Saturday I got a slow start, wrote in my journal, did some laundry, packed up my suitcase, and worked on the blog. My mission today is to visit El Concepcion Mission. But I can't find it. So I went to the San Jose Mission which is right on Roosevelt Avenue - the same street as the RV resort. The rangers helped me find it. It is super easy when you know where to look. I bought some post cards, two National Parks stamps for the Missions, and a T-shirt for Logan.
Then headed out for El Concepcion Mission, which is located on (where else) Mission Road. It is actually really close to my RV Park, but behind it on Mission - and NOT on Roosevelt as the sign on Roosevelt says. And that big open space on the other side of the fence behind my camper is a golf course. The parking lot at Concepcion is really small; just sit and wait for someone to leave. It won't take long. Mission Nuestra Senora de la Purisima Concepcion de Acuna was built over a period of 15 years and dedicated in 1755. It is the oldest unrestored stone church in America. The limestone used to build the church was quarried on the site, and forms 45 inch thick walls. I did notice that even on the 80 degree day of my visit, it was cool inside the church. It was not just a church, but the center of a mission community that was built to protect and convert an agrarian group of Native Coahuiltecans who were facing twin challenges from marauding nomadic Native American tribes and the western movement of Whites. The friars taught them farming skills so they could sustain their lives within the mission walls. This mission (not the church) was founded in 1716 by Franciscan Brothers from Spain. The Coahuiltecans eventually assimilated into either White or Mexican cultures around San Antonio, and are not presently an active tribe. Today, El Concepcion is an active church with its own congregation. I remembered to take my big tripod this time so I got some good photos of me; in front of the National Park sign and in front of the twin bell towers of the church.
The architectural style is called Spanish Colonial, but it incorporates a lot of Moorish design elements - especially inside. The National Park brochure says, "Colorful Moorish designs mix with images showing both Native American and Spanish Catholic influences." It is quite unique among old Spanish mission churches in the Southwest because of the Moorish influence. They have worn off over the last 200+ years, but the twin towers used to be painted head to toe with colorful Moorish geometic designs.
History was well-presented on large white boards. The interior of the church itself was amazing with its perfect melding of Spanish Christian and Moorish design elements. I took a lot of photos of the interior and baptistry. The baptistry was not identified as such, but the park ranger verified that is what indeed one left over from the days when European Catholics would not allow women inside churches, so baptisms took place in a separate chapel, or a separate building. I think the photos below give a good idea of the Arabic influence present inside, especially the dome and the door.
At about 4 pm, I headed downtown to River Walk. It was much easier to find a parking space this time of day. Walked to River Walk and looked for a steak place (I was getting a little tired of Mexican food every day). Should have walked further south, but near the Alamo the only steakhouse is Saltgrass and they had an hour wait for a table - not even on the patio. Went to Rio Rio. I had to sit inside, but was able to get a beef guisado. Not bad. They had a mariachi trio that traveled thru twice singing Mexican songs. Enjoyed them.
After dinner, I bought a ticket for the River Barge tour and then tried to find where they load. Not an easy task. Got on board after waiting in a long line. Sat across from a friendly couple from North Carolina. The barge tour seemed longer today than 8 years ago. I think the section by the convention center has grown longer. The "river" isn't a real river. It is a dredged catch basin for flooding, but they have damned it up to keep water in it now for the tourists. The San Antonio River near my RV resort has no where near this much water in it. You would not even be able to ride a canoe in that stretch of river, much less a barge. The photos give you some idea of the design aesthetic of River Walk.
The woman manning the parking lot booth gave me wrong directions to St. Mary's Street, sending me exploring quite a few downtown streets. On my travels on the streets of downtown, ran into these two Mexican army historic re-enactors standing in front of the CVS Pharmacy. I finally did manage to get out of downtown and made it "home." Had some wine and talked to my D-I-L Autumn and some friends on the phone. It was a great last day in San Antonio. It would have been better to have someone to share the experiences with, but all in all my trip to San Antonio was a good one, and I would come back again.
Today (Friday) I had a chance to attend the San Antonio Stock Show and Rodeo. These rodeos only occur once a year during a two-week period in any one given city, so it is very difficult to plan to be in that particular city at the right time. Luckily, I did not plan it. It was just pure luck!
Headed out for the AT&T Stadium (home of the San Antonio Spurs) where the rodeo is held about 4 pm. I thought I would be able to find some fair food there to eat - all they had was corn dogs, kettle corn, and weak beer. Texans have some strange ideas about fair food. I did eat a corn dog with a bottle of water I brought with me. Then went into the Coliseum, where the rodeo shops were set up. I bought 2 rodeo T-shirts for myself since I had only brought one short sleeved shirt with me and the temps were in the 80s the past two days. There was a LOT of stuff in there! I found an unoccupied bench outside the Coliseum, so sat down and called Brendyn. We talked about Valentine's Day for a while.
By this time, it was a little after 6 pm, and time to go inside AT&T Stadium to find my seat. Stopped at the Rock and Brew tavern inside the stadium for a local porter beer - pretty good - and did some writing in my journal. I found my seat up in the nose-bleed section - Section 220, Row 4, Seat 10 and settled in. Their opening ceremonies were just as ridiculous as I thought they would be. Hokey and overly patriotic, with pounding music. I did buy a program which explained how the scoring system works, so I read that. It is not just all about time. Time accounts for half the score, 25% is based on style points for the cowboy, and 25% is based on style points for the horse or bull.
Then the rodeo started! The bare-backed bucking broncos competition was up first on my side of the arena. The clock starts at 8 seconds and runs down to 0; the goal is to survive for 8 seconds. But the rider is also given points for his style and the horse is also given points to being "spirited." They add the points for how long he stayed on the horse (50 points possible for 8 seconds), and all the style points to give a final score. Most of the scores were in the 70 to high 80s range. Some cowboys barely made it past the shoot and some stayed on for 8 seconds - or more. A couple of wranglers on horseback flank the bronco on both sides at the end of the ride. This calms him down. The cowboy slides off the bronco and onto one of the other horses, while the 2nd wrangler pulls off the bucking belt. This really calms him down. And the bronco trots back to the pen. They are well trained!
I really had to admire the skill of the wranglers who have to ride up on an angry horse, calm him down, and lead him back to the pen. A couple of horses just did not want to go back. The "Iowa cowboy" mentioned in the first segment won 1st place with a score or 87 on the night I was there.
Next up was the steer wrestling competition at the opposite end of the arena. The set-ups are different for the bucking competitions and the roping competitions. The rodeo alternates sides of the arena so that the next event can be set up. The steer wrestling competition is solely a timed event. The steer is let loose out of the pen, and the cowboy on horse rides out of his enclosure, rides up on the steer, jumps off his horse, grabs the steer by the horns and wrestles him to the ground. The winner did it all in 4.1 seconds. I should mention that if the cowboy breaks thru the rope at the front of his enclosure before the steer gets out of his pen, he is penalized. There was one cowboy from Minnesota doing the steer wrestling - J.D. Struxness from Appleton, Minnesota. He tied for second place with 4.5 seconds.
Next up was the calf roping team activity on the same end of the arena. Again, the two-person team had to wait for the calf to get out of his pen first. The one cowboy would rope the calf around his neck, and then next the other cowboy had to rope both hind legs and pull the calf down. This is also a timed activity, but points are deducted if the calf doesn't go down or if the 2nd cowboy only ropes on leg. Sometimes the calf just slipped away and neither cowboy got his rope around him. When this happened the calf just sauntered over to the pen on the other side of the arena. Again, well-trained!
It was now time for some entertainment. Little kids (like between the ages of 3 and 7) ride a sheep bare backed. This is called Mutton Bustin'. Most of the kids fell off within a couple of feet of the open pen gates. But one little 4-year-old girl (whose proud Grandpa was sitting next to me) made it about 3/4 of the way across the arena, and a 7-year-old boy whose father is one of the competitors at the rodeo also did well enough to win the event. The announcer made him kiss the Rodeo Queen, which he did very sweetly. The kids were all adorable and the whole event brought a lot of smiles to the crowd.
Next up was what I traditionally think of a calf roping. One cowboy, two ropes; he ropes the calf, and is off his horse and throwing the calf on its back before the rope tightens. Then with one hand he twirls the 2nd rope around 3 of the calf's legs. This is also a timed event, with time being added on if one of the legs slips out. What I didn't know is that the calf must stay down for 6 seconds; if he doesn't that also results in having time added the cowboy's score.
At this point, the cowgirls got to have one event - the barrel race. This was timed with an additional 5 minutes added for each overturned barrell. All the racers were very close in time with only about 1 minute separating all of them. Except for one who knocked over 2 barrels and got an extra 10 minutes added to her time. I believe the cowgirl on the left was the winner with the best time - 13.78 seconds - to race around 3 barrels and back to the pen. The barrels were provided by Whataburger with heavy advertising.
Next up was the saddled bucking bronc ride. Same rules as the barebacked bucking broncos. From the color commentary, it seemed like this event was one of the more popular ones and the horses themselves were pretty big stars. The horses got intros just like the cowboys. This was more lively than I expected. One cowboy got his spur caught in the horse's rope and was being dragged for probably about 40 feet. Scary. A cowboy who had come all the way from New Zealand won. Unfortunately, none of my saddled bronc photos turned out.
More entertainment followed as about 30 tweeners were let loose with ropes and about 15 calves in the arena. They had to chase the calves around, get a rope around its neck, and lead it to the judges. Hilarity ensued. Only about 8 of the calves were actually rounded up. One young girl sat on her calf for more than 5 minutes, but could never get the rope around its neck. Most of the time, the animals just slipped thru the kids' fingers (or ropes as it were). Everyone in the place was belly laughing the whole time.
The grand finale! The event we were all waiting for. The bucking bull riding contest. Same rules as bucking broncs - again no saddle. They brought in 3 or 4 "clowns" whose very dangerous job was to calm down the bull, take the bucking belt off, the lead him back to the pen -- all on foot -- no horses this time. What a dangerous job! Those "clowns" are real professionals though! I filmed a few of the bull rides. Those cowboys were all really good at it, but this is dangerous work.
The total cash payout for all cowboy performers over the whole 2 week event was $1.675 million. There were 5 tranches with the top three winners getting some money in each tranch, so a lot of cowboys went away with at least a little money. But some went home with nothing. All in all, it was great entertainment. I did not stay for the Martina McBride concert because it was after 10 pm, and I was tired.
Refreshed and ready for a new day of sight seeing today (Thursday). Had breakfast across the street at the Guadalajara Taqueria, which seems like a nice, family cafe that serves Jalisco-style Mexican food. A little different than the Mexican food we have in Saint Paul, which must be from a different region of Mexico. I had a chile relleno, which was very good.
First adventure was trying to find a parking space downtown. All the ramps were full. Finally found an open (barely) ramp above the River Walk Shops (a completely new building since we were there last in 2008). In fact, that whole Alamo section of downtown has changed dramatically since 2008. Back then there were a lot of rundown and vacant buildings. No more!!! A lot of new hotels and condos have been built in that section of town in the last 8 years. We went in a dilapidated old Five and Dime store in 2008; that store is still there, but in a newly remodeled building and it is now decidedly upscale. In fact, that whole corner is remarkably upscale now. I learned that Schilo's Delicatessen is THE place to eat in the Alamo district. I did not eat there, but there was a long line outside of it all day long. I passed it on my way to the BB&T bank to restock on $1 bills and a roll of quarters. BTW, the BB&T bank had teller windows that look just like the ones in the Northfield Bank when Jesse James robbed it. I mentioned it to the teller who helped me, and she was very proud of their old-time teller windows. Nice!
I walked to the Alamo and took a photo in front just about in the same place all the Lindgrens took a photo in 2008. Now there is a rectangle of grass in front that would make the Edina Country Club jealous. I picked up an audio tour tape wand and walked around to the numbers at the site. Even though this was my second time there, I learned a lot more than last time. The tour took me thru the church and explained how the church has been re-purposed many times in its existence. Then the tour went thru the courtyard and into the Long Barracks. The "Alamo's last stand" was in the "early morning hours" - i.e. dark - rather than daytime as all the movies show. And it took place in the Long Barracks - and not the church. The women and children were in the church while the fighting took place. Once the Mexican army finally scaled the wall on the third attempt, the whole battle was over in 18 or 19 minutes (numbers are different at different exhibits in the Alamo). And the DRT no longer has 2 rifles both purporting to have belonged to Davy Crockett on display in different buildings.
I heard a tour guide give a talk about the battle in the courtyard. He mentioned that the final battle lasted only 19 minutes. He was really good and entertaining. But he claimed it was Sam Houston's plan to fight at San Jacinto River. Andrew Jackson's biographer claimed that the U.S. cavalry was stationed at Natchadoches River in East Texas and Jackson and Houston had a joint plan to lure the Mexican army there and then defeat them once and for all, since the President of the Republic of Mexico was also the General in charge of the mission - Santa Ana.
I was able to spend a lot more time in the Long Barracks this time. Saw a 15-minute movie about the battle and events leading up to it. The whole Texas revolution really started when the Tejano men of Gonzales, Texas refused to surrender their cannon to the Mexican army. They had a flag made that said "Come and Take It" and then fought off the Mexican army detachment successfully. The men of Gonzales were also the only ones to come to the aid of the men in the Alamo - and died there too.
I bought some souvenirs and post cards in the gift shop, and then walked over to the Buckhorn Museum and Texas Ranger Museum -- all the same museum. Buckhorn was weird, but I liked the Texas Ranger Museum. There was a family - the Hamars - who were famous Texas Rangers for generations. One of them located and killed Bonnie & Clyde - the FBI did nothing more than take credit. The Museum in San Antonio has Bonnie and Clyde's bullet riddled car. That was worth the admission.
I walked down into the Riverwalk, and decided to have a drink at Big Ole's. I got a Margarita (made with lime juice and not real limes as the maitre-de promised), and a "Big Dip" - sort of like my sister Vickie's bean dip. It had a flavor that I never did identify that I'm still not sure I liked. Their home-made chips were good - very thin and light. The rest
was so-so, but I did get to sit on the patio and watch the boats, the ducks, and the people go by. It was worth it; not sure I would go back though. I took a few photos, including a couple of selfies. Left my sunglasses behind in the restroom - not intentionally.
On the way back to the car, I bought DJ a Mexican-style cowboy hat in a child's size that I had seen earlier in the day, and bought Autumn a blue bonnets T-shirt at the River Walk Shops. I was asleep by 8:30 pm and needed to catch up on my sleep.
Woke up at 6 am and popped the camper up. There were a lot of people
out and about in the camp-ground at 6 am; walking dogs, riding bikes, taking walks, heading to the showers, etc. Just about my whole row is full of people from Quebec, so they are all speaking French. Kind of cool. Got the camper all put up. Second to the last thing to do is put the sink up. When I did, the lights turned on and the furnace turned on automatically. I have no idea what the problem with electricity in Carlsbad was now. I took a shower and washed my hair. I felt like a new person.
But this new person did NOT feel like doing any sight seeing and did not feel like taking any photos. So I just stayed in my cozy camper with my feet up for the day. I did go shopping at Target for toiletries, pens, a gallon of water, and two bottles of wine. You never know when you might need a sociable bottle of wine. Stopped for dinner at Bill Mitchell's BBQ where I had Texas brisket with refried beans and green beans. It was pretty good for fast casual. It is Lent today (Wednesday) and everyone in San Antonio except me is having fish for dinner. Every restaurant was advertising their fish special.
After dinner I had a glass of wine; called some friends I haven't talked to in weeks, and went to sleep by 8:30 pm. Note to self: if it is cold enough to turn on the heat, it is cold enough to shut the windows.
Woke up cold but too early to take the camper down. This campground has all-quiet hours. Went to the warm laundry room and downloaded photos from our day in the Sabino Canyon. Yes, I am very far behind on the photos. Did morning ablutions when the rest of the camp woke up. Put the camper down (actually 3 times since I kept forgetting things in there that I needed), and hit the road. I am taking this opportunity to let you know that Carlsbad is only about 70 miles south of Roswell, New Mexico, so there are a lot of alien mementos and signs in town. Also, since the caves are formed by hydrogen sulphite mixing with limestone, it is immediately apparent when you drive into town that the soil is loaded with hydrogen sulphite - the whole town smells like sulfur. But I did like it there. I can see how it might be a great place for a summer vacation in the Southwest because it is about 20 degrees cooler there than it is at 1,000 feet elevation.
Well, I almost hit the road. I stopped to gas up in Carlsbad, and then stopped at the No Whiner Diner for breakfast. The only whiner in that restaurant was the owner, who is a world class whiner. And they overcharged me for my meal. Skip it, and let him whine in peace.
Took Highway 285 down to I-10 in Fort Stockton, Texas. Highway 285 in New Mexico is the WORST stretch of highway that I have ever driven on in my life! Just awful - and no rest stops either. I had to pull over after about 3 hours of driving to take one of my famous 15 minute naps, and had to just pull over on a wide and gravely right-of-way by the side of the road. Highway 285 improved somewhat in Texas. Picked up I-10 in Fort Stockton and headed east to San Antonio. The towns in West Texas are about 70 or 80 miles apart so you have to make sure you gas up whenever you have a chance.
So ecstatically happy to make it to Ozona, Texas about 6 pm with about one-sixth of a tank of gas. I-10 in West Texas is very straight and mostly flat since those Texans just blast their way thru any foot hills that stand in the way of an interstate construction project. There were a few rolling hills to drive over, but not much scenery. It can get kind of boring. Then, the speed limit is 80 miles per hour, which after a few hours seems pretty tempting - even with a camper. I stopped for gas one other time when my tank got down to half full, just in case, and to stretch my legs. Made it to my campground in San Antonio about 11 pm. I was so tired, my eyes weren't focusing, so I just slept in the car with a sleeping bag thrown over me. That made for a really, really, really long day sitting in the driver's seat in my car. Should have thought that thru more carefully, but too tired to think too.
Here is the map of my cumulative travels. Have put 4,700 miles on the Subaru so far.
Today (Monday) was the day to go exploring in Carlsbad Caverns. For anyone keeping track, visiting as many National Parks as I can is one of the items on my personal bucket list. So far, I have been able to visit 3 National Parks and 1 National Monument - which is something that should be a National Park, but Congress can't agree on whether or not to take potty breaks.
I had breakfast in town and spent some time downloading photos from my camera and enjoying a warm place to sit for a while. And then when I finally got on the road to the Caverns, I stopped to take some photos at an "exhibit" (National Park Service term - not mine) along the road into the Park. The road up to the National Park visitor center is on the side of a narrow canyon cut by water many millenia ago thru the Gaudalupe Mountain range. The narrowness of the canyon increases the impressiveness of the mountains that seem like they are right on top of you. It made me feel like a puny person in a puny car in relation to their enormous size. The "exhibit" was a deep rock overhang that could provide shelter and shows signs of being used by many native human cultures over many thousands of years. There are signs of fire and other indications of human habitation in the shelter. There is also a clear, deep water pool nearby - and the entire Southwest has been having a 5-year drought!
In addition to that feature, there are also some mountain ranges on the drive up that look like black sand dunes.
My senior pass got me free admission to the Caverns, after I answered a bunch of questions about which caves I may have visited in the last 8 years and whether I was wearing any of my current clothing when I went in the cave. I did go to Natural Bridge Cave in San Antonio and Wind Cave in the Black Hills just exactly 8 years ago, but that was fine. They also prohibited me from taking my walking stick into the cave with me. This will become important later. Did I mention that the elevator to ride back up was broken? Yes, it was.
Since I arrived at 1:30 pm, that meant that I would have 3 hours in which to walk 1 1/2 miles down, view the Big Room, and then walk 1 1/2 miles back up again. The ranger warned me that I would not be able to see all of the Big Room and that a ranger at the bottom would close off the furthest reaches of the Big Room as he judged that anyone entering them at that time would not be able to walk back up and out of the cave by 4:30 pm. This photo shows how steep the switchback trail is in the cavern.
I took a restroom break (3 hours - hello) and rented an audio guide of the tour. I think I missed a few points of interest along the way because I missed the numbered signs, but overall the guide was really interesting. I found that I could listen AND walk, although the rangers did not think that possible. :)
I got almost half-way down into the cave before I started seeing drip formations; they called them speliotherms. Since this was not my first cave exploration, I was judicious about which photos I took, but I still took a lot. There was only one pool in the part of the cave that I saw because of the drought. I did see some formations (speliotherms) called "lion's tail" that I had never seen before. All the formations are brown - or the colors of limestone.
Important speliotherms on the trip down and what I saw in the Big Room: Whale's Mouth, Witches Finger, Iceberg Rock, Green Lake Room (no lake now), King's Palace, Queen's Chamber, Papoose Room, the Boneyard, Hall of the Giants with Giant Dome and Twin Dome, and Temple of the Sun God (thought this one was ugly so didn't take a photo). The Hall of the Giants is in the Big Room. The ranger in the Big Room stopped me from going any further because I had to walk back up 1 1/2 miles of steeply slopped trails (remember the broken elevator?). The hike down took 4 minutes and really blew out my right knee. I spent about 15 minutes in the Big Room and the hike back up took 75 minutes - with frequent rest stops at benches - rock benches or wooden benches. I made it!!!
The rangers would not allow us to bring in water, and the air in the cave is warm and damp, occasionally dripping. When I got out, I was parched and sweating. And then I discovered that they had "winterized" their water fountains, so I couldn't even get a sip from the fountains. I bought some post cards at the gift shop and asked about a book identifying some of the formations. The man in the book store just gave me a video. He said his nonprofit had lost their contract to run the store. Lucky me. When I got back to the car I chugged down the rest of my water and a whole bottle of ginger beer.
Had supper at Arby's, did laundry, wrote in my journal and on some post cards. Still no heat tonight. But I had perfected the tent within a camper concept.
Time to say good-bye - to Tucson, to the Saguaros, to Colleen and Dan. This is the first place where saying good-bye has been really hard. Colleen and Dan helped up pack up the car and get the camper hooked up. We took one last photo of us all, then hit the road.
Carol & I drove straight thru to Las Cruces, except for gas at Lordsburg. I remember laughing a lot, but now can't remember why. I think we probably did have a couple more stops and found hilarity with the local populations. We arrived in Las Cruces at 3:15 pm. Carol's friend Gail arrived at 5:15 pm. I spent the time in a nearby KFC, writing in my journal. We loaded Carol's stuff in Gail's car and said good-bye. Thus ends Pat & Carol's Excellent Adventure. It has been great having a travel companion and sidekick for this 3 weeks.
I headed for El Paso. I was worried about driving thru El Paso because I had received so many warnings about it. That traffic is horrible and the mountains one has to go over in town are steep and have a stop light at the bottom of a steep descent. Luckily for me, I was traveling on Sunday. No traffic at all. I took the 375 Loop which goes thru the Franklin Mountains. Most of the trip was spent in 4th and 5th gear; twice I had to go down to 3rd gear on an ascent to keep the RPMs above 2,000 so the car would be able to bring the camper with it. Piece of cake! I filled up my gas tank in El Paso after clearing the mountain pass (not knowing when I would see a gas station again) and hit 180/62 - at night - in the dark - to Carlsbad, New Mexico.
The trip was uneventful. What is it with the white pick-up trucks out here? They are every where. Most of the trip was a gradual ascent up into the Guadalupe Mountains. I had also received dire warnings about high winds at the base of the Guadalupe Mountains. The winds were less than 15 mph. At one point when I had passed two signs warning of high winds, I stopped the car to see how high the winds were. We had higher winds in Oklahoma. This didn't even blow my hair to the other side of my part.
Near Rattlesnake Springs picnic area, I hit something in the middle of the road. It may have been a car fender. Not mine - my fender is still fine.
When I got to my campground at 8:45 pm and put up the camper all by myself, I discovered there was damage to the camper. The side of the utility drawer cabinet was pulled off. And now the electricity to the whole camper does not work -- not even after trying the sink switch! Temperatures dropped to 25 degrees in the high desert overnight. I improvised a mini-tent inside the trailer with 3 sleeping bags and my round pillow. Mostly stayed warm. Not sure how much oxygen I had that night.
Car has clocked 4,150 miles since leaving my house in Saint Paul on January 15th. And because I know you are enjoying the maps, here is the Day 24 map.
Pat retired at the end of December 2015 and set out on her National Retirement Tour that took her all across the USA from San Diego, California to Raleigh, North Carolina and back to Minnesota. She will be knocking things off her bucket list left and right as long as her health allows. Follow her adventures (or misadventures) here, inluding ones in later years
