San Antonio On a Shoestring

San Antonio serves up fun for even its most budget-conscious fans. There's something for everyone from architecture aficionados, fitness fanatics, savvy shoppers to the most lofty highbrow.  Luckily for us, Tim and I had time to try a little of everything in the four and half days of our stay. 

Several of the city's museums offer free admission Tuesday afternoons.  Perfect timing for our arrival in San Antonio last Tuesday!  

We stayed at the KOA campground which was shady and spacious.

I left Tim to deal with all the chores that must be done to tether the Dawntreader to its campsite while I explored a couple of them. 

The Witte Museum

Because its free admission began the earliest (3 p.m.), I chose to visit the Witte Museum first.  This natural history museum has kid-friendly interactive science displays.  However, I enjoyed its South Texas Heritage Center with the accounts of Tejano freighters, vaqueros, Indians and even chili queens.  Don't ask!  Just be sure to visit this little gem!

San Antonio Museum of Art
Upper right, Blue Bonnets at Late Afternoon by Robert Julian Onderdonk;
Lower right, Mission San José by Jean Louis Theodore Gentile;
Lower left, San Antonio River by Robert Jenkins Onderdonk

I'd hoped to see bluebonnet wildflowers along the highway as we traveled through Texas, but the closest I could come was the painting, Blue Bonnets at Late Afternoon, at the San Antonio Museum of Art.  I'm a new fan of San Antonio artists, Robert Jenkins Onderdonk and his son Robert Julian Onderdonk.  There was a beautiful series of paintings by Jean Louis Theodore Gentile about San Antonio's missions as well.  This small but impressive collection of Greek and Roman sculpture, Asian, Spanish Colonial, European, American and Contemporary art has free admission on Tuesdays from 4 p.m. to 9 p.m.  

The Briscoe Western Art Museum
Upper left, Santa Anna's sword,
Upper right, Pancho Villa's saddle
Bottom right, Wells Fargo stagecoach
Bottom left, spurs collection

After a quick bite to eat, Tim and I headed downtown to The Briscoe Western Art Museum, again free from 4 to 9 p.m., which is located on the banks of San Antonio's famed River Walk.  There we found paintings, sculptures and photography of the West as well as artwork that defies categorization like the display of cowboy spurs (bottom left above).  If you want to see Santa Anna's sword, a saddle that belonged to Mexican revolutionary Pancho Villa, or a replica of an old Wells Fargo stagecoach, this is the place to visit.  Even Tim who admits to an adversion to art museums enjoyed this one. 

Coming Home to the Briscoe sculpture outside the Briscoe Museum depicts a bronze vaquero directing longhorn cattle on a cattle drive.

Lured by the bright lights that lined the San Antonio River, we climbed down the steps to join the revelers on the River Walk.  Perhaps revelers is not the right word to call them. After all, the River Walk, even at 8:30 p.m. is a family-friendly place. We strolled along with the rest and, when we happened upon a Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream store, we couldn't resist cones of Cherry Garcia (for me) and Cookie Dough (for Tim).

Biking along the River Walk extension

Daytime is the best time to explore the River Walk in its entirety. A 2013 expansion project lengthened the Walk to extend 30 miles from the museums around Brackenridge Park to the southernmost San Antonio mission, Mission Espada.  We only logged 20 miles round-trip on our bikes, but avid cyclists bike the whole distance and even take the spurs that lead to Mission Concepcion, Mission San José and Mission San Juan.  The concrete trail is wide enough to accommodate hikers, bikers and joggers, with ample shady benches and parking at trailheads.  There are also plenty of drinking fountains, (a necessity!) along the way. 

El Mercado

Located downtown on Commerce Street, El Mercado is allegeably the largest Mexican market in the United States. Restaurants, specialty shops, street vendors, artists and musicians offer authentic treats and wares to those with money to spend. I found folk art and crafts that, had I a little more space in the RV, I would have given them a good home.

Park's bandstand and two of the homes

Friday evening we grabbed a walking tour brochure at the entrance to the King William District, a preservationist neighborhood with a wide variety of architectural styles.  Definitely not your cookie-cutter subdivision!

Fried Oreos

A street fair was in progress.  People in the South fry everything according to my 'Bama alumna daughter.  We couldn't pass up the chance to taste a Fried Oreo.  Oh, my!  Was it ever good!  

The Friendly Spot Ice House

We also happened upon The Friendly Spot, a neighborhood pub in an old icehouse.  Before refrigeration, icehouses were ice-cooled neighborhood cold-storage centers.  Perishables were stored there, and beer, too.  When technology made them irrelevant, the beer and the name were kept and the icehouses evolved to become local bars.

Bus stop outside the KOA campground

One final tip:  Catching rides on the Via public transport buses saved us the $10 fee to park downtown. There was a bus stop right in front of the KOA Campground where we stayed. We'd choose to stay there again, if we ever return to San Antonio.

And believe me--we want to!

Remember the Alamo!

One wonders how any San Antonio visitor could forget it, located smack-dab as it is in the very heart of the city!

Tim and I certainly couldn't!  Ergo, we--along with a hundred other tourists--squeezed into Texas' most famous mission for a look at the artifacts gathered by the Daughters of the Republic of Texas (DRT) who, in 1892, began trying to preserve the Alamo.

Thirteen years later, Adina Amelia de Zavala and Clara Driscoll finally convinced the Texas legislature to purchase the property and allow the DRT to act as its custodian.

If the other San Antonio missions (Concepcion, San José, San Juan and Espada) tell how Franciscan missionaries converted the Indians, the mission-turned-military-outpost Alamo tells the story of how Texas became a Republic.  

Outnumbered ten-to-one, 189 Texans fought to their deaths against thousands of soldiers led by the ruler of Mexico, General Santa Anna. James Bowie, Davy Crockett, and William Travis, along with the rest of the Alamo defenders, held off the Mexican army for 13 days until a daybreak assault on March 6, 1836 ended in a massacre of all the Alamo's men.

"Remember the Alamo" became the rallying cry of General Sam Houston used to spur his forces at the Battle of San Jacinto two months later.  That decisive battle of the Texas Revolution turned Texas into a sovereign nation, a status of which Texans today still boast.

Six Flags Over Texas: United States, Confederate States of America, Republic of Texas, Mexico, France, Spain

This is the stuff of legends!  Tim should know; he has watched the John Wayne movie more times than I can count.  There was no way he was leaving this town before he visited the site that inspired that movie.  I was more than willing to go along!

San Antonio's River Walk

Other cities have tried to copy San Antonio's River Walk, but it is unmistakably matchless, a masterpiece of urban design.  There's no better place for a leisurely stroll or dinner al fresco.  Seated at a patio table, you can sip your margarita, throw off your cares and watch the world go by.

Tim and I loved its walkways, its atmosphere, the variety of restaurants and the wildlife, both feathered and human.

The Briscoe Museum of Western Art, located right on the River Walk, has free admission on Tuesdays until 9:00 p.m.  That gave us a pretentious reason for heading downtown; River Walk gave us a lively reason to linger and to return for three more evenings.

Robert H. H. Hegman

Architect Robert H. H. Hegman, acknowledged as the "father" of the River Walk, presented the mayor with his vision to transform the meandering San Antonio River with Spanish-inspired stone stairs, walkways, bridges and river-level shops and restaurants.  

For ten years, the Depression and local politics delayed the project which was to be constructed one story below the streets of downtown San Antonio, but, in 1939, construction finally began.  

Works Progress Administration crews labored for two years to build the River Walk which was finally dedicated on April 21, 1941.  The River Walk has captured the imagination and dollars of tourists ever since.

People-watching at the River Walk was not the only evening activity we found to do, however.  

My travel guidebook said that San Antonio's Majestic Theater was a sight not to be missed.  With an endorsement like that, how could we pass it up?  Further sweetening the deal, the Broadway musical, Motown, was performing at the Majestic, an ornate 2,311-seat, downtown theater built in 1929.

A review on MySanAntonio.com said, "It is virtually impossible to sit still during "Motown the Musical," much less resist the temptation to sing along.  After all, the music of Motown--including such smash hits as "My Girl," "I Can't Get Next to You," "I Heard It Through the Grapevine," and "Stop in the Name of Love"--are practically woven into the DNA of listeners around the globe."  We certainly found it so!

At 9:00 p.m. on our final night downtown, we joined the throng of people in front of San Fernando de Bexar Cathedral on the Main Plaza, waiting for the laser light show to begin.  

We'd heard--and doubted--that it would cover the history of the city from its founding to the present.  We were wrong to be so skeptical.  

One captivating scene after another was spotlighted on the front facade of cathedral, keeping the crowd oohing and ahing until the last beam faded away.  It was magical!  And repeated at 9:30 and 10:30 p.m. every Tuesday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday evening.

Can you tell?  Downtown after dark dazzled the two of us!

San Antonio Missions National Historic Park

Mission Espada

Almost every American remembers the Alamo, but who among us can recall Mission Concepcion, Mission San José, Mission San Juan or Mission Espada?

Yet, those four, linked in a chain with the Alamo, just a ox-cart distance away from one another along San Antonio River, illustrate the history of the missions better than the infamous Alamo.



Collectively, the five, each a presidio (fort) and settlement, form the largest concentration of Catholic missions in North America, earning them the designation as a World Heritage Site.

San José Mission

Tim and I had heard that San Antonio Missions National Historical Park was the place to begin a tour of San Antonio.  After all, there are NPS rangers at each mission who are more than willing to tell the story of the Spanish conquest of South Texas.  An added bonus is free admission to all four sites.

San José Mission

So Tim and I showed up early at the Mission San José's Visitor Center on our first morning in San Antonio to watch the movie, stamp our NPS Passport and attend the ranger's talk.

Park Ranger Miseal told us of the Spanish conquistadors and Franciscan priests whose two-fold objective was to conquer and convert the Coahuiltecan Indians, thus moving the empire of New Spain further north.

San Juan Mission

The mission system sought to bring Indians into Spanish culture by concentrating the scattered tribes in church-centered communities.

Mission Concepcion

Many Coahuiltecans, staggered by famine, imported diseases and enemy tribes, opted for the protection and steady food supply of the missions.

Inside the tower at San José Mission

Under the direction of the Franciscans, the Indians built the missions and irrigation systems that watered the crops and livestock that the Indians, now farmers, laborers and cattlemen, produced.

Mission Concepcion

Not every tourist tries to visit all five of the missions, but we'd planned to devote the day to following the San Antonio 11.5-mile segment of El Camino Real, retracing the route of the ox-carts which delivered supplies and traded goods along the way.

The construction of each mission followed a similar pattern, a rough rectangle bounded by quarters for the soldiers and the Indians, with the church and convent inside.

One of the aqueducts

We found the irrigation systems built by the Indians an incredible feat of engineering.  As the park brochure says, "The success of any mission depended upon their crops.  Sparse rainfall and the need for irrigation made it a priority to create seven gravity flow ditch systems, called acequias.  Five dams and several aqueducts along the San Antonio River ensured the flow of river water into the system.  The 15-mile network irrigated about 3,500 acres of land."

Another aqueduct

Mission Espaça has the best-preserved acequia system.  Farms still use the system today.

Mission Espada

Each of the four churches are active parishes and so mass is held at various times throughout the week.  Tim and I plan to attend the Saturday evening mass at the San José Mission.  We need to get up early Sunday if we're going to make it to our next Habitat for Humanity construction site in Hobbs, NM.

Texas Traffic

Forget about the interstates!  I'd much rather be riding my bicycle along a trail.

I'm not a big fan of the way the State of Texas handles interstate highways.

San Antonio's Salado Creek Greenway was a terrific trail.

The one-way frontage roads, also called feeders, act as on and off merges to the interstates.  They are just as much a racetrack as the interstates themselves, only you've got to contend with the drivers in the left lane who have slowed to make the merge.  

This turtle had slowed to a standstill on the bike trail.

Moreover, there are the turnabouts underneath the interstates that have you making a dedicated U-turn when all you really wanted to do was turn left onto the cross street.  Yikes!  As the navigator on-board the Dawntreader, I found it all very confusing!  

I'll take my curves on my cycle, thank you very much!

Still, we made it safely through Austin to the Lone Star RV Park (thankfully with pull-through campsites and no overhanging tree limbs) where we had reservations last weekend.

I'm not sure if this is a rattler.  I didn't stick around to listen for a telltale sound.

Then, let's talk about the traffic through Austin!  I'd almost rather tangle with a rattlesnake as tussle with the hustle of drivers around me, none of whom seemed to worry about the Dawntreader's braking distance as they cut in front of us. 

Ah, the open road with only Tim far ahead of me on his bike!

Perhaps if we'd ventured onto the city streets rather than using I-35 to get from the north end of Austin to the south, we would have found the traffic lighter.  Yet, even at 8:30 on a Sunday morning, we encountered bumper to bumper traffic on our way to church.  Hmmm!  Maybe I should confess my complaining to the Lord and just get over it.

We passed through three beautiful parks on the segment we cycled.

OK, moving on which is exactly what we did Tuesday morning!  We left the outskirts of Austin for an hour's trip to San Antonio, making a detour towards Sequin, TX and the Love's Country Store there on I-10.  The Dawntreader was hungry and needed a full tank of diesel fuel.

Salado Creek with its lily pads was never far from sight along the Greenway.

However, Tim exited I-10 an exit too soon.  He saw the landmark Love's tower and thought the frontage road would get us there.  (There's those darn frontage roads again!)  I'd told him that I didn't think the exit was the right one, but you've seen the Geico commercial with Tarzan and Jane, right?  That's very similar to what transpired between the two of us.  The only problem was the Guadalupe River ran between us and Love's which meant that the frontage road ended abruptly at a boat ramp to the river.

The serenity of Salado Creek was definitely soothing.

The Dawntreader can fly when the road is wide open, but it cannot swim.  Luckily, there was room to turn around without unhooking the Jeep.  Unluckily, there was a vast mud puddle in the middle of the turn.  Yikes!  When we dropped down into that mud puddle, I was sure we'd never get out of it.  After all, the Dawntreader is no lightweight!  But Tim steered through it while I prayed for deliverance, and we came out on the other side!  No need to call a tow truck and try to explain how we got into that predicament.  Whew!

The San Antonio KOA campground where we stayed was the only sign of civilization we saw.

So it was with pleasure that we arrived in San Antonio and found it well-served by three interstates that go in and around the city.  We have yet to be caught in its traffic, despite heading downtown to the Riverwalk during Tuesday evening's rush hour.  What a welcome change!  Maybe Texas turnpikes aren't so bad after all!