You'd Think We're Texans... - Sat., Sep. 13, 2014

Our boots

Oh, wait, we ARE Texans! Just renewed our car registrations for the first time.

Happy birthday to my sister in law, Gina. I hope your birthday was a good one yesterday.

Our temperature has taken a huge drop, 30 degrees to be precise. 96 on Friday, 66 today. We were able to open all the windows on the 5er and let in fresh air. Had to close them once because of a passing rain shower. Then I opened them again until it got too chilly. Nice to refresh the air inside Rigamarole after months of closed windows due to air conditioner use to mitigate the heat and humidity.

Today, Bob ran ten miles and said he felt great, actually ran the whole route (no walking). He worked, and then took his truck in to an auto body shop to have them look at a tweaked driver-side door. When we had heavy rain the other day, water came inside the cab. Not to mention, there is really bad road noise without a tight door seal. We certainly want that fixed before our trip!

Then, he noticed that his truck was leaking fluid underneath. Yesterday he had the oil and fuel filters changed. He took his truck back to Goodyear. They said one of the seals on the fuel filter was bad. They have to order a kit and are charging him another $172. That sucks because he had no issues with fuel filter seals leaking before he took it in. We don't understand why they're not paying for it since it happened after we took it there.

Last night we went to Random Beer Garden and Event Center to chill out after the work week. And chill we did. Thankfully I had my sweater with me. And we wore our cowboy boots which protected our feet from the mud, horse d'oeuvres (to be polite) and the rocky, clay-like parking lot. It rained some, was breezy and we had a short lightning show. We ate Z's Wood-Fired Pizza from one of the food trucks and drank Redd's Apple Ale...good combination. The musical duo who played were very good. I especially thought she sang an Adele song to a T.

I ordered a few things before our trip. My old Nike Pegasus walking shoes are past their prime so I ordered a new pair online. Today they arrived. I took photos while they're nice and clean. Still waiting for two more packages.

New Nike Pegasus 29+ shoes - very comfortable.

Nike Pegasus light-weight shoes with Thorlo socks.

Tomorrow, Susan, Darren, Bob and I are going to hike the Friedrich Wilderness Park 10K again to see if we can get the mileage right and re-do the walk instructions so people can find their way around on the Volksmarch without getting lost.

All for now. Travel Bug out.

Recap of the Past Four Days - Wed., Sept. 4

Continuing Saturday, August 31...
Bob had a good time volunteering at the car show. He sold scrip tickets for food and drinks and registered the car show exhibitors. Here are a few photos (taken with an iphone...not high res). Thank you to my step-son, Randall, for taking these.

Face painting

Bob at the volunteer table with another volunteer.

Live music.

Beer garden

Car show.

Car show

Sunday: For the first time in weeks, we slept in on a weekend! Yeah, baby, yeah. Love it. For breakfast, I made gluten-free pancakes which are usually pretty good and cake-like; however today they seemed undercooked and like lead. Yuck. I must have made a mistake in proportions. 

In the afternoon, we went to see "In a World..." a movie about voice-over artists who make a living doing voice-overs on movie trailers, etc. What an excellent movie. It's not only about voice-over work, but also about relationships, voice work as art, and the pride the artists take in sounding unique. It's not a movie like any other we've seen. It is surprising when something new and unique plays at the movie theater. The critics loved this movie too with an average score of 80 out of 100. Worth seeing.

Monday: Both of us were out the door early - Bob went running for 10 miles on the RiverWalk bike/walk path into downtown San Antonio. I drove to Braun Station neighborhood and did a 10K (6.2 mile) Volksmarch by myself through nice neighborhoods. It took me two hours, including stopping for photos.

Braun Station Volksmarch photos. If anyone can help identify the birds below, I'd be most grateful. (Judy?)

Yellow warbler? Anyone know?

Blue jay

Lesser goldfinch??

Blue jay.

 

Many streets in Braun Station have to do with the Middle Ages: Knighthood, Dragon, Chivalry, Heraldry, Tourney, Kingsway, Beowulf, Queen Heights, Pendragon, Brigadoon, Honiley (as in Puff the Magic Dragon, I think). The sign below made me think of a knight slaying a dragon (especially with "Dead End" on the Dragon sign). 

Light and lines - trees as art.

The trees are awesome - they're like art.

Rough-legged hawk?

A rough-legged hawk?

Look at the spines on this edges of this cacti!

Beautiful flowers.

Yard art (?)

Sunday afternoon, "The Lone Ranger" was on our list for a 12:30 showing at the cheap theater in San Antonio. Ummmm....no. We got there at 12:28 and three blockbuster, 2nd run movies, had "Sold Out" signs on them: The Lone Ranger, Pacific Rim and Turbo. Really, sold out? I guess $1.25 for a movie on Labor Day with outdoor temperatures at 101 degrees was too much to resist. We bought tickets for the 3:30 show. 

To kill time we had lunch at Wendy's, then Bob wanted to shop for Skechers Shape-Up shoes. There was a Skechers store down the street. Unfortunately, according to the salesperson, Skechers no longer makes Shape-Ups. Bob was devastated. They're his favorite shoes and his foot doctor in Hawaii recommended he wear them to help his Achilles tendon. Since that was a bust, we found a shopping mall where Bob searched for Skechers Shape-Ups that might still be on the shelves. No luck.

At 2:50 p.m. we headed back to the theater. What a zoo. The lobby was about as crowded as Grand Central Station at rush hour. The building has 13 theaters in it and it seemed like half of San Antonio was waiting for one movie or another. Wow. That's the most crowded I've seen a theater lobby in forever.

Bob enjoyed "The Lone Ranger" way more than I did. He said it was a good escape. I thought it was okay and laughed in a few places. It seemed like the movie relied on Johnny Depp's facial expressions to carry the plot along. While I like Johnny Depp, this just didn't appeal to me much.

Tuesday and Wednesday: Snelling placed me at the insurance company as receptionist again for two days at the request of the owner. What a great place to work. And because I'm traveling to and from work in the opposite direction of rush hour traffic, the commute (even though it's 20 miles each way) is a breeze.

Thursday, Friday and Saturday, I'll be working in the RV park office. Normally I don't work Saturday, but the park manager who works Saturdays is on vacation for a couple of weeks.

Whew. We sure have been busy. 

And, our refrigerator still isn't working right. It's been five or six weeks since a new thermistor was installed. However, we have a big crack in our gasket which we've been trying to get our mobile repairman to fix. He's very uncommunicative. The interior temperature of our refrigerator is 50-60 degrees. We can't really keep anything in there, so we've been eating out a lot.


Welcome to new follower, Eileen, who writes the blog A Journey to Health - One Step at a Time. She is a mom to four daughters, and a grandma to 10 grandchildren, who loves to explore the world. 

Travel Bug out.

Some Like it Hot - Wed., Aug. 14

If you're someone who likes it hot, then San Antonio, Texas, would be right up your alley. Early morning temperatures in the summer are 82° degrees. Today, the high is expected to be 99° with a 20% chance of afternoon and evening thunderstorms. When you plan to do an 11K (6.8 mi.) walk in the mid-summer Texas heat, it's best to start early.

I was up at 5 a.m. with a plan to start my Volksmarch in the Broadway neighborhood by 7 a.m. Didn't happen, but I did make it by 8 a.m. (It is said, the pathway to somewhere hot is lined with good intentions.)

If you like it hot, then the Broadway Daily Bread Company would be a good place for you to get your morning coffee and some pastry while it's fresh. That was the start point of the walk.

Thankfully, this walk spent about 80% of the time in the deep shade of old live oaks or on park walking trails. Having long morning shadows helped too.

The walk started by going around the block behind the bakery in a stately old neighborhood, through a small shopping center, past HEB's Central Market and onto the campus of University of the Incarnate Word. The university is getting ready for new student orientation on August 19. Construction workers, early new arrivals with their parents, and those preparing for the arrival of new students were out and about on campus today. It wasn't very crowded.

Photos at University of the Incarnate Word:

Cemetery at the University.

Beautiful iron bridge.

 Do you think maybe the mascot at this university might be a cardinal??

This cardinal was nice enough to strike a pose.

Cardinal sculpture at Benson Stadium.

A meditation maze on the side of a footpath.

Below is a photo of St. Brigid's Oak, a live oak tree that is approximately 600 years old, dedicated to St. Brigid of Kildare (451-525 AD).

Live oak (Quercus virginiana)

Fall???

"In Celebration of Children's Play," by Joe and Betty Frost.

"Classmates," by Paul Tadlock

1881 school insignia in walkway.

Below is the lovely Jordan Carillon Clock Tower. I got to hear it play music at 9 a.m. and 10:30 a.m.

Jordan Carillon clock tower.

Stained glass as seen from inside the clock tower.

Another perspective.

George Washington Brackenridge Villa with sculpture.

From the university, the walk took me down Broadway just past the Witte (pronounced witty) Museum and into Brackenridge Park. I love walks in Brackenridge Park on tree-shaded trails. Here are photos of the park and surrounds.

Gate to the Witte Museum grounds.

The start of the San Antonio River.

Turtles sunning.

A photo from the old days taken in the San Antonio River.

The restaurant below looks like good place to eat. We'll have to try it. It's called Bombay Bicycle Club Grille.

Next destination in Brackenridge Park: the Chinese/Japanese Tea Garden. This garden is built on the site of an old quarry. Don't you just love all the rock work?

The Japanese Garden waterfalll

Japanese Garden Pavilion

The pond surrounded by rock work and filled with koi.

Koi polloi.

Another koi.

Lotus blossoming.

Lotus blossoms.

Pavilion.

So, I'm walking along the trail toward the San Antonio Zoo. Off to my left, I see a wooden enclosure with two furry critters in it. At first I think it's a rabbit pen in the middle of nowhere. Didn't make sense. So I zoomed in and found that someone is feeding stray cats here. One of the cats spooked when I turned on my camera and beat feet out of there, but I was able to get a photo of one of them.

Stray cat feeding station.

Agave in bloom.

Dragonfly on water lily pad.

Water lily in bloom.

On the opposite side of the river people and their kids were feeding the ducks. The two youngsters below were as still as stone. I almost missed them. But when I zoomed in I realized they were ducklings. Beautiful!

The pattern of falling water.

Wilderness Trail in Brackenridge Park.

Grass seed pods in morning light.

I did this walk by myself. Even though it took two hours and 45 minutes (because of all the stops to take photos) to do 6.8 miles, it didn't feel near that long because of all the things to look at. When I'm out walking I'm always glad I got out and did it. It's so easy to stay inside in the air conditioning and watch movies, read magazines and blogs, but it's essential for me to exercise and enjoy the natural world. This particular walk is an excellent one to do on a summer morning. I like it hot, but I also like shade.

Travel Bug out.

The end.