San Antonio!

We be barefoot and bird watching in San Antonio, Texas. And watching a little football this January 2nd day. Can’t help but wish we had gotten here a little earlier, to catch a Friday night game or two.

I have long had a bias against Texas and Texans, but I think I can get over it. We really like this area. This is what Texans call their Hill Country and it somewhat resembles a rolled out northern California. The soil is yellow-white and the freeway I-20 cuts through banks of soil, so it looks like the road is lined in gold. Lots of oak trees dotting the low, rolling hills. No big hills, let alone distant mountains, we’re talking very big spaces here … kind of pretty. The oak trees are different than ours – same shape, but dark wood and small, dark green leaves that don’t seem to fall off in the winter.

This is a very mild winter, they say. Locals complain about the heat (!) It’s in the high 70s, low 80s, with a breeze. Gets down to the low 40s at night, with an occasional 32. We just walk around with our faces turned up, smiling.

There are Cardinals here – just beautiful! We put out a feeder whenever we stop for a few days and enjoy watching the birds. The birds sing at night here, like they do in the tropics.

We were amazed to see huge fireworks stands along the roads. Turns out the Mexicans love fireworks and we only had to step outside to see the skies light up on New Years Eve. No gentle oooohs in the night, either. There were lusty, blood curdling screams!

We are in a park about 20 miles southwest of San Antonio proper. It is the closest RV park to the center of this town on one and a quarter million. It looks like there are only three or four RV parks period – we figure they have all sold out to developers, as we pass mile after mile of housing developments going up. We went through the Alamo the other day and were impressed at the city’s appreciation of their history. The Alamo looks so small, situated smack in the middle of town, a shrine of about one small city block, with 150 year old trees and tiles, and right across the street from a 40-story Marriott. The city is very clean, as are the highways. We spent an evening on the Riverwalk, a stretch of shops and restaurants lining the San Antonio River canal, which is about 45 steps down from the street level. I first saw pictures of the Riverwalk in Sunset magazine in the 70s, and have always wanted to come to San Antonio at Christmas, to see it. They decorate the area with millions of lights – it’s truly beautiful. The sound of Mariachis is everywhere, flat boats full of tourists float the canal, and the ethnic diversity of San Antonio is really evident on the Riverwalk. We ate right on the canal at Coyote Ugly and toasted the city. As much as we enjoy the small towns, there is a lot to be said for a city.

It’s a good thing we enjoyed the Riverwalk when we did, because they are draining the canal tomorrow, for the annual cleaning. After waiting 35 years I would have been crushed to get downtown and find a slough.

Texas is in the middle of quite a drought. When we were at Lake Sumner State Park, watching the reservoir go down, down, down, we got interested in the politics of water. When we went to Santa Rosa, a week or so later, we watched the Santa Rosa Lake go down, down, down, to replace some of the water taken out of Lake Sumner. This is all water on the Pecos River, which has been damned like the Columbia. The politics involve money which New Mexico borrowed from Texas, and now Texas says we want you to pay us in water. So the Pecos pays the debt.

Dave has old family friends who live in this area and we enjoyed time with them this past week. They live 14 miles south of where we are, in a little town called Castroville. Dave found a brand new, hardly opened little RV park down there on one of his bike rides, and we would like to do a map for them, but the owner isn’t ready. We have talked with him quite a bit, and he is a good friend of Dave’s family friend, so we have all the odds on our side, but the time isn’t right. And there is just something about it that says don’t push it, so we will plan on heading east in a couple of days. We could leave today but I have to make sure I can see the Rose Bowl Wednesday!

Our internet access has been very spotty at this park, and it is always spotty when we are on the road, so we will touch base with you all when we can. We missed our friends on New Year’s Eve, and thought about calling but were afraid it was cold and snowy in Bend and we might slip into a neener, neener, neener … not nice of us. Love to all and best wishes for the best new year.

FLASH! Just got word from our managers that there are three parks needing maps in Georgia. Our fellow Southeast Pub reps Frank and Leslie are having some health problems and need to take some time off, so we will do these parks for them this year, and they can have them back next year. Two are in northern Georgia, and the other is General Coffee State Park in south Georgia, home of some protected turtles. Will have more details on the turtles later (probably more than you want to know).

Rachel, we always like it when you tell us where to go. Send more info on mounds. We keep running into them but can’t seem to get good stories.

Love again,

S