American Ninja Warrior Filming in San Antonio - Mon., Mar. 27, 2017

Of all the sports shows on TV, my favorite action sport is American Ninja Warrior. You will find my eyes glued to the TV watching the competitors trying to best the obstacle course. I'm in my seat trying to boost them over a wall, or going crazy hoping they'll hang on and be able to finish the course. 

When my best friend, Susan, told me that American Ninja Warrior (ANW) would be filmed in San Antonio, I knew Bob and I had to head downtown to see the action. We didn't make it on Sunday night, so we drove down Monday night after "Dancing with the Stars." We parked pretty close and walked about five blocks to the course.

As we closed in on the filming area in front of the Bexar County Courthouse, the first structure we saw was the one for the final part of the competition. There was no way to get close to the action here as the street was blocked off. Another couple had come from the other direction and told us the place for those who wanted to view the competition without tickets for the stands was around the corner to the right. That's where we headed. 

American Ninja Warrior obstacle tower

Walking downtown in a city at night is a whole different experience than in daylight. I love seeing familiar places lit up. They look so other-worldly.

San Fernando Cathedral - side view

San Fernando Cathedral - front view

The Riverwalk Plaza has an awesome trompe l'oeil painting at the entrance to their parking garage. It looks so good at night.

Trompe l'oeil painting at Riverwalk Plaza

But I digress. We walked around the San Fernando Cathedral and that's where we found a place to watch the competition.  It wasn't as grand as sitting in the stands being filmed watching and cheering for the competitors, but it sufficed.

The first competitor we saw. He is just left of center.

Competitor climbing a slanted pole

Hosts Matt Iseman and Akbar Gbajabiamila

The dreaded Warped Wall

The object here is to run across these balls

Watching the filming of a live TV competition is a lot of hurry-up-and-wait. After we saw one competitor, the course was re-set. No one came out for another competition for upwards of 20 minutes. We decided to walk around the perimeter to see if we could find a better spot to watch the show. 

The first stage of the competition 

At the RV park, one of our guests came in wearing an American Ninja Warrior 2017 T-shirt. I wanted to get one. We found the gift shop tent and made our way inside. I was shopping for my shirt when who should be right next to me but Drew Drecshel, one of the Ninja Warriors! Awesome. He was nice enough to let me snap a photo of him. I told him how much we liked watching him compete and he replied that he really enjoyed the competition. 

Drew Drecshel, Ninja warrior competitor

We made our way back to our viewing spot in time to see more of the competition. 

You need great balance to do this!

Lots of arm strength and momentum needed here!

Climbing an angled pole, then
transferring to a horizontal pole

Speedy Gonzalez running these

In the photo below, a competitor is gripping the top of the Warped Wall, getting ready to heave himself to the top.

The Warped Wall

Just to prove we were there, Bob insisted on a photo in front of one of the towers.

Me in front of a tower

Going downtown to watch the filming gave us a glimpse of how grueling the course is. Not only is this physically demanding, it is mentally demanding as well. They film all night long and there are long periods when clean-up and maintenance are done. The contestants have a long wait until their turn. 

ANW likes to film at night for the lighting they can achieve. I'm sure the athletes like filming at night because it's much cooler. They tape in intervals and change out the audiences about every two hours. They film at  8 pm, 10 pm, 12 am and 2 am. The last contestants for the 2 am filming don't finish until 4 am. Wow!

Tuesday from 2 am to 4 am was the last of the filming in downtown San Antonio. Now the crews have to spend a few days taking down all the metal frameworks and shipping everything to the next location. 

This was a fun date night. Travel Bug out.

P.S. No word on our truck. They haven't found it yet. We have to wait two weeks to see if it will be recovered. If it isn't recovered in two weeks, we can work with our insurance company for whatever amount they see fit to pay and we go about getting another truck before our April 29 trip with the 5th wheel. If they do recover the truck, an adjuster will look at it to see if it is salvageable. If it is, we will need to have repairs made ASAP. If it isn't, back to buying another truck. We'll see what happens.