2024 Spring Trip: Houston, Texas

 Wednesday, 4/10:  197 miles, parked at Lakeview RV Resort, Houston, Texas

When we arrived we were assigned site 199.  However, when we got there it was still occupied.  A quick call to the office and Shauna, the park manager offered us a lake view spot, and comped us one night's fee.  She didn't have to do that, but appreciated.  Amazing service!

Lake view site 111

This park has become a regular stop for us when visiting Houston.  It's located right in the city, but the sites are nice, paved and well maintained.  There are many long term residents here, in fact I met one gentleman who bought a new 5th wheel 7 years ago, and has not moved since the day he bought it. 

We are here for 3 days to visit with Judy's daughter Pamela, who we saw briefly in San Antonio, and her husband Clyde.  The first order of business was to give Pamela some New York home made maple syrup from our good friends back home, Bruce and Donna.

With only 2 full days here we were on the go most the time.  One adventure was to visit the Houston Botanical Gardens, that also included an amazing exhibit of artisan sculpture from Zimbabwe.  The sculpture show was hosted by ZimSculpt. We got to meet the founders and owners of the company, Vivienne and Joseph. Very interesting people and a fascinating exhibit.  We even purchased a piece for our fireplace mantle at home.     

Another day we walked the grounds of the Houston Arboretum and Nature Conter.  

And of course, there was always great food and conversation.  Pamela hosted dinner of baked cod one evening, and we grilled king salmon at the camper the last night of our stay.  One afternoon we had a huge lunch at a local hotspot, Goode Seafood Company.  After starting with a platter of fresh raw oysters, Pamela and Judy choose Campechana de Mariscoc, a refreshing, Mexican-style seafood cocktail made with a special blend of pico de gallo, fire-roasted Anaheim peppers, and diced avocados.  I opted for the blue crab, corn, and poblano bisque, topped with bacon.  When near the ocean, enjoy the fresh seafood!!!  Clyde, a native southerner had a burger.  :-) 

Sadly, our time in Houston has to come to an end.  From here we move on to Meaher State Park on Mobile Bay in Alabama.  

2024 Spring Trip: 10 days in San Antonio, Texas

 Wednesday 3/27:  174 miles & parked at Plantation Place RV Park, Sunnyvale, TX

Site 15

Plantation Place RV Park is located on a quiet country road in the suburbs of Dallas.  In fact, downtown Dallas is only 15 miles or 30 minutes away.  There is a catch and release fishing pond, and lots of acreage to walk Parker.  Many of the RVs here are seasonal or long term.  We would stay here again.

Friday 3/29:  105 miles, North Crest RV Park, Waco, Texas for 2 nights.

Site 142

North Crest is becoming one of our "go to" parks for a stop over on the way to or from Texas.  The father-daughter owners are very outgoing and friendly.  The sites are level and paved, as well as roomy.  There is a lot of highway noise, but that's "white noise" for us.  No problem.  The convenience more than makes up for the noise.

Easter Sunday, 3/31:  San Antonio/Alamo KOA, San Antonio, Texas

Judy's daughter Christl and her husband Clark joined us for 3 nights.  Christl is on Spring Break from teaching, so they flew from Albany to join us, and then they are going to Cozumel  for the rest of the week to scuba dive.  They arrived, after some missed flight connections, about 7:00.  Easter dinner for was a simple meal of grilled flank steak, with sides of potatoes, carrots and onions.  Not the traditional ham, but equally as good.

Tuesday, another of Judy's daughters Pamela met us at her hotel (she drove up from her home in Houston) and we all walked to the Alamo for a guided tour.  I think you learn so much more from guided tours! 

So very little of the original compound remains that it is hard to visualize what the original looked like. Fortunately we had a very nice tour hostess who was a local girl and Texan at heart. She made it factual and interesting. At the nearby museum, a reconstructed model of the original property better illustrated it. The Alamo was actually a small church located in a much larger compound.  The Alamo is nothing like the movies!!   The 1836 battle ended on March 6 as the last of the defenders were killed.  Legends and rumors to this day offer differing accounts of how the famous Jim Bowie and Davey Crockett died, but in truth, no one really knows.  The defeat, however, did cause outrage and a month later on April 21, General Sam Houston's army defeated the Santa Anna, the Mexican general who slaughtered the Alamo defenders, and the Republic of Texas was born.  Read this Wikipedia report about the Alamo.  It is very informative, detailed and well researched.

The nearby Alamo Museum and Visitor Center had great displays and memorabilia about the Alamo.

Model replica of the compound.  The actual Alamo
is the church on the right side of the model.

A good perspective of the compound in 1836.
The Alamo church is at the top right.

The model shows the Alamo as it was during the battle.
No roof then, and a huge ramp on the side to run the canon upon.

"This is a drawing of the Alamo Mission in San Antonio. It was first printed in 1854 in Gleason's 

Pictorial Drawing Room Companion and was reprinted in Frank Thompson's 2005 "The Alamo", p 106".

The British singer Phil Collins was a huge fan of the Alamo story and accumulated an extensive collection of Alamo memorabilia that in 2014 he donated to the museum.  

Having grown up with Fess Parker as Davey Crocket on Disney, and John Wayne in the1960 movie, The Alamo, the visit was both a let down, and at the same time fascinating.  As always, the real story is much more complicated than the movie version.  I'm happy I went and glad I learned more about it.

Following the Alamo visit, we wandered to the other major attraction in San Antonio, The Riverwalk.  The San Antonio River Walk is 15 miles long, with five miles of that flowing through downtown San Antonio. From Wikipedia:  "The San Antonio River Walk is a city park and special-case pedestrian street in San Antonio, Texas, one level down from the automobile street. The River Walk winds and loops under bridges as two parallel sidewalks lined with restaurants and shops."

More about the River Walk at: thesanantioriverwalk.com and visitsanantonio.com.

We found a Texas BBQ joint for lunch with outside seating right on the river and enjoyed a wonderful lunch at The County Line BBQ.  

 

Since Pamela, Christl and Clark were leaving Wednesday, we all met at the campground and had a light dinner of pizza and wings from the KOA kitchen.

Parker and his girls.

After all our guests left, it was quiet and lonely.  But we adjusted.  :-)   Later in the week Judy and I ventured to the Historic Market Square, the largest Mexican market in the United States, for some window (and real) shopping.  The influence of Mexican heritage here was showcased with wonderful pottery and clothing.  We even sprang for a "lunch break" of the Texas favorite, Blue Bell ice cream.  

Monday the 8th was eclipse day.  San Antonio was right on the edge of totality, but.......it was overcast.  No sun or moon to see!!  We did experience darkening skies and a drop in temperature for a few minutes.  It was still an experience.

9:30 AM CDT

1:29 PM CDT

1:32 PM CDT

1:34 PM CDT

1:36 PM CDT

Tuesday evening the 9th is our last night in San Antonio.  This is an extremely nice campground, but by far the most expensive one on our trip.  And the 10 days here, while enjoyable turned out to be a bit too long for us.  I'm glad we saw the Alamo and the River Walk, but once is probably enough.  The highpoint was for us to connect with Judy's two daughters, both together at the same time.

Wednesday we move on to Houston to visit Pamela and her husband Clyde for 3 days.