  We spent some time re-arranging our clothes.  We also put the electric blanket back on the bed, another cold front is supposed to hit.  My blood must be thin, 65 seems cold.  Fort Sam Houston is very old, an area called the Quadrangle was the beginning of the Fort, the city of San Antonio deeded 93 acres to the government in 1858.  Deer and peacocks roam the grounds inside the walled fort.  Early folklore said when Geronimo was a prisoner they fed him venison, others say that is ridiculous, the soldiers would have eaten the venison themselves and fed the Apaches rations, at any rate the ancestors of those deer have remained on the ground since.  A tower built in 1870 to be a water tower is now a clock tower over 60 feet tall.
Tuesday, Nov. 5, one of the things we wanted to do here in the city is take the trolley tour.  Our guide was a man born and raised in San Antonio, the tour took an hour several stops we'd already visited, the   Mission Trail was new, the King William Historic district, where homes in that area are now worth 2-4 million dollars.  We want to go back to visit the Market Square.  Of course we passed over the Riverwalk several times, I had no idea it went beyond the downtown area.  It runs for over 10 miles, originally built for flood control.  Tourism was just a by-product.  He said San Antonio is the 2nd largest city in Texas, the first being Houston and the 3rd Dallas.  Who knew? 
Thursday, Nov. 7.  Since we have been to two presidential libraries already (Reagan & Nixon) we went to Austin to see LBJ's. on the campus of the University of Texas.  We found a PetSmart to leave Luci in Austin while we spent the day sightseeing.  His library wasn't as "fancy" as the other two but very interesting.  The 50th anniversary of Kennedy's assassination coming up this month perhaps made this more meaningful.  There were 10 floors of artifacts in the building but the public could only view three, the first floor had a 11 minute movie introduction of his life, telephone database that let you listen in on over 643 hours of recorded telephone conversations, an animatron of LBJ telling humorous stories and of  course the ever present gift shop.  The second floor  you could explore his presidency, starting Nov 23 1963 and the top floor you could see a scaled down version of the Oval Office, Lady Bird's office and some family pictures.  When you were in Lady Bird's office you could see the UofTx football stadium and campus.  After lunch we went to Zilker Metropolitan Park located alongside Lady Bird Lake, a reservoir on the Colorado River that is damed close to downtown.  Not damned close but dam (ed)
Friday, Nov. 8,  Our trolley trip introduced us to a couple of missions so we decided to do the mission walk, you could walk past 4 missions on the Riverwalk,  What a great place to walk and bike, we want to go back with the bikes and do the whole trail  We started at Mission Espada, the furthest, founded in 1690 then walked up to Mission San Juan built in 1731, a little over a mile each way.  We did manage to pick up a geo cache along the way.  After lunch we visited Mission San Jose (1720) and Mission Concepcion 1731) both in the present city limits. 
Sat. Nov. 9, Not much happening today, we stay out of the tourist areas on weekends.  Gary and I took a long (for me) bike ride around the RV park and base.  Top to bottom:  The Tower of America's after dark, a peacock at the Quadrangle, the clock tower, inside the trolley with our guide, arriving at LBJ's Library, me in front of a cement mural of LBJ, the Oval office, view from Lady Bird's office, the capitol building and the Mission San Jose
TTFN  Pam and Gary

Beautiful San Antonio

Another week has  just raced by.

Monday 10/28  We had to get ourselves out and about early this morning, we had an appointment to take the coach to Texas RV repair to get an estimate for repairing our leak.  While it was there we had the oil changed etc. After getting the bad news, we had to find a place to stay for 4 nights during the repair.  There were a couple of places in our camping membership that we looked at, the first we didn't even stop, the first thing we saw were a bunch of very old singlewide trailers. (not manufactured homes). The next place is about 15 miles south of downtown S.A., really nice, there is a Days Inn next door that is owned by the same people, we were able to get a suite for a real good price and they are pet friendly. We will leave Fort Sam Houston on the 18th, take the coach in to get repaired, spend 4 nights at the motel then move the coach down to Lake Braunig RV park until the end of November.  Afterward our next project was to find our missing mail, two weeks of mail were not at the base that should have been.  We talked to Linda at The Other Mail Service, priority mail tracking said they had been received.  Somehow instead of general delivery to the base it had been sent to general delivery at the main post office in San Antonio, what a relief to figure out where the mail had gone to.  We decided to try Bun and Barrel BBQ, a SA institution since the 50's, also featured on Diners, Drive Ins and Dives, there was a geo cache in their parking lot and I didn't feel like cooking.  Went home to watch the Seahawks play an ugly game managing to pull out a win in the end.
Wed 10/30.  I had an early appointment to get my stitches out.  It wasn't a lot of fun.  I'm surprised at the area they took out, now I look like I have a cold sore that went astray.  I'm hoping once the redness and swelling go away it won't look so nasty.  After, we went to check out the Pearl Brewery, established in 1881, the largest brewery in Texas.  Now it is high end retail and restaurants. similar to the Pearl in Portland.  The "Stable" area now is an event venue, we couldn't look in but the pictures look very nice. During prohibition they made near beer, soft drinks and ice cream.  in 1985 Pabst Blue Ribbon bought them out finally closing in 2001.  The forecast for late and middle of the night for heavy rain and thunder and lightening, this time they were right.  Places here in the park were flooded including the construction area where they are making new rv spaces.  Luci doesn't seem to mind the thunder, I do however!
Thursday 10/31 Happy Halloween. We've been planning all week to go down to the Riverwalk area to see a bunch of crazies in costume,  we were a bit disappointed, only the wait staff at various restaurants were dressed up.  Our other "must do" on our list was to find a place to watch the Christmas parade the day after Thanksgiving, you have to buy tickets for a spot and we couldn't tell on the map where to go.  We inquired at several restaurants, they were full but we did find on that had openings.  For $65. including dinner we could watch the parade, we decided to just get a chair along the way for $25.00.  We ended up eating dinner at The Aztec on the river, I had the most delicious quesadilla made with goat cheese and spinach.  Yum. I couldn't eat it all so I got a box to go, on the way back to the car a homeless man harassed me, he wanted my leftovers.  No way it was too good to give away.
Friday, 11/1 On the way down to San Antonio from Buffalo gap we went through Fredricksburg, a German town, we decided we'd like to go back.  There is a lot of historical homes and businesses but the draw for Gary was the War of the Pacific Museum.  It took him several hours to get through it but he said there was too much to see in part of a day.  We thought it odd that a Pacific War museum would be in the middle of Texas until we found a historical sign saying it was the childhood home of Nimitz  I visited all the shops along main street, very expensive. I didn't buy anything.  We dropped Luci at a day care on the way, PetSmart have the greatest "day camp" for dogs.  We hit rush hour traffic on the way home, took forever to pick Luci up (about 10 miles out of the way) and get back to base. 
Saturday, 11/2  We didn't do much today, grocery shopping, cleaning etc.  I made my birthday cake for tomorrow.  My sister Judy from San Diego called to wish me a happy birthday. Tomorrow for dinner we are going to the Towers of America's for my B.D dinner at sunset.
TTFN Gary and Pam
 Top to bottom:  View from the coach across the  RV park;  Quarry Market shopping center; Pearl Brewing Co. being refurbished into a hotel; cement sculptures long the water front, same artist that did the bridge that looks like trees in Breckenridge Park; Gary and I hunting for the perfect spot to watch the Christmas parade, had to stop and have an adult beverage; the wait staff and the mobster river barge driver.