Footfalls - Monday, January 12, 2015

With today's football talk out of the way, we're going to back up to the beginning of Monday to talk about footfalls, you know, the sound of footsteps. In this case, differing types of footfalls.

Bob was up at 5:30 this morning, as he is every Monday-Wednesday-Friday, to play basketball at Gold's Gym. However, I didn't hear his truck start up. Before long, he was headed back to bed. The truck wouldn't start! We knew it wasn't the batteries because we replaced them in February.

It was too dark for him to check under the hood of his truck, so he figured he might as well get more sleep. Around 7:30 am, he went back out, opened the hood and found a huge nest of leaves on top of his engine. A squirrel skittered out. Wires had been chewed and damaged. Hence, the engine would not start.

Where the nest was situated before Bob removed it

Nest of leaves and small branches thrown on the ground

That squirrel was getting ready to have babies!

His first call was to Good Sam Roadside Assistance since all our vehicles are covered. He explained the situation and was told "acts of nature" are not covered. What? We never knew that! Grumpiness entered the scene.

Next, he called Grande Ford in San Antonio. We would need a tow and the tow truck driver they contract with was currently towing someone in. As soon as the tow truck returned they would have the driver call us, which he did, and arranged to tow Bob's pick up.

Meanwhile, CPS Energy in San Antonio had cherry picker trucks going through the RV park, stopping at their transformers along the way. Bob found out they were removing squirrel nests! (Note: Every so often in the RV park, there's a loud bang and power will go out in part of the park. That sound is usually a squirrel getting zapped by a transformer!)

Around 9:45 a.m., the tow truck arrived to pick up the pick-up. Bob took my car to work.

Peri and I were going to Volksmarch this morning and take my car to the start point. Thankfully, she drove us there. (I should mention they are six sites from us in the RV park.)

We chose to do the Mission San Juan to Mission Espada Volksmarch that Susan, Darren and I had done a few weeks ago. Peri hadn't been on it yet. Susan and Darren chose not to walk this morning as they are in the midst of putting new flooring in one room of their house.

We had a lovely walk that started out in sunshine, but with a chill breeze. We walked the nature trail at Mission San Juan, then headed over the San Antonio River toward Stinson Field airport. We had some trepidation walking past two stray pitbull mixes, so we crossed to the other side of the street where there was a ruin from years ago that used to be part of a small town. The dogs did not come after us.

Chapel at Mission San Juan

An old building lies in ruins.

Another view of the ruins

San Antonio River...not sure what kind of ducks

We passed the south side of Stinson Field airport, then headed to the Espada Aqueduct (acequia). The aqueduct was built when the missions were in use and was used to irrigate their fields.

It's getting colder!

Espada Aqueduct

Water flowing off the aqueduct

Our next stop: Mission Espada. The church at Mission Espada was closed for renovation when Susan, Darren and I were there in December. We had been told it would re-open in time for the holidays. Today, Peri and I went in and checked it out.

Beautifully renovated Mission Espada sanctuary

Peri in front of the unique keyhole door
at Mission Espada Chapel

The cold wind from the north really picked up on our way back to Mission San Juan. It was downright chilly. Along the San Antonio River Trail we saw evidence of wild pigs: earth rooted up. Luckily we did not encounter the pigs! We hustled back to the warm car.

As we drove north, our sunny day was invaded by a marine layer of clouds moving in from the Gulf of Mexico. Bye, bye sunshine.

Both of us were hungry so we chose Magnolia Pancake House as the place to go for lunch. Our meals were very enjoyable. As we walked out to the car from the restaurant, we noticed a definite drop in temperature.

We were happy to return to our respective 5th wheels, turn the heat up, and hunker down.

Travel Bug out.