The Alamo

Thursday, Nov 15 Lori and I headed for downtown San Antonio and a visit to the Riverwalk and the Alamo.  Jan and Mark had to take a little side trip to an RV Dealer to pick up a part for their fridge.  RVing is wonderful until something quits working.  Their fridge was actually working too well and was freezing up.  They phoned around and managed to find a part but it was on the other side of San Antonio.  So they headed off in one direction, us in another and we arranged to meet at the Alamo once they were done their errand.

First a few pictures of our RV Park.

The front office.
From here we had to drive up a steep curving road to get to our campsite.
It doesn't get its name "Top Of the Hill" for nothing.

There are about 3 levels and we are on the top one.
Provides a great view.

There are even some cute little cabins for rent. 

And even a Koi Pond

We had initially planned our next stop to be Big Bend National Park however its a long drive from here, in the middle of nowhere and with a plethora of things to see and do around San Antonio and Fredericksburg we managed to extend our stay here till the 23rd and then head up to Carlsbad, New Mexico to see the Carlsbad Caverns.  At $22.50 per night its a pretty good deal.  WiFi isn't great but it seldom is.  We were also invited to participate in their Thanksgiving pot luck with the rest of the residents.  Should be fun.

The San Antonio River runs right through downtown SA and they have done an amazing job of developing walkways, restaurants, bars and shops along its banks.  I'll get into more of that in my next post.

The Alamo, you may have heard of it, was actually a Roman Catholic Mission established to aid in the settlement of the area, then called New Spain.  More settlements meant that Spain could strengthen its claim on the surrounding lands.  It of course is not famous for that but rather a little battle where the Texans, who were defending the lands against the Mexican Army, got wiped out.  Oh yes and there were a few famous names among those Texans.  Not sure how famous they were at the time but the intervening years of stories being told and retold have created its own lore.  Hollywood may have helped.

The front gate of the main chapel of the Alamo
It became the armoury during the conflict.
Unfortunately pictures were not allowed inside.
Also unfortunate that not all that much is left of the original mission.
Sustained canon fire will do that. 

One of the outbuildings.
Not original but fits in real nice with the period. 

The Gift shop

These little guys were everywhere.
Either eating nuts or burying them.

Lots of big old Oak trees.  Very Majestic
This one was transplanted here in 1912 and at the time it was about 40 years old.

Here is the story of this one. 

A nice old tree and and even older well. 

Lots of colourful carriages that can be rented for a ride around the park.
The horses hooves were painted with bright pink sparkle. 

Thats it for now.  I'll post later about our first experience with SA's Riverwalk and then there is a little trip we made to Fredericksburg that I need to tell you about but for now I'm tired, my wine glass is empty so its off to bed.  Tomorrow we are scheduled to head back into SA to see a few more of the old Missions.

Later.