Moving West

Thursday we turned our truck to the west, beginning our journey back to Gold Canyon from Houston. First stop was San Antonio. For years we have been staying at Blazing Star when in San Antonio. We had stayed there before going to Houston the week before. But we decided to check out the San Antonio KOA. It is large, with gravel roads and pads. They have children's bikes for rent. The sites are a little wider than at Blazing Star. The KOA isn't as refined but it feels so comfortable, reminding us of the way we traveled the first years of RVing. Actually both campgrounds in San Antonio are good, it just depends on what you are interested in.


Our next stop was Junction, Texas, about 120 miles to the west. We have stayed there several times and enjoyed the Llano South and Llano North campgrounds. We decided to vary our routine and went to a small park, Pecan Valley RV. With only 12 sites and located several miles out of town next to a pecan orchard, it has a very different feel from either of the Llano campgrounds.  The park has pretty good WIFI.  We had discovered before that we can't get Verizon service for phone or internet on our phones in Junction.  The camp hosts at Pecan Valley informed us that Kimball Country, where Junction is located, has no Verizon service at all.  The sites are large and it would be a great place to chill out for a while if we were tired of traveling and not interested in sightseeing. I always try to take a photo of our campsites and we took quite a few pictures at Pecan Valley.

Sunday we moved west again, to Fort Stockton. In case you had never traveled across the center of the country, especially in Texas, you may not realize the distances involved. For travelers like us, we choose to drive about 200 miles, more or less, if at all possible. That means in this state we stay in the same towns on each trip. We were in Fort Stockton for one night in mid-December. The Fort Stockton RV Park is large and old. Many of the sites are occupied long-term by oil drilling employees. But they had a café serving good chicken fried steak and pretty good wifi. It is a little run down but familiar.

Tomorrow we head west again, returning to the El Paso area, and then probably either Benson or Willcox before returning to Gold Canyon.

San Antonio Christmas

Merry Christmas everyone. We hope you are having a blessed holiday. We are spending ours in San Antonio. Here are a few of the things we have seen.

It seems we weren't the only people interested in walking around the Japanese Tea Garden on the Sunday before Christmas. The weather was nice and we even saw a wedding being performed. The garden was built in a former limestone quarry used to mine limestone for Portland cement.

On Christmas Eve we walked on the Riverwalk in downtown San Antonio. Again, that was a popular activity.  Many people were riding these barges on the river.  The barges are like taxis--they allow people to get on and off to stop for shopping or a lunch.  We walked instead.

We checked out LaVillita.  It is a shopping area with many local artisans showing their wares. 

On Christmas Eve we attended Holy Eucharist at St. Mark's Episcopal Church downtown.  The choir and liturgy and sermon we all inspiring.  The church is decorated with candles and red roses.  Beautiful.

Christmas Time on the River Walk

We don't have family or an RV community here in San Antonio to make us feel at home but a walk on the downtown Riverwalk really got us in the holiday mood Friday. We last visited San Antonio in 2003 and we remembered enjoying walking along the river. It is such a pretty setting.

I wasn't the only person taking a picture of this sign outside a restaurant.

Tour boats and river taxis were busy all evening.

We got a kick out of watching this young man being pulled along on his skateboard by his dog. The dog really got a workout.

Market Plaza

Friday afternoon we drove into central San Antonio to explore the sights and have a late lunch/early dinner. After parking at the Shops at Rivercenter we took the trolley down to El Mercado on Market Square. When we were looking for the trolley stop, a local resident stopped to help us, telling us where it stopped what type of ticket to purchase. When he learned we are from Colorado, he also pointed out the Colorado Buffaloes are playing in the Alamo Bowl here next week. In addition, the trolley operator was very helpful to us and other riders, telling people when he reached their stop.

These two markets are typical of markets found in Central Mexico.

The booths were full of colorful and interesting items.

Here are some of the Christmas decorations in the markets.

We walked down the street, looking for some place to eat.

We chose La Margarita.

The food was very good and our waitress, Juanita, was outstanding. She asked us what we were doing for Christmas and we asked her what she was doing. Since her husband and son are spending the holiday in Chicago with family, she and a friend are cooking some Mexican food. At the end of the meal she invited us to join them, even giving us her phone number. She said if we couldn't come, she would even bring some of the food to us! We were truly impressed. We won't be joining them because I already have our food in the refrigerator but it was special to encounter such a friendly woman. That was 3 great encounters in one afternoon in San Antonio.

Here is the Christmas tree in Market Plaza.