The Old Spanish Trail, Six Flags, and My Birthday, Part 2 - November 12-24

Continued from Part 1...

Friday, November 15 (continued): Our Houston Street Historic Walk led by David L. Peche started in the shadow of the new Frost Bank Tower in downtown San Antonio. However, our walk today will focus only on the buildings that were here at the time of the 1919 OST Convention.

The modern Frost Bank Tower
opened in 2019.

David Peche loves the history of San Antonio. He has published two books of historical photographs: "Downtown San Antonio," and "San Antonio's Historic Hotels."

A reference book.

Photo from the book above of 110 Rand
Bldg. (the Wolff and Marx Company
Department Store) in 1913.

110 Rand Building - the old Wolff and
Marx Department Store - as seen
on today's walk. 

Savoy Hotel built in 1910 was a stop for the OST
travelers in San Antonio.

Savoy Hotel detail.

The Book Building (1906)
has beautiful lines.

Gunter Hotel was one of the early hotels on the Old Spanish Trail to cater to travelers. Below you can see a photo of a keepsake medallion that advertised "Gunter Girls."

Along Houston Street are historical markers. Below, members of our group read the history on one of the markers.

A historical marker on Houston Street.

Central Trust Company (1919)

Key for the Bexar Hotel.

Below is the stunning Texas Theatre. It was not built until 1926, so it was not in San Antonio during the 1919 OST Convention. The Texas Theatre was a grand building in its heyday; however, all that is left of the building is its facade. The rest was torn down by developers after a long legal battle with preservationists. This was quite a loss for San Antonio when you consider the outstanding restoration done on The Majestic Theatre.

Texas Theatre (1926)

The Majestic Theatre (1929) which also was not
here in 1919.

Hertzberg Clock (1878).

History of the Hertzberg Clock.

Bob and I had to cut our walking tour short because Bob had a doctor's appointment. On our walk back to El Tropicano we had a nice view of the tile mural on the side of the building. 

El Tropicano Hotel.

Saturday, November 16, Bob had things to do so I went with the OST to Boerne and Comfort, Texas. A number of people took a paid, guided van tour along the Old Spanish Trail, some drove in a 50-mile motorcade from San Antonio to our destinations, and some of us drove independently. 

Our first stop was the Kendall County Courthouse and Historic Jail where we had presentations in a courtroom by members of the Kendall County Historical Commission and Genealogical Society, followed by a brief tour of the courthouse. 

Model As and Model Ts were part of the motorcade.

Tour of courthouse archives.

The vault housing the archives.

Historic Kendall County Courthouse.

On the back of the courthouse,
there are steel "windows" to
protect the archival vault.

The first jail in Boerne, Texas. 

This was the second jail in Boerne, Texas.
We toured this one.

The tour of this jail was unique in that last week they had a community haunted house in here. There are some props remaining. In the first photo below, you can see the thick walls and curved metal ceiling. The ceiling is designed this way because an arch shape can hold a lot more weight than a straight ceiling or wall. A strong ceiling is needed because the rock blocks which make up the jail are VERY heavy. 

Susan Medlin is a very happy
 corpse (in one of the props). LOL.

 We had photo opportunities when the owners of the cars hammed it up.

I wouldn't want to mess with his car!

When our tours were finished, a buffet lunch was provided by Kendall County businesses, organizations, and individuals. Sandwiches, fruit, chips, veggies, and cookies were set up in the historic county courthouse. 

After lunch, we headed off to Comfort, Texas, for a welcome at the Comfort Heritage Foundation. Then we had free time to explore the town of Comfort, visit a private museum, and hear history at the Treue der Union monument.

Charlotte Kahl's gorgeous quilt vest of the OST.

Inside the Comfort State Bank (now the
Comfort Heritage Foundation).

We were welcomed to Comfort, Texas.

The small museum inside the Comfort
Heritage Foundation.

An armadillo lamp on display in the
Comfort Heritage Foundation (circa 1920).

A display of old playing cards in the
private museum.

This is a Vapo Cresolene lamp.

After the museum, I caught the shuttle to the Treue der Union Monument. At the monument, Mike and Anne Stewart told us the history of Union soldiers who were trying to cross South Texas to join the Union forces in Mexico. However, Texas Confederate forces tracked them down and killed them all. You can read all the historic markers for the full story. The Treue der Union Monument is one of the few places in the U.S. where the U.S. flag is flown at half-staff 24/7.

Treue der Union Monument

"Loyalty to the Union" historical marker.

Texas history recommended reading.

More Treue der Union history.

One more history marker.

 That concluded our OST weekend. 

On Sunday, November 17, Bob went with me to Six Flags Fiesta Texas to start my birthday celebration week. I'm a Season Pass holder and a friend could enter free with me today. Bob is a true trooper for hitting Six Flags with me. He doesn't care for rollercoasters at all. But, for my birthday, he accompanied me around the park and waited while I rode as many coasters as I could. 

We started the day at the Wonder Woman Golden Lasso Coaster. Because it was right after the park opened and the ride is in the back of the park, there was almost no line when I got there. I was able to ride five times in a row and three of those times I didn't even have to get off the coaster because there was no line. I sat in the front seat three times in a row. Awesome! Bob was prepared to sit and wait. He had his cell phone and listened to podcasts. 

Next, I went to Batman: the Ride coaster and went on it twice in a row. No line there either. Then Bob and I went to the SkyScreamer swings. We waited in line, got on the swings. Waited. Then the ride went down and we had to exit. 

Batman: the Ride.

Batman: the Ride.

SkyScreamer

Next door was the Superman Krypton Coaster. I headed into that line only to be told that that roller coaster was also currently out of order.

I wanted to go on a ride with Bob, so we got on Hustler which are spinning cars shaped like billiard balls. The car we got in didn't spin very well. Usually, we can get them going really fast.  Bob also went on the carousel, pirate ride, and the park train.

Bob on the carousel.

Sea serpent on the carousel.

The park train.

Selfie on the train. Bob's getting good
at taking selfies.

 We had lunch and I hit a few more coasters before I hit the wall at about 3:00 p.m. Then I said, "I'm tired and ready to go home."

It was a really fun day. 

It looks like it will take me one more blog to finish up what I originally wanted to accomplish in one blog. Thanks for sticking with me.

To be continued in Part 3.

There's No Time Like the Present - November 1 to November 12, 2019

So, I was reading Karen Pfundtner's blog "RVing: The USA is our BIG Backyard." When I got to the bottom of her blog, there is a list of blogs she follows and I took one look at mine and it showed it has been THREE MONTHS since I posted. No way. Yes, way. It lit a fire under me. 

I'll start with how life has been since November 1 when we returned from our eight-month RV adventure to the Northeastern U.S. The first order of business was to unpack our 5th wheel and move back into our manufactured home. Thankfully, our RV park made it easy by putting us into an RV spot directly across from our home. 

Bob and I walked back and forth, back and forth, getting everything inside. Bob said we each put two miles on that first day back. Of course, then came the cleaning. I like to make sure the rig is tidy when we put it into storage. That entailed sweeping, vacuuming, mopping, dusting, cleaning the kitchen and the bathroom, doing laundry, and putting in about six dehumidifier packs. We put the 5th wheel into storage on Sunday morning.

Monday, I had to get my Escape inspected and get it registered. That only took me about 45 minutes. I also renewed my driver's license online. Tuesday, November 5, I made sure to vote.

Wednesday, November 7, I finally was able to get my hair done. On vacation, I had it cut every so often, but I let it go back to my natural color which is medium brown with gray. The color I was going for when we got home was a light brown/sand color. My hair decided that the color would end up being strawberry blonde. It must be the way the chemicals reacted with my hair. Bob and I like it. 

Wednesday night my friend, Susan Medlin, invited a table of people to Annie's List fundraiser dinner at Hangar 9 in San Antonio. If you'd like to learn more about Annie's List, you can do so here. We had a very nice dinner and got to wear cocktail dresses and the guys wore suits. It ended up being a very cold evening. The hangar was not warm. At one point, someone opened a hangar door near where we were standing. There was a curtained-off area where we could meet New Mexico's governor. A big gust of wind came in and almost tore down a wall of curtains (they would have blown right onto the dinner tables). Darren was quick on his feet and grabbed the support pole just in the nick of time to keep the curtain wall in place. They quickly closed the hangar door!

Coral, Lynne, Susan Medlin, and I.

Darren Medlin, Bob, and Sharif.

Susan & Darren Medlin.

Bob and I.

Our progressive woman speaker at the banquet was Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham, 32nd governor of New Mexico. She's a very level-headed woman who we enjoyed listening to.

Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham, Democrat.

Thank you very much to Susan Medlin for inviting us to an informative evening out. 

On Friday, my brother Frank and sister-in-law Gina came to visit. Frank retired from Northwest Natural Gas in Oregon in September and they are now full-time RVers. They learned quickly about Boondockers Welcome and Harvest Host. We're amazed at the places they've found to stay for next to nothing. We've got to look into that for our next travel adventure! 

Of course, we wanted to show them everything in San Antonio since it was their first time here. I made up a spreadsheet of things to do and modified it as necessary. The first afternoon, we took them to The Big Bib BBQ at Stinson Airport, followed by Mission San Jose, Mission Espada, Mission San Juan, and Mission Concepcion. 

Mission San Jose.

Mission San Jose. 

Egret at the old Espada Dam.

Frank just went down to take a photo of the egret.

The new sculpture at Mission Espada.

Close-up of the new art.

After they went back to their trailer to let the dogs out, they came back to our place for tostadas for dinner. Then we played Sequence, which they thoroughly enjoyed.

Saturday morning, we had blueberry pancakes and eggs at our place. From there, we spent the morning at the Japanese Tea Garden and Brackenridge Park. Mad Mack's Burgers was our lunch destination and then they went back to their place to take care of their fur-kids, Hannah and Pepper.

Looking out over the Japanese Tea Garden.

Gina and Frank.

Frank coming across the bridge in the
Japanese Tea Garden.

Frank & Gina, Japanese Tea Garden.

Bob on the trail in the
Japanese Tea Garden.

The bridge across the Tea Garden koi pond.

Gina, Frank, and Bob.

Brackenridge Park train.

"Genius of Music" memorial at
The Tuesday Musical Club.

In the evening, we went to the RV park's Welcome Back Winter Texans light dinner. After dinner, we went back to our place and played a few more rounds of Sequence.

Frank, Gina, and I bought Six Flags Fiesta Texas season passes online. Sunday, we got to the park when it opened and activated our season passes. It wasn't very crowded, so we got to go on some of the big coasters in the back of the park before the crowds arrived. Unfortunately, Wonder Woman's Golden Lasso Coaster was not open and neither was the whole Boardwalk section of the park.  We did enjoy Batman: the Ride coaster, the Scream drop tower, Poltergeist coaster, and the Iron Rattler coaster. Then we had lunch and called it a day.

Frank & Gina chillin' with the villains.

The Joker - a new
pendulum ride.

Info about The Joker. (We did not go on it!)

Batman in front of Batman: the Ride coaster.

Frank and Gina went back to their trailer for a few hours. About 8:00 p.m., Frank joined us and we went downtown to see "The Saga," a 24-minute laser light and music show projected onto the facade of the San Fernando Cathedral. It shows the history of San Antonio.

"The Saga."

"The Saga."

Monday morning, Frank, Gina, Bob, and I had breakfast at The Guenther House. That's always a special treat. The Guenther's started a flour mill here long ago. To this day, flour is produced at the mill. The restaurant used to be the Guenther's house. You can be sure that the waffles, crepes, pancakes, cinnamon rolls, strudel, cornbread, etc. will be yummy here. Frank bought one of their cinnamon rolls for all four of us to share as a breakfast "appetizer." And then we ordered our breakfast. 

Gina, Frank, and Bob at The Guenther House.

Gina and Frank.

Pioneer Flour Mills.

Next stop, the Alamo. We hit up the gift shop, watched The History Channel video on the battle of the Alamo, and walked around the grounds. There's currently a sculpture exhibition.

Frank & Gina in front of
John William Smith ("El Colorado").

 Frank & Gina stopped to learn about the cannon.

A new demonstration cannon at the Alamo.

Gina and Frank at the Alamo.

We spent a little time deciding if we wanted to go on a 4-D Laura Croft ride. We had $3.00-off coupons for the three of us, but they wanted $21 per person for a 7-minute ride (before the $3 was deducted). No thanks. We passed.

I took Frank and Gina down into the waterfall court by the Visitor Center on the way to the Hyatt Regency. We walked a short distance on the River Walk and started back toward my car. We ducked into the Buckhorn Museum and Saloon so I could show them the saloon.

Waterfall court at the Hyatt Regency,
San Antonio, Texas.

Waterfall court at the Hyatt Regency, 
San Antonio, Texas.

Waterfall court at the Hyatt Regency, 
San Antonio, Texas.

Buckhorn Saloon & Museum, San Antonio.

Buckhorn Museum & Saloon.

After our downtown exploration, Frank and Gina headed back to their trailer to attend to the fur-kids. We drove to Pleasanton to see their new trailer which is very nice. It has a kitchen in the front with a nice window looking forward toward their pick-up truck, or a view wherever they camp. We also got to say hi to Hannah and Pepper, their chihuahuas.

Frank with Hannah, and Gina with Pepper.

For dinner, Frank and Gina took us out to dinner at Cracker Barrel. Then we went to our place to play pinochle for the evening.

Tuesday afternoon, Frank, Gina, and I visited the Institute of Texan Cultures which is a museum done in conjunction with The Smithsonian. If you want to learn about all the cultures that settled in and shaped Texas, this is the museum for you. There is some fascinating stuff in here. A current exhibit is photography about tequila, from the fields to the distilleries.

Scottish Texans.

Tejanos.

Tequila!

Peppers.

Different menus.

Such a gorgeous dress! This is a
stage costume handmade by
Rosita Fernandez.

African-American high-fashion designers.

Wendish Easter eggs.

The German section.

The six flags that have flown over Texas.

A very old hearse.

San Antonio's sister cities.

At 4:30 p.m., we walked over to the Tower of the Americas for Happy Hour at the Chart House. What a great experience and wonderful food. The happy hour meals range from $5-$7 and some drinks are reduced in price as well. Choose carefully. The shrimp tacos were outstanding as was the Kim Chee Calamari. Bob and Gina liked their chicken lettuce wraps. 

View of sunset going up in the
Tower of the Americas elevator.

Frank and Gina at Happy Hour, looking very happy.

Me, Bob, Gina, and Frank at Tower of the Americas
for Happy Hour.

Leaving the Tower
of the Americas.

We watched the city go from dusk to night. After dinner, we drove Frank and Gina back to where their truck was parked and said our good-byes until next year. We enjoyed spending five days with them.

Well, that takes us from November 1 to November 12, 2019. Come back to read about the next week of November. It's jam-packed as well. Busy on the road, busy at home! No moss grows between our toes.

TravelBug out.