Where In The World are Jeff and Janice?: San Antonio………….Remember The Alamo!!!

San Antonio………….Remember The Alamo

October 19 - 21

We landed in a wonderful RV Park in San Antonio and for the first time on the trip we just hung out at the pool and Jacuzzi. Really relaxing not rushing to one attraction or another.

They had a convenient bus line right out front which took about 20 minutes to reach the center of town. If you never heard of the River Walk it is something to see some day. It is a series of canals that make a circle around the city and is actually fed and connects the San Antonio River. A massive gate can be lowered to protect the city from flooding conditions up river. We took one of the many canal boat tours which was really fun and informative. Talk about restaurants!!! We got our fill of TexMex food at lunch and picked a great restaurant for dinner………called Saltgrass.

We learned that San Antonio is really busy in the winter with numerous monthly events; lighting of the canal, Christmas barge parades, Mardi Gras, Cinco De Mayo and something called the Mud Walk. Every January they drain the canal and participants “muck around” in them to remove all the junk accumulated during the year. Why would they do that…well they also get to keep anything they recover and some the finds have been quite valuable.

The Alamo is right in the center of San Antonio and to me a special “patriotic” highlight of the trip; up there with the Crazy Horse sculpture. It signifies the true spirit and sacrifice of our early American settlers….the price of freedom. The battle, in 1836, lasted only about 90 minutes as the 200 defenders were greatly outnumbered by General Santa Ana’s 2,000+ troops. The co-commanders William Barrett Travis and Jim Bowie knew from the start they would never survive, but chose to fight anyway!! Santa Ana was defeated several months later and it took 9 more years for Texas, an independent republic, to be annexed to the United States.