San Antonio, Texas
October 31, 2022
The Alamo.
We arrived at our new campsite in San Antonio early enough to allow time for some errands like getting gas (at $2.99 a gallon--the cheapest we've had so far this trip!) and getting the oil changed and tires rotated. The truck maintenance ended up taking much longer than it should have, but we are retired and have nothing else to do.
The little private RV park we called home while in San Antonio.
There were so many things to see and do in San Antonio and so little time (4 days, not counting our travel day). Julie kept us to a (sort of) strict schedule.
Day 1: Rode 20 miles (round trip) from the southern terminus of the River Walk trail to the four historic Spanish missions that make up the San Antonio Missions National Historic Park, located along the San Antonio River. This trail was easily accessed from our campground and it was a very enjoyable ride. We had great weather too (upper 70s and sunny).
Mission San Francisco de la Espada. Founded in 1683, this is the oldest (but smallest) of the four missions in the park.
Many of the out-buildings had been dismantled in the period following secularization in the late 1700s.
All the mission churches are active Catholic parishes to this day.
Mission San Juan Capistrano
Mission San Jose This is the largest of the missions.
Some of the parishioners' altar displays for Dia De Los Muertos (Day of the Dead), honoring their loved ones who have passed away.
Many of the buildings have been re-constructed in this mission.
There was a big open space in the middle of the missions for various trades and activities (blacksmiths, carpenters, classrooms, etc.)
Living quarters were built into the walls surrounding the mission.
The corners of the compound were used for defense from attack.
The interior of one of the living quarters
The church exterior used to be painted in bright colors. Only fragments of the faded paint have survived.
Mission Concepcion
This mission has the greatest concentration of surviving original architecture.
The Espada Aqueduct was built by the Franciscan missionaries and mission residents to provide irrigation for their crops. It is the oldest Spanish aqueduct in the United States.
Day 2: Drove downtown for the requisite visit to the Alamo. We also took a walk around the very attractive River Walk section in the center of town and had dinner in the historic King William district.
The previous night, we had watched the 2004 movie The Alamo in order to become more familiar with the actual events that took place there. We had vague memories of learning something about the Alamo back in grade school, but we basically had forgotten it all. We hadn't known that the Alamo had originally started out as the mission San Antonio de Valero and was afterwards repurposed as a military fort, re-named the Alamo after a town in Mexico.
Davy Crockett in front of the original church building.
The Alamo complex was the smallest of the sites we had visited in San Antonio, but the most crowded.
After the Alamo, we spent the rest of the afternoon wandering around the scenic River Walk. The town did a great job creating a really lush and charming pathway lined with shops, bars, and restaurants. It was quite touristy, but we enjoyed just walking around and people watching.
The pigeons helping themselves to the leftovers
Several river cruise boats passed by.
Day of the Dead displays and gifts for sale
Saint Anthony, the city's namesake
Once we had our fill of walking the River Walk, we drove a short distance to the King William district for dinner and an evening stroll around the neighborhood, also along the river.
Day 3: The historic Mexican market. We parked downtown near the Cathedral so we could visit the historic Mexican market square and then attend Mass afterwards. Since this was the weekend preceding Día de Muertos, there were lots of festivities going on, as over half of the San Antonio population traces their ancestry back to Mexico.
After our afternoon of sensory overload, we strolled back to the River Walk where we sat in a quiet park until Mass time at the Cathedral.
Day 4: Brackenridge Park and some Texas BBQ. Located at the northern terminus of the River Walk trail, Brackenridge park was created in 1899, and it was fun to walk and ride our bikes through it. Usually we avoid going to places like this on the weekend, but the weekend was what we had. There were a lot of crowds around the Japanese Tea Garden and the Zoo, but the rest of the park was fairly quiet. Across the street from the park was the Smoke Shack where we had ourselves some Texas BBQ (smoked brisket sandwiches) for lunch.
The Japanese Tea Garden was built in an abandoned quarry. This shot doesn't show it so much, but the place was quite the zoo. In addition to regular people just walking about, there were several people doing Instagram shoots (or whatever is popular these days), striking all kinds of interesting poses.
Such a cute train engine!
Good thing we weren't planning on having lunch here!
We usually have only seen birds like these in rivers, not in trees.
More of the River Walk. The total length is about 15 miles from end to end.
Once we got home, we were not really hungry for dinner, but had a hankering for some chips and salsa, so we headed out to H-E-B for some fixings. We learned two interesting things: In Texas, medium heat is what Midwesterners would call hot, and fresh tortilla chips are a bakery item! To make the dinner "Texas complete" Rick also got some Lone Star beer.
When we left the grocery store, it was just like a scene from Hitchcock's The Birds. There were hundreds of birds in all the parking lot trees, on the power lines, and even lined up on the store rooftop! Some people might have been freaked out, but we thought it was cool!
Tortilla chips are made in the grocery bakery here. They were good!
Rick's tech-y notes (skip them if this stuff doesn't interest you):
Note 1: There was a maintenance item to take care of on my bike. For the last couple of months, I have been chasing loose spokes on the front tire (I would hear ping sounds from the front). The spokes didn't seem super loose, but were not really tight either, so I have just been turning them all about a 1/2 turn every ride that I heard/felt something. I thought I had it all taken care of, as it seemed to have stopped, but then a couple of rides later I heard it again and it started getting worse. I really didn't think it was the spokes at this point as they seemed plenty tight (just guessing), so after poking around I was able to detect a bit of gravely movement when turning the front tire . . . hmmmm . . . that's not good. So I took apart the front hub and it felt it was way too tight. After loosening it, I was able to ride again without major pinging noises, but I could tell that the bearings were not happy (this was at Garner State Park - where there are no bike stores). While we were here in San Antonio, I took the front hub apart again (I should have measured the bearings last time I had it apart!), so I could count and measure the bearings for replacements. Five dollars in bearings later (the cup and cone looked ok) the front tire rolls happily again! I also bought enough bearings to do Julie's front wheel (on her bike the hub was so tight at one point that the wheel didn't turn properly so I had already loosened it), but I didn't replace the bearings at that time. My remaining bike question is if I have now overtightened my spokes because the problem was actually the bearings going out? And if so, then perhaps I should loosen them some random amount (1/2 or 1/4 turn at a time)? I think I will just leave it all the way it is for now and hope for the best.
Note 2: Checking the receipt for the truck's oil change - it said they used 7 quarts of oil (a truck really uses that much?) which seemed like a lot so I looked up online what my truck should take . . . 8 quarts . . . hmmmm - that doesn't seem right. Luckily checking the oil is easy and it turns out that the oil was indeed within the crosshatched area on the dipstick - but at the very bottom of acceptable. I checked my previous receipts and they all said 8 quarts were used, so while I was getting bearings for the bike, I also stopped at a parts store and got an extra quart of oil. Adding the extra quart brought the level up to the top of the crosshatched area (where it normally has been after an oil change). If I had just gone to some cheapy oil change place then I could just chalk it up to that - but this was an actual Ford dealership!
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