Thursday January 8th 2018

I woke up this morning to more thick clouds and cold weather. It was in the mid thirties overnight and was slow to warm up. The TV weather people were back peddling from their forecasts of sun faster than a downhill racer. (Time for the winter Olympics comparisons.) The only improvement from yesterday was the wind had calmed considerably.

Long Barracks to the left and the church center frame at the Alamo. The picture is taken across the street approximately where the outside wall was located in 1835.

The weather didn’t really inspire me into action, but I’m only here until Saturday. I can’t wait for the weather to clear all week. After taking my time over breakfast to allow it to warm up into the forties, I dug my winter jacket out of the closet and headed for downtown San Antonio. After traveling twelve miles north on Interstate 37 I took the exit following the signs to the Alamo. I was right in the middle of the city surrounded by tall buildings. I found a parking garage near where I thought the Alamo was located and so the fun began.

Mission Church at the Alamo. Pictures are not allowed in side the buildings out of respect.

I’d been to downtown San Antonio once before. On a business trip to Austin eleven years ago, I toured the Alamo and River Walk. Knowing what to expect helped find the right area because I was turned around as soon as I walked out of the parking garage. I didn’t count the turns in the staircase so I was surprised when I left the building on a different side than I entered. The tall buildings and narrow streets were a challenge to navigate until I found direction signs to the Alamo.

The ruins of the old mission and fortress are located in a park area in the middle of the downtown area. The church and long barracks are the two big parts of the original Alamo that remain. There are modern day buildings and roads where the outer walls of the fortress once stood. The area seems to be maintained more as a memorial to the fallen than as a historical education tool. Without a general understanding of the history of Texas I’m not sure you’d know what was going on. The restored long barracks is maintained as a museum. It tries to provide the historical context, but it didn’t work for me. For example, one placard seems to imply that the battle for the Alamo and the “Remember the Alamo” rally cry are the reason the United States became a super power. Huh? I enjoyed my visit to the Alamo, but left confused.

River Walk

Service barge in the river under the bridge.

One of downtown San Antonio’s other big draws is the River Walk. The San Antonio river has been channeled and diverted to provide a large area along which hotels, restaurants and entertainment thrive. Passenger barges transport people along the river on tours and as water taxis. Pedestrian walkways are along both sides of the river which is located twenty feet or so below the surface streets.

The pink barge contains one of the tours.

Flowers have been planted in many areas along the banks of the river. It will look very pretty in a few weeks.

I enjoyed a walk along the River Walk looking at all the scenery and empty restaurants. It was the middle of the afternoon so not many people were eating. Most people were just walking along the river. On a warm evening I think the area would be very active. As I completed my walk along the river, I managed to find my way to the surface near the correct parking garage. I consider that a major accomplishment. Getting lost was one of the things that crossed my mind when I left the parking garage.

The sun tried to come out a couple of times during the day. By the time I got back to the RV park it was completely cloud covered again. Tomorrow is currently forecast to be another cloudy day. We will see. I’m not sure the forecasters know what is going to happen.

Wednesday February 7th 2018

I didn’t think it was going to happen, but today was even uglier than the last two days weather wise. It was colder and windier than yesterday. During the night a cold front went through. It rained and the wind howled steadily from around four in the morning. The rain let up around ten, but the wind continued all day. It was also ten to fifteen degrees colder than yesterday. The normal high temperature for the area is in the mid sixties. Today the high temperature was in the mid forties.

This bird spent most of its time turning in circles with its head in the water.  This may be a Northern Shoveler. 

Up until last September when Texas was hit by hurricane Harvey I had planned to spend the winter in this area. I decided not to compete with any displaced people for the available RV sites. That turned out to be a good decision. Not only because there are still people displaced by the hurricane staying here, but also because of the winter weather. It has been unusually cold in this area. The last few days are representative of the lousy weather in this area. They also had a period of time at the end of December, beginning of January that had overnight lows in the teens. For future reference I need to remember to restrict visits to this area to late February through the end of May. I know it is to humid for comfort in the summertime.

While waiting for the rain to stop this morning I started reading an old ebook. That took any thought of braving the raw weather with a trip to downtown San Antonio off the table. It was the right decision. Just taking a walk around the RV park this afternoon was uncomfortable. The windchill was probably in the low thirties. Most of the ducks were huddled on the shore of the lake. Nobody else was out walking around.

Tonight is forecast in the low thirties, but the sun is supposed to be visible tomorrow with temperatures in the low to mid sixties. The string of overcast and wet days should be broken. I may finally make it downtown.

Tuesday February 6th 2018

The theme for the day was fog, fog and more fog. When I got up this morning I could barely see across the street. The fog was heavy in the area. The TV reported less than a half mile of visibility all around the San Antonio area. I settled in with my morning coffee to wait for the fog to lift. It was early afternoon before it lifted more than a little bit. Then it started to rain. This was not going to be a day for sight seeing. I never ventured out of my RV home all day.

Another bird picture from Monday. “Are my wings dry yet?”

One good thing about staying home was that I got to watch the launch of the Space X Falcon Heavy rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida streaming on the computer. I wasn’t sure what to expect. It could as easily be an explosion as a lift off. What I saw was an impressive lift off and landing of the two extra booster rockets. Watching the rockets land in sync on the pads in Florida was as impressive as the launch. While I understand the PR value of Rocket man in the Tesla roadster as the payload, I thought it was over the top camp.

My other activity was researching my options for the month of April in Florida. I delayed making reservations when I found out that most of the snowbirds were departing early this year because Easter is April 1st. What I didn’t take into account was that April and May are two big months for Florida residents in the various parks. The weekends are very popular with Floridians once the snowbirds head north and before the really hot and humid weather sets in. I can find many vacant campsites Sunday night through Friday but not on the weekends at the low to medium priced places. The expensive “resorts” are still available. I have lots of options, but I’m still looking for the perfect solution.

Tomorrow is forecast to be cooler with rain in the morning. If the rain isn’t too heavy I’ll bundle up in my rain gear and start to see the sights. Thursday and Friday have better forecasts.

Monday February 5th

The roller coaster weather continued today. Saturday was foggy and wet. Sunday was sunny and hot in the 80s. Today was in the low fifties with lots of low clouds until just before sunset. There was a little brightening on the western horizon as night arrived. The TV weather forecast calls for the roller coaster to continue all week. Tomorrow afternoon is the next forecast good weather peak before returning to wet weather Tuesday night and the first half of Wednesday.

“Where’s the water?”

“What do you see down there?”

The cloudy dull start to the day didn’t inspire me to get going his morning. I turned on the TV and rolled over in bed, before finally getting going after nine. My morning coffee and breakfast dragged into the lunch hour, before I got out of the RV for a walk around the park. The birds in the lake at the center of the park are fun to watch. Today the ducks, coots and great blue heron had company. An egret and a pair of Anhinga were on the banks of the lake. I got busy taking pictures of the birds, but the overcast day didn’t help the sharpness and clarity.

“Race you across the lake?” “Last one to the other side is a Dirty Bird!”

Given the uncertainty of the weather, I’m going to have to push ahead with my touring plans for San Antonio. I’m so used to the arid conditions of the southwest that rarely had more than a single day of less than sunny skies that I want to wait out the cloudy days. It isn’t going to happen. Warm clothes and raincoat in hand I need to head into the city tomorrow.

Egret in Flight

Egret and Great Blue Heron. Who’s the other guy?

Between walks around the park, TV and eating I did more travel planning today. Recently, I’ve been focused on my summer travels and Florida for next winter. I haven’t been focused on the month of April in Florida. Today, when I went to make some reservations, I found I’d waited too long. Both of the places I’d plan to stay during April couldn’t accommodate the entire length of my stay. I was back to exploring my options. They break into two possibilities; spend more money at different places in the same areas or go to other parts of the state. It’s probably going to be the spend more money route. I want to visit EPCOT for the Flower and Garden Festival this spring.

Sunday February 4th 2018

The temperature only got down into the low fifties overnight. It climbed 30 degrees into the low eighties by the end of the day. Unfortunately, it is going to last. The weather is already started to change. The wind is blowing hard this evening. Tomorrow is forecast to have a high temperature in the sixties.

“Here’s the gate. Let’s get wet!”

I spent the day exploring the RV park and waiting for the Superbowl. There are about 300 sites spread around a 5 acre lake. The residents are a combination of full time residents, snowbirds and short timers like me. It is not a very neat and clean place. I’ve found several areas with dog turds that haven’t been picked up. Luckily, I haven’t step in any yet. People also seem to be allow to express their messiness. The site beside me has two ladders, three storage containers and a couple of pails full of cleaning supplies randomly placed around the site. It’s like they were interrupted while cleaning and just left everything where it was. On another site nearby there is stack of used tires. It’s the type of thing that keeps an OK park from becoming a good park.

The five acre lake in the middle of the campground is more of a large man made water retention pond. It is the happy home of many ducks and at least one great blue heron. I took a few pictures of the ducks during my walks around the park that are included in tonight’s blog entry.

“See my wings. Aren’t they pretty?”

Waiting for the Superbowl I watched the Kitty bowl and the Puppy bowl this afternoon. They were more entertaining than the actual game. I started writing this blog entry at half time of the game. My Patriots were behind at the half. Another Brady lead comeback is required to win the game. I don’t have a great deal of confidence that it will happen. I thought going into the game that the Eagles were a more all around talented team that was on a role. I’m going to publish this blog entry and go back to watching the game without distraction.

Saturday February 3rd 2018

It rained overnight. When I got up this morning it was overcast and raw outside. By the time I left Kerrville, around ten thirty, the sun was trying to break through the clouds. Using yesterday’s reference, it was the only time I saw my shadow all day.

I only had a short journey today but it was very annoying. The weather deteriorated as I traveled east. By the time I got to my destination just south of San Antonio it was foggy, misty and raw. It was a good reminder that I’m not in the desert southwest anymore. My new wiper blades on the RV got a workout and the windshield of the car getting towed got covered in road grime.

Site M-2 at the Braunig Lake RV Resort.

Adding to the annoying weather were road closures. The Texas Department of Transportation chose this weekend to close a section of the Interstate 410 bypass route that I planned to take. Luckily I knew about it ahead of time from a news story on the TV last night. The bottom line is I had to take I-10 through the center of San Antonio. Traffic wasn’t too bad, but I was in the middle of the city when the weather really took a dive. The worst of the weather was while I was looking for the intersection of I-10 and I-37. Thanks to the new wiper blades, I found the exit OK.

I arrived at the Brauing Lake campground at 12:30pm. I thought I might have been pushing my luck with my arrival time, but there were a couple of other RVs right behind me. Checking in was not an issue. I was escorted to my site at the back of the campground. The site is very narrow and getting in wasn’t easy. In this case, the escort was very helpful.

Setting up in the ugly weather wasn’t fun. I never left the RV after I got setup. Tomorrow is supposed to be much better weather so I’ll checkout the campground before getting into Super Bowl watching mode. I’m here for a week to do some touring in the San Antonio area.

Friday February 2nd 2018

The sunrise is late in Van Horn Texas on the western side of the Central time zone. It was also in the high thirties with a steady breeze. Despite these complications I was on the road east by 9:30 in the morning for a long travel day to Kerrville TX.  It was cool all day. I had to turn the dashboard heat on in the motorhome.

Site 23 at the Kerrville KOA.

The first two thirds of the trip was across broad open areas with occasional hills to climb. It is really a monotonous journey. The speed limit is 80mph. Cars and some trucks pass by quickly since I maintain a speed of sixty five or less. In a couple of areas power generating windmills dot the horizon on both sides of Interstate 10. They were getting a good breeze today. I was pushed around by several good wind gusts and bounced around by some interesting road surfaces too.

The last third of the journey was in the Texas Hill country. The road climbs up and down some significant hills. I can’t really use the cruise control in hilly areas so I had to pay additional attention to driving. If I keep the cruise control on the motorhome downshifts to maintain speed on a hill. It can’t anticipate the climb and add more gas before it needs to downshift. The cruise control also doesn’t know when to give up trying to maintain speed.

It was a very long travel day. It took over six hours to travel 375 miles. I stopped once for gas early in the journey. It’s a good thing I took the opportunity to use the facilities because every rest area I went by was full. I drove through two rest areas looking for a parking place for lunch without success. My lunch turned out to be the crackers and water I keep in the drivers area. It was enough, but just barely.

I stopped at the Kerrville KOA before four in the afternoon. It is a good thing I had a reservation. The park was almost full. This was the longest driving day I’ve had since I went west last February. I wasn’t particularly hard driving, just long and boring. There shouldn’t be anymore long travel days for a while. Tomorrow is only about one hundred miles.

Thursday February 1st 2018

I got started from Las Cruces a little before ten this morning. My first stop was one exit east on Interstate 10 at the Pilot gas station. Fifty two gallons of gas later I was on my way at ten thirty. The pump was slow and picky. It cut out several times requiring me to hold the handle most of the time.

Site E-13 at the Van Horn RV Park. By night fall I was surrounded by neighbors.

I turned off Interstate 10 just before the Texas border on New Mexico route 404. It crosses the mountains at via a gentle low pass before intersecting New Mexico route 213 south into Texas where the route turns into Texas Farm road 3255. A brief section of US 54 south follows before intersecting with Loop road 375. I followed 375 clockwise which is east and south all the way to Interstate 10 west southwest of EL Paso. Traffic was light on this route and the road surface was OK. I’ll use it from now on to get around El Paso on a weekday. Once the construction on I-10 in El Paso finishes I might go through the city on a Sunday.

East of El Paso Interstate 10 parallels the border with Mexico for many miles. Looking south across open land Mexico is between 2 and 5 miles away. At least as I read the scale on a Map. I didn’t venture off to see how close it was. I kept driving east. My cell phone jumped to central time soon after leaving El Paso. I didn’t pass the road sign indicating the change in time zones for another forty miles.

I stopped for the day in Van Horn TX. The overnight options get thin the next 200 miles on my route east. The Van Horn RV Park is the new name of the former KOA. It has many level pull through sites that don’t require me to unhook the car to fit. I was one of the early arrivals in a long line of overnight visitors.

Sunset to the west of Van Horn TX.