San Antonio Sights

We went downtown to see another famous mission church in San Antonio - the Alamo.  It is specifically known as Mission San Antonio de Valero.  I have been there four or five times and I love seeing it every time.

It was built in 1724 and later became a legendary focal point of American history with the Battle of the Alamo in 1836.  An overwhelmed number of Texians and Tejanos (about 200) and volunteers held out 13 days before Santa Anna and his forces (about 1800) overcame them.

Jim Bowie, Davie Crockett and Lt Col William Travis were among the causalities.   Not surprisingly the details and accounts of the battle do not all agree.  It is likely the Walt Disney and John Wayne movies of the Alamo have some legend intertwined with the facts.  But then what historical account doesn't?

Compared to the large San Jose Mission, the Alamo mission grounds downtown are considerable smaller and have been overtaken by commercial development.  But it was spectacular none the less.

A highlight was being able to talk to a conservator named Pam.  She is doing research on the interior walls of the building and documenting the types of mortar, paint, stucco and coverings.

It is meticulous and slow work but she loves what she does and is able to detect small changes and match them to earlier findings.  She can tell when the walls were repaired and who might have done it (e.g. military, church members).

After time at the Alamo, we walked across to the Hyatt hotel and went past this glass gift shop.  It reminded us of the glass artwork we saw in Grand Rapids Michigan last year.

 Very unique, beautiful and expensive.

Then we strolled along the Riverwalk.  It was conceived in the 1920's, built in the 1930's and really expanded with improvements in the 1960's.  Today, it it might be the U.S.'s closest equivalent to the canals of Venice, Italy.  I know it is really completely different but you catch my drift...,

It continues to get a lot of traffic and is one Texas' and San Antonio's most visited attractions.  It was a little cool but a spectacularly gorgeous day for a walk.

Yesterday we found a couple of flea markets in the area.  It was not hard to do - they some big ones and lots of little ones all over the San Antonio area.

Lots of produce and about everything you could image.  Some vendors had specific things (boots and hats, car parts, clothes) ~ while others were more of the garage sale variety.

I am looking for some work boots.  These were not it...

This outdoor market had a little more variety of tools.

We did not find anything we had to have but enjoyed walking around.  It was a beautiful day.

We have enjoyed our time in San Antonio and will be heading south toward Del Rio Texas.  Friends have a RV lot at Bracketville and we are looking forward to seeing what that is all about.

Thanks for joining us today on the Roadrunner Chronicles!  Glad you stopped by!

Texas Days!

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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.

New Orleans

We left our soggy spot at Caswell Springs UMC in Moss Point, MS about 7:30 AM on Friday.  There was a break in the rain so we decided to hitch up and go.  We drove the Roadrunner over from the RV spaces to the big parking lot and hooked up.  It was nice of our NOMADS friends to come over in the drizzle and say goodbye again with some hugs and handshakes.

Then we were off.  It was an easy drive to the Louisiana border where we stopped at the Visitor Center. We talked with Gwen who was very helpful and gave us information, maps and brochures so that we could develop a plan for our add on trip to see New Orleans.  We were originally planning to drive to Houston but ice storms made us think twice and we stayed away, not wanting to take that risk.

We found a decent campground in Slidell, LA.  It is only 30 miles from New Orleans so we figured we would park the coach there and just drive the Honda in to New Orleans.

Instead of continuing west on I-12, we headed south on I-10 a few miles and took the exit for Slidell, LA.

The campground lost 1500 trees in Katrina.  The campsites were small but adequate.

I took a couple of pictures when we arrived and some more the next day when the sun came out.

We got set up and drove into New Orleans.  Our plan was to find some lunch, see the World War II museum, and take a windshield tour of Bourbon Street and the French Quarter.  And that is what we did.

We decided to eat lunch in the museum restaurant (The American Sector) and it was a great choice!

We had a great waitress, enjoyed the atmosphere and had a terrific bowl of gumbo and a shrimp poboy sandwich.
After lunch we walked around the building and went to the Victory Theater to see the Tom Hanks -produced-movie "Beyond All Boundaries".  It is a 30 minute documentary and has footage of the war on two fronts:  Europe and the Pacific.  It notes that 65 million people died and is a very good history lesson.

The museum was created with the support and interest of some famous people: Dr. Stephen Ambrose, Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg.  The museum is really two buildings which cover over 70,000 sq feet of interesting displays and information.  It was very very well done and worth seeing.

After a couple hours in the museum, we drove around New Orleans to get a feel for where things were.  We drove from the Central Business District (CBD) near the museum over to the French Quarter and Bourbon Street.

That was enough excitement for one day and we returned to our campground.  We watched a little golf ate dinner and called it a day.

On Saturday, we drove into New Orleans again and were a little early for our 11:00 A.M. bus tour.

We had some time before the bus tour so we walked down to the St. Louis Cathedral, saw the statute of Andrew Jackson.  Later we walked inside and took pictures of the beautiful interior.

We got underway for the Katrina/City Tour and our driver was great.  The tour was about 2 1/2 hours and we went through New Orleans and also out to the Ninth Ward to see some of the effects of Katrina.

My overall impression of the Ninth Ward and New Orleans is that it is up and running.  The area is fully functional and not the devastation and hopelessness that I remember from the Katrina aftermath.  I have a completely changed view of the area.

We saw evidence of the damage and can not fathom what actually happened.  My imagination is not that big--.  I expected a whole lot worse.  I am sure there remains countless stories of people who were impacted and that will never get their lives or homes back.  But I saw an area and a city that was vibrant, restored and back in business.

 We only saw a few houses that still had the markings with X's.

This is where Fats Domino (yep - the one and only) used to live.  The long building was his house and recording studio next his other house.  The blue display of poles shows how deep the water got in the ninth ward.  Brad Pitt is building some energy efficient homes nearby.

From the ninth ward, we went over to the northern end of New Orleans, past some canals and bayous and to an above ground cemetery.  There are three more well know ones in town.

This is St. Louis Cemetery and we drove by the Lake Lawn Metairie Cemetery.  These are sometimes referred to as "Cities of the Dead".

We drove by Lake Pontchartrain which is immense.  We also saw a couple levees that had been repaired.

On our way back, we went through some very picturesque neighborhoods before we approached the Central Business District.

After our tour it continued to be a beautiful (but cool) day and we saw the famous Cafe Du Monde and the French Market and the Flea Market.

It has been a good two days in New Orleans and we are ready to head west.  Thanks for joining us today on the Roadrunner Chronicles.  We are glad you stopped by!

Roadrunner Financials - January 2011

Roadrunner Recap
We travelled a lot in the month before we ended up in Moss Point, MS for a NOMADS' Disaster Recovery build.  We also made it to Houston, TX to see Mark and Megan (Kelly's college roommate) get married.

• Kings Bay Naval Station, GA
• SeaBees Campground, Gulfport MS
• Houston RV Resort, Houston TX
• Moss Point, MS

We drove as far as Slidell Louisiana and had to stop and let the ice melt off I-10.  Not a good idea to tempt driving in that stuff!

Here's a look at how we did spending our money for the month:

Good News Areas We Are Under Budget
Campground expenses and RV maintenance are the two big areas where we are under budget.  Our month long stay in Mississippi with NOMADS was the biggest savings of the month.  Also, since we were in place for four weeks, we had limited costs on diesel fuel.  (We did however go over on our gas costs in our Honda.)

Biggest Expenses
Eating out again was our biggest expense where we were over budget this month.

Large One Time Cost Items
No big ones in this category thankfully this month.

Monthly Average

When we have a month where we are under budget by over $800, it is a good month.  With this big rig, there will be times when repairs or other items will necessitate spending some big bucks I imagine.  We will see.

Thanks for joining us today on the Roadrunner Chronicles!  Hopefully some of these numbers are of value to you in your research?  Or of interest.  Until next time...

P.S. If you think our spreadsheet of how we track costs would be useful I'd be glad to send you a free copy.  

Four Weeks and Done

Sort of.

We are done with our time here at Moss Point, MS with the NOMADS Disaster Response team.  But the work assisting those with homes that were damaged and/or destroyed continues.  It has been five years since Katrina and some folks still are not back into their homes.

One of the great rewards of working on houses here is to see the deep appreciation of the owners.  And sometimes they talk about how their lives are changed and how they had no hope.  No hope.  I have never been there and don't know what it is to be in that situation.  I can't really get to the point where I can imagine what it would be like to go through what they have been through.

But it makes me take a look at every piece of sheet rock, every roll of primer and wall or ceiling paint and do my best.  We all try to take the approach, "if this were my house..." with every door we hang, every stroke of the paint brush and every caulk job around the tub.

We started on a house that had been gutted and reframed.  Our job was to hang the sheet rock and get as much done as we could.

We went from no walls to priming and painting the ceilings and walls.

Here was the crew we worked with the last few days to complete the painting on this house.

On my left are Nelson, Nancy, Kyoko, Jerry, Pam, Jim, Chic and Larry.

We went out to dinner with the rest of the team for our regular Thursday night out and had pizza this week.

It was another good time of fun and fellowship.  We said our goodbyes and will be leaving for Slidell, LA.  We were hoping to make it to Houston, TX tomorrow and then on to San Antonio.  But the ice storms in the Houston area scheduled for tomorrow are enough to make us stay well east of the bad weather.

We will take a couple of days and drive the Honda south from Slidell and see New Orleans.

That's it for this edition.  Thanks for viewing the Roadrunner Chronicles today!

Mississippi Sandhill Crane National Wildlife Refuge and Judy

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Saturday is moving day for many and we said good bye to NOMADS Eldon and Linda.

 We interrupted their departure long enough to talk a minute and snap a photo.

They are headed for a month in Florida before they go back home to Illinois.

Yesterday was a beautiful day and we decided to go take a look at the Mississippi Sandhill Crane Natural Wildlife Refuge run by the U.S Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS).  It is in Gautier, MS which is about 10 miles from where we are staying.

This was our first time to see a USFWS Refuge.  It is free, has a small visitor center and is on property that is very well maintained.

Inside the Visitor's Center, we looked at the displays and watched a short 14 minute video about the refuge.

The Mississippi Sandhill Crane National Wildlife Refuge was established in 1975 and the first refuge to be authorized in the U.S. by the Endangered Species Act of 1973.  The Mississippi Sandhill crane thrives in a semi-open wet habitat that are on acidic-water logged soil known as savannas.  

By the mid-1950's this area was purchased and large savanna tracts were converted into pine tree plantation logging forests.  This created havoc with the savannas and the eco system of the sandhill cranes who were on the verge of extinction.  By the 1960's only 30-35 birds could be found.

After the creation of the refuge and restoring the environment to its previous savanna state, the area now is home to over 100 of the rare birds.

A couple of weeks ago, I heard from Judy who writes Travels with Emma.  She indicated she was going to be a volunteer here and wondered if we could get together.  We talked with Fonda at the Visitor Center and Judy had arrived a few days earlier.  She was waiting for us after we watched the short video.

It is always great to meet new blog friends.

She invited us over to her campsite which was about 100 yards away.

Both she and Pam are getting over some illnesses so we didn't stay long.  As you might suppose, she mentioned our visit on her blog just as I am doing here...

We didn't want to overdo it so after we stopped by WalMart we headed back to the Roadrunner.  Pam is feeling better but not at 100% yet and I am fighting off what ever she had.  So far so good but it was a nice afternoon chill out.  I opened the windows and doors and let the mid-60 degree breeze blow through the coach while we watched my man Phil play some good golf.

That's it for the Roadrunner Chronicles today.  Thanks for viewing!