Stop 13- San Antonio, TX

Yehaw! If you read our post about our adventures in Medina Lake, you can only imagine our blissful happiness when we rolled into San Antonio’s KOA. This KOA 2015 Campground of the Year did NOT disappoint. We arrived on Friday, 2/21 and got settled for our stay through the 28th. After some exploration of the camp, we decided to just hang out around camp that evening. There was corn hole in the activity center, a huge dog park, the Rio Salado Parkway with over 10 miles of trails and even a great park about a mile from us. This KOA is top-notch- you check in and then there are staffers who will jump in their golf carts and escort you right to your site. It’s a well-oiled machine here! The bathrooms are as nice as you would expect in any hotel and the pool was amazing too. No hot tub, but we did find a warm enough day to swim in the pool on Monday the 24th.

Izzy and Ben met fast friends Steel, Krew and Troy; kiddos with a full-time RV family. They’d been at this campground for about 3 months while their mom fulfilled her traveling nurse contract. She’s a full time cardio pediatric nurse and her husband is a full time college and NBA referee. What a cool family! Originally from Arkansas, they made the decision this past year to raise their three kiddos on the road. Their oldest was just shy of 7 and incredibly articulate. Both Krew and Troy were friendly and curious. It was clear to us that this option of raising their kiddos worked for them. Lots of time reading and playing outside. Ben and Izzy were just thrilled to have friends to look forward to playing with every day. I even talked a little commercial real estate shop with them.

On Saturday the 22nd, we took the city bus from the KOA to the downtown Alamo visitor’s center and learned more about what our adventures could be for the week. For the rest of the day, we explored the Alamo and walked and did a riverboat tour along the Riverwalk.

We learned some really interesting facts at The Alamo, many of which coincided with Ben’s history school work. First, we learned that the Alamo was a part of the 5 missions and run by the National Park Service prior to being run by the State of Texas and the Daughters of the Republic of Texas. It”s official name is Misión San Antonio de Valero, but because there were multiple missions in the area and there was need to differentiate all of them, The Alamo received its nickname because of all the Poplar trees on its periphery. ‘Alamo’ in Spanish is Poplar tree. Currently, the Alamo is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Additionally, the Valero gas station was named after this mission as a way to honor Texas heritage.

On Sunday, we headed off to the San Antonio rodeo for family day. The kiddos were far more interested in the carnival, but they did walk the rodeo with us for about 3 hours prior. What was unexpected was the number of high school kids there to compete on behalf of their local FFA chapters. There were multiple mechanical, livestock and welding divisions within the competition. We talked to quite a few of the students who entered the contest; some who built deer blinds, others who welded an outdoor swing/campsite area as well as truck beds, plows, etc. All of the students were so respectful, eager to engage with Ben and Izzy and very well-mannered. We did a little shopping and a lot of walking around. We finally ended the day with about 3 hours at the carnival before we rode our bikes back to the KOA. We loved how we didn’t need to get back in the truck at all this weekend!

Monday, 2/24 we just hung out around the campsite getting school work and laundry finished up.

Tuesday the 25th, we decided to tackle all four of The Missions. We had picked up a visitor’s pamphlet that showed us the round trip bike trail for the missions tour and that it could be accomplished by bike in about 4-5 hours and a 16-mile bike ride. The kiddos were up for it, so off we went. We started at Mission Conception and followed the San Antonio River Walk the majority of the way, except for the first leg to Mission San José, where we inadvertently followed the road instead of the trail. Turns out that this route, however, was actually the shortest way, so we took the same route back to the truck too. The third mission was Mission San Juan and finally we ended at Mission Espada. Our bike ride covered pretty much everything from river to farm to gravel to path to developed land to completely in the woods.

Mission San Jose was our favorite- the colors and the history of this mission was so spectacular. While the goal of all the missions was to convert the locals, the missions worked hard to wow the Native Americans with the sheer grandeur and impressiveness of the architecture and design of the building. Many would come from hundreds of miles away to see it. From there, the priests would attempt to educate and convert them.

We ended up learning quite a bit about chemistry from one of the volunteers at the fourth mission, Mission Espada. He educated us about the Native American’s use of the Cochineal bugs which live on the native cactus. They would boil the bug which would allow them to collect the red dye. Turns out that when pirates would capture shipments back to Europe, they didn’t think much of the dried up extract and would leave it behind. Even today’s red Skittles candy uses the Cochineal bug’s red dye!

Wednesday the 26th we also hung out around the campsite so we could finish up school work and the kids could play. They also wanted to swim and the weather was just warm enough to make that possible.

Thursday the 27th we headed off to downtown San Antonio to check out the King William historic district for a self-lead tour of the Victorian-inspired architecture of the area. The area developed into an idyllic neighborhood of large, impressive houses designed in the Greek Revival, Victorian, and Italianate styles. The main street into the neighborhood was given the name King William in honor of King Wilhelm I, King of Prussia in the 1870s. We also did the hop-on hop-off bus visiting the Henry B Gonzalez Convention Center, the Tower of Americas, Yanaguana Garden at Hemisfair in addition to touring the King William homes. Izzy wished we had more time to visit the Museum of Art, so we made a note to visit one when we get to New Orleans.