13-SAN ANTONIO, TX-Part 1

Driving across the Southern part of New Mexico and West Texas on I-10, we could have put the motorhome on cruise control and slept through the trip as there was nothing of interest to look at.

Northern New Mexico is a different story, but sadly, that’s not where we were driving.

Of course we couldn’t really do that, for one reason, we did hit about a hundred miles of thick fog. Still nothing to look at, but for sure, Don could not sleep through that!  Me? I made one of my pine needle baskets on this leg of the trip in order to help the time pass.

When we got to Fort Stockton, Texas, we finally found something to look at…briefly.

Off the highway, on the nearby horizon, is this silhouette of a small band of Indians watching the cars go by. I have tried to get this picture on previous trips, but it comes up quickly and at 55 mph, it passes even quicker. I was pleased to catch it this time.

 Finally we arrived at our RV Park in Boerne, Texas, just north of San Antonio. Our dear friends, Bill and Teri Smith have a home in Boerne (pronounced “Burney”) and we were glad to see them for the first time this year.

 

Bill and Teri have a new little Havanese puppy who has the energy of a Tasmanian Devil and plays havoc with their two cats. He’s a cute little guy and keeps everyone entertained…except, of course, for the cats.

Hanging out with Bill and Teri always means a lot of fun sight seeing and a lot of busyness. We won’t discuss a trip to the beauty shop and a raid on Coldwater Creek. (That was Teri and I, not the guys in case you were wondering.)

We visited LaVillita Village that is down by the River Walk in San Antonio.

It is a historic area made up of a variety of 1920’s homes that have been turned into shops and wonderful galleries.

There is also a small historic church nestled among the homes/shops that is still conducts services.

Then there, is of course, the beautiful River Walk itself. I have always wanted to see this place which we did for the first time last year. I wanted to see it again. Just can’t get enough of this place.

This year it was really chilly and the slow time of the year resulted in very few people being there…a good thing for us. Around Christmas there are lights in the trees and I hear it is not only beautiful but wall to wall people.

This time the four of us took one of these tour boats for a 30 minute tour of a section of the river. They tell you lots of historical tidbits about the development of the river and a lot about the hotels and buildings that crowd the edge of the water along with the usual jokes that are just for fun.

Besides buildings, from the river we saw this sculpture representing the blending of cultures in the area and …

…the tower that was built for the1968 World’s Fair that was held in San Antonio, called HemisFair. It also marked the 250th Anniversary of the founding of the city.

The river is lined with beautiful buildings.

Some quite new and others, very historic.

There are also shops and lots and lots of restaurants along the edge of the water. If you want (good) Mexican food, it is here.

Due to the weather, the restaurants were not very busy. Normally there are crowds everywhere. Some places along the water the walkway has railings, others, none at all. I can’t help but wonder how many people a year fall in. I can envision teenagers or college guys goofing around and then a big SPLASH!! They say it’s only 2-4 feet deep, so its not a major danger.

Bill has a 1932 Ford bright red truck (they call ‘32’s a Duce). He and Don went on a “Rod Run” the other day with these eight or ten other drivers of classic cars.

They drove out in the country, over the hills, (this is the “Hill Country”) to a well known restaurant called PoPo’s for lunch.

On another day we were in downtown San Antonio at the Southwest School of Arts and Craft. It is in the historic Ursuline Academy, a Catholic school for girls. It was established in 1851 for the education of girls.

A docent showed us through the grounds and told us the history of the property.

There were beautiful gardens and fountains that on this day were dripping with icicles.

Inside were beautiful stained glass windows and…

……. a huge tapestry that weighed 100 pounds. It contained an immense amount of detail that related to the school and buildings.

At this point in time the facility holds classes in many types of art programs for the public of all ages.

The next stop was at the Briscoe Western Art Museum. This was not a huge museum, but contained some wonderful art. As usual I could not take pictures inside and again the Internet is my friend.

However, there was some pretty amazing art inside. This was Pancho Villa’s saddle.

There is a large Apache basket (circa 1890-1910), and…

… the Eagle Dancer Potawatomi by Z.S. Laing. There was so much really impressive art there.

One fun thing that happened at the Briscoe Museum of Western Art, was that as Teri and I were sitting in the lobby waiting for the guys to finish looking at goodness knows what, I noticed the cute little gal at the front desk was wearing a name tag that said, “Tess Outlaw.”

That name took my curiosity over the edge, so I just had to ask, “Were you born
an Outlaw or did you marry an Outlaw??”  Sweet thing that she was, she said, “I was born an Outlaw, and no one ever forgets my name.  When I get married I plan to have him take my name.”   

She continued, “My mother’s maiden name was Briscoe, so I think I was destined to work here.”  No kidding! I won’t forget her name either.

We did more interesting things in Boerne and San Antonio, so stay tuned for the next post.