Winter time in San Antonio

Dec 28, 2016 to Feb 28, 2017:

We stayed two month at the Traveler's World RV Resort in San Antonio. We like this campground's location which is on the riverwalk just south of downtown. From the campground we can ride our bikes about 5 miles to reach downtown or several miles south to reach the missions located here. The campground has pot luck dinners each Tuesday and "happy hours" on Fridays. They also had other special events during the winter months: Valentine dinner/dance, SuperBowl watch party, Daytona 500 watch party, etc. We had a nice back-in site with a patio and full hookups with cable.

We visited several of the old Spanish missions in San Antonio. Here is some information from Wikipedia:

San Antonio Missions National Historical Park is a National Historical Park and part of a UNESCO World Heritage Site preserving four of the five Spanish frontier missions in San Antonio, Texas, USA. These outposts were established by Catholic religious orders to spread Christianity among the local natives. These missions formed part of a colonization system that stretched across the Spanish Southwest in the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries. 

In geographic order from north (upstream of the San Antonio River) to south (downstream) the missions are located as follows: Mission Concepción, Mission San Jose, Mission San Juan, and Mission Espada. The Espada Aqueduct, also part of the Park, is due east of Mission San Juan, across the river.

The fifth (and best known) mission in San Antonio, the Alamo, is not part of the Park. It is located upstream from Mission Concepción, in downtown San Antonio, and is owned by the State of Texas. 

The missions are being preserved by the National Park Service along with local volunteers. 

During our time in San Antonio we made several trips back to Austin. Connie had some doctor's appointments (nothing serious) along with spending time seeing friends. We had one week-end in February where we attended three funerals: (1) the mother of our friend Marty Rexroat died at age 92, (2) the husband of our friend Ginny Stewart passed away suddenly at age 70, and (3) a close friend of ours whom Mike had gone to high school with, Sheri Jones, died unexpectedly at age 62. It was a sad weekend to remember and celebrate the lives of these three individuals. It also made us glad that we are healthy and able to enjoy our current life on the road.

In Memory of Sheri Jones

Here are a few photos from some time spent with friends during our stay.

Mitch and Barb Mendrygal joined us at Traveler's World for their first week of full-timing. They had purchased a 2006 Newmar Essex last summer but family obligations did not allow them to spend a night in the motor home until they left the Dallas area for San Antonio. We tried to help out with some questions they had as they adjusted to life in a 425 foot "home". It was great seeing them and we wish them well on their adventure into this lifestyle.

One weekend in January we took a trip to Kerrville to see a Renaissance Festival with our friends Mal & Fran Vaughan. We enjoyed a couple of the "shows" put on at the festival but were disappointed in the small size of the event.

The last weekend in February we drove up to Boerne to have lunch a couple of good friends: David Jones who Mike has known since the 8th grade and Gary McQueen who we have known for 15+ years. We met them at the Dodgy Duck Restaurant along the river in Boerne and had a great afternoon getting caught up.

During the month of February the San Antonio Rodeo and Stock Show as going on. We did not attend any of the events at the rodeo but did enjoy the "herding" of Texas longhorns along several downtown streets. Next year is San Antonio's 300th birthday and they are planning on having 300 longhorns on this route.

This was the longest we have stayed in one campground since we started full-timing in 2015. It was nice to be able to get everything "out" for a while without having to worry about packing up for the next journey down the highway. We enjoyed spending time with our friends in Texas and appreciate the kindness and hospitality they showed us.

The time in San Antonio was great but we are ready to hit the road again. This year we will be travelling west to Big Bend area of Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, Utah, Idaho, Wyoming and Colorado.

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