Texas Days!

I am happy to welcome new Followers to the Roadrunner Chronicles!

Bill and Cap

Pidge and Don

Alleged Author

K9Friend

Erin

If you have a moment, take a look at their blogs by clicking on their names.

It has been a good week and we have covered some ground since we left New Orleans on Sunday.
About 90 minutes down the road we stopped at the Travel America Truckstop to meet fellow blogger Ross.  He and his wife Robin have their home for sale and are going full-time in an 2011 Allegro Bus that is on order.

They also bought a new Jeep for their toad.  We talked for about an hour and we gave him a tour of the inside and outside.  Robin was a little under the weather so we hope to meet her next time.

After that, Pam took over the driving and before we could leave the parking lot, the 'Check Engine Coolant' message popped up.  Ah--what is that??  Sure enough, we needed coolant.  Glad we could get some at the truck stop.

It was a little inconvenient with the bike rack but it only took a few minutes to unzip the bike bag, find the key, remove the rack and fill the reservoir.  Then we were on our way.

At the Texas border, we stopped at the Visitor Center where I shot these photos...

Then we drove on to Houston for the night and stayed at the San Jacinto River RV Resort.

It was a lovely place to spend the night and watch the Super Bowl.  We got up early but waited to leave after the morning rush hour traffic had a chance to thin out.  Our timing was good and we arrived in San Antonio just after lunch time.

We had hoped to get into our Fort Houston Travel Campground a day early.  They were full but we did find an overnight spot with hookups at Brooks City-Base Fam Camp.

The City of San Antonio bought Brooks AFB and the Fam Camp will end operations in April.  But we enjoyed our night there drove over to Fort Sam Houston the next day.

The Army Travel Camp at Fort Sam Houston is one of the nicer RV campgrounds in the military system.  The pads are concrete, the sites have full hookups with 50 amp electric and they have a nice laundry facility that only costs $.75/ load.  All for $17 / night.

While in San Antonio the last couple of days we have seen some of the old Spanish missions in the area.
What a treat!  The Department of Interior runs the tourist part of them while the Catholic Church runs the  churches because they have active congregations and they are fully functioning parishes.

In the San Antonio region, Spaniards built five missions along the river in an effort to gain control and solidify their colonization efforts.  The biggest and most well preserved was the mission at San Jose.

It was founded in 1720 and the beautiful church was completed in 1782.  At one time over 350 people lived in and near the mission.

We saw the informative movie inside the Visitor Center and then walked on the grounds to get a feel for the size of this mission.  It has been restored with great care and has some work currently ongoing.

We talked with one who was replicating a stone sculpture piece for a archway.  Another was high on a lift, delicately cleaning the front of the church.  Unfortunately the church is closed to the public while the work is being done.

A couple of other men were placing some mortar with an authentic mixture like what was used to build the stone walls and archways.

A few miles up the river is the Mission Concepcion.  It was originally founded in 1716 and the church was dedicated in 1755.

This mission is quite a bit smaller but we were able to go through the church and see the intricate details of the beautiful structure.

It was a great time seeing them and we are thoroughly enjoying our few days here in Texas!

Thanks for joining us today on the Roadrunner Chronicles.