Texas is REALLY Big!

 Hello Friends and Family!

We arrived in Sierra Vista, AZ yesterday, to Beth and Aarron's house where we will be for a few days. But let's catch up first. When last I wrote, we were in Louisiana and heading for San Antonio. That was two days of driving, although not super long days. Seems like we are just doing a lot of driving and not that much else right now.

Arrived at Palmetto State Park near Gonzales TX on March 21. This park is about an hour from San Antonio. We arrived on a Friday, and the place was full up. We were in the tent loop as the RV loop was full for the weekend. This means no electric. We have a 100w solar panel which works quite well for the most part. Our campsite was very shaded, which was great for keeping the temperature down but not so great for the solar panel. But we know how to do it. The hardest thing is that no 110v outlets work on solar. So keeping things charged is sort of a juggling game. No microwave, instantpot etc. Anything that runs on electric power is not available off grid. We cook on the stove top (propane) fridge works on propane too. We also cooked on the propane griddle. So just a different way of doing things. Palmetto is right on the San Marcos river and they have several miles of trails for hiking or biking which we did every day we were there. Mesquite is just starting to bloom. We did have a heck of a thunderstorm one night, too.

Bike trail

Dwarf Palmetto

Our campsite

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For those keeping track, our TX state park stay was $90 for 5 nights with no hook ups. TX adds a bunch of fees for non-residents so those add up. Bathrooms were not great. No shower in the tent loop bathroom, and only 2 stalls for all those campers. Men's was worse. Wifi was adequate.

We took one day "off", and then on Sunday went into San Antonio for the touristy things. We toured The Alamo, walked a bit on the river walk and then went to one of the four historic missions that are in the city. Alamo was interesting. Apparently Phil Collins (yes the singer) was a huge collector of Alamo artifacts and there is a whole wing of displayed items of the Phil Collins collection. They have actual weapons from the battle and even some letters written by Davey Crockett. Interesting stuff.

Interior. Crowded

Alamo Plaza

 

 

 

 

 

 

It was around 90 degrees in the city so it was nice to go down a level and walk along the River Walk. Really cool architecture of that whole area, with art and sculpture around, nice gardens and the boats going up and down it. We didn't walk too much of it as we wanted to get to the Mission.

Riverwalk

Riverwalk

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There are four San Antonio Missions at the National Historical Park that are a world heritage site, free admission! We only went to the first one, Mission San Jose where the welcome center is located. This is well outside of the city center, and a world away. The mission is located in a working class neighborhood, so good to get a feel of the actual city rather than the tourist part. The river walk actually goes all the way to the Missions, about 15 miles and if we had time we would have biked the whole thing. But honestly...how many missions do you need to see? One was enough for us and we were hot and tired. Had a great meal at a Mexican restaurant and heading back to camp.We have been eating our way across TX trying many different Mexican restaurants. The one we ate in Gonzales was also excellent. 

Mission San Hose

Still an active parish

Partial ruins

We left Palmetto a day early, to get to Beth's a day early. It took us two more full days of driving to get across TX. The San Antonio area is still considered east TX and still has full size trees. As you go west, it dries out pretty quickly. Trees turn into shrubs and shrubs turn into desert. We try to stay off the interstates as much as possible. 

There's a couple roads south of I10 that we have traveled before, State 90 in Tx, and 9 through NM and into AZ. Pretty much right along the border which is an experience in itself. But it is what is best described as a desolate landscape.

It took three full days of driving to get to Beth's, all days around 300 miles. We spent the first night at Amistad national recreation area, which is around Amistad lake, a dammed reservoir. The camping areas are dry camping, no services and vault toilets. Kiosk check in. For a senior camper, $3 a night! We stopped for a break at Seminole State park and took a 3 mile hike. This is a canyon tributary of the Rio Grand, but dry up this far. Is has some very cool petroglyphs and a red panther pictograph that we had hiked to on a previous trip. 

San Pedro CG, Amistad NRA

Dry Rio gorge, Seminole SP

Mesquite blooming. What to call that color green?

The second night was in Van Horn, TX where 90 joins I10 again to go around El Paso. Full hook ups, decent showers, laundry available, wifi. $40 for 1 night.

From Van Horn to Sierra Vista was 400 miles, but we left Van Horn early and gained 2 hours so we arrived at 2:30pm. We crossed into Mountain time, and because AZ doesn't do DST, we gained another when we crossed into AZ. So the long day that didn't feel so long.  

            Our route from San Antonio

We did a bunch of errands and running around today, and tomorrow will go to the Arizona Renaissance Fair with Beth and Aaaron. Yesterday was my birthday so we will celebrate that on Saturday.

I guess that's it for now!