San Antonio Day Two

 Today we put on a lot of miles, walking not driving. We completed the Trail Of The Missions and did a large portion of the River Walk, our feet are killing us but we had a wonderful time. San Antonio is a beautiful city; the weather was perfect, 80 degrees and sunshine. There is so much Spanish influence in the architecture, so many very old buildings that are restored and still so beautiful after so many years. The Cathedral we visited is the oldest Cathedral Sanctuary in America, founded in 1731, and the missions date back to the early 1700's. We stopped for lunch at a Mexican restaurant on the River Walk and were lucky enough to be seated right on the river, while we ate a Mariachi Band strolled through the area singing for customers. It was really amazing. We enjoyed our time here but it’s time to push on, tomorrow we head for Del Rio Texas.

 From the Alamo, which sits in the center of the city, Mission Espada is the furthest of the five missions
along mission trail.

San Juan Mission

 Mission San Jose'

 Mission Concepcion

The following photos are of the first of the missions, Mission San Antonio de Valero is commonly called the Alamo.

 Since 1905, the Daughters of the Republic of Texas have cared for this historic site

 Entrance to the Alamo

 The Alamo

The Alamo grounds

San Fernando Cathedral, oldest Cathedral Sanctuary in the US

San Antonio Missions

Today we are in San Antonio, Texas; we are staying at The Hidden Valley Campground, which on our scale of one to ten would be a 2. We belong to the Pass Port Camping Club and we have half price camping at member campgrounds, most are beautiful, but every once in a while we do run into a lemon. Maybe it will look better in the morning when the sun is out.  It has been raining off and on all day, but it is warm so we can’t complain about the weather.

We got settled in early enough to do a little sightseeing, we started the San Antonio Mission Trail, we only had time to tour the San Jose Mission because they close at 5:00 so we will be back to visit the other Missions  tomorrow .

The San Antonia Missions are a chain of missions established along the San Antonio River in the 1700’s. It is a reminder of one of Spain’s most successful attempts to extend its dominion northward from what now is Mexico. Collectively they form the largest concentration of Catholic missions in North America. There are five remaining missions one of them is San Antonio de Valero founded in 1718 which is now called the Alamo. Some of them are still active and have Masses on Sundays and Holydays. Hope you enjoy the photos.  If you would like more information you can check out the web site, www.nps.gov/saan

We finished the day with our first BBQ of the season, chicken on the grill.

San Jose Mission

Living Quarters

Day 4 Austin Texas

Woke up to 27 degrees and a frozen water supply. After some work on the water supply we packed up and decided to head south. Southern Oklahoma was very pretty, rolling hills and large ranches. Entering Texas we found the same. We did hit a lot of traffic going around Dallas and thru Fort Worth. We decided by the time we got to Austin that it was time to stop for the day. We found a nice RV park called Oak Forest RV Park. The only pictures we have today are those of the park.

Tomorrow we have a short drive to San Antonio where we may spend a couple of days. While the weather here is warm there is a chance of rain so we will play it by ear.

 Office

Bathroom and shower building

Pool and hot tub

Day Three Oklahoma City Visit

Today was a sunny but windy day, we decided that we would stay another day in Guthrie and drive into Oklahoma City, since it is only 25 miles away. Our first stop was Stockyard City Main Street, on Mondays the stockyards have cattle auctions that are supposed to be very exciting, we had forgotten that today was a holiday, so not much going on at the stockyards.  The shopping in the area was fun, lots of western ware and boot shops.

 Our next stop was the Oklahoma City Memorial. This Memorial honors the victims, survivors, rescuers and all who were changed forever on April 19, 1995. It encompasses the now sacred soil where the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building once stood, capturing and preserving forever the place and events that changed the world.  The experience was very touching and emotional; especially the field of empty chairs, each of the 168 chairs symbolizes a life lost.  The smaller chairs represent the children killed.  We were lucky to talk to one of the Park Rangers that work as guides at the Memorial she was a wealth of information. It is truly a beautiful tribute to a very sad day in our American History.

Then it was on to the Oklahoma City Zoo. Monday just happened to be a free day so the trip was even better. It was very crowded but we were able to see everything there was to see. The elephant exhibit was our favorite; they have quite a few elephants and a huge area for them to romp in.  All in all it is a very nice zoo and we were very glad we made the trip.

We stopped at I Hop for a bite to eat and then back to Guthrie.  We both really fell in love with this town and just had to stop one more time before leaving the area, it was getting late but some of the shops were still open. Our favorite was Derwart Boots. Ray Dorwart is a cowboy who was injured in a riding accident and had to change careers after 20 years of working as a ranch hand, he chose boot making and studied under a boot maker in Utah and has been making boots for 32 years. What an interesting man, his boots are beautifully handmade; he showed us patterns and some of his works in progress. The price starts at $2800.00 a pair and it takes one year to delivery date. Needless to say he has a long waiting list of customers. We had such a great time visiting with him.

Field of empty chairs

 Chairs symbolize a life lost, with smaller chairs representing the 19 children killed.

                                                                         Reflecting Pool

                                                                          

                                                 The inscription reads..."And Jesus Wept"

Afterwards a trip to the Oklahoma Zoo.

 R.A. Dorwart, a custom boot maker.