Texas and the Old Spanish Trail

We met our friends, Pete and Suzy Lybecker at Potters Creek campground on Canyon Lake on Sunday 4/4/10 just north of San Antonio. Our plan is to travel as much as we can along the Old Spanish Trail (more about this later in this post) in the southern states.



However, we couldn't leave Texas without visiting the Alamo. The fort is a lot smaller than you would expect and located in the middle of downtown San Antonio, TX.

This a side view of the main area of the fort. The lower window is located in the room that housed the only survivors of the battle.

The grounds of the Alamo were beautiful and the plants were getting their spring growth.

Not far from this historial setting were some modern art displays.

A beautiful, park setting is the well-known Riverwalk of San Antonio. It began as a river flood control project and grew into a below street level walkway along the river. We took a 40 minute boat ride with a great tour guide with a good sense of humor.

Some of the riverwalk is located near hotels and shops but some areas are quite peaceful.

The following pictures are some of the historical sites along the boat ride.

An optical illusion.

Some new baby ducks. The mother gave us a brief look at them.

Launched in 1915 in Mobile, Alabama, as a connector route between New Orleans and Florida, the Old Spanish Trail (OST) soon expanded to a transcontinental trail linking St. Augustine, FL, to San Diego, CA. Pete and Suzy have already traveled along some of the OST in Arizona, New Mexico and eastern Texas. In San Antonio, we found this decorative bench provided by the Daughters of the Republic of Texas.

We visited the Guenther House. This was the home of Hilmar Guenther and his family. He was the founder of the Pioneer Mills which has been in business for over 150 years. The home was set up as a museum, restaurant and gift shop.

The original mill still exists on the property.

This is one of the original grind stones.

Near the Guenther house, there was a walking tour of some historical homes. They all had an interesting story and were unique in design. Many of them are now owned and maintained by a historical society.

We spent a few days near Columbus, TX and enjoyed walking around this town that was also on the OST. This building currently houses the United Daughters of the Confederacy Museum.

This building was built in 1886 as the Stafford Opera House and is the largest flat floored opera house in Texas.

There was also a cute Santa Claus Museum.

This log cabin was built in 1836 by a colonist of Texas.

It was fully furnished.

Who's older - the cabin or the couple in front of the cabin? It's a trick question.

We next drove from our campground in Broussard, Louisiana, along the OST route. We were excited when we spotted this sign and soon discovered that Louisiana is one of the only states to promote the history of the OST. Some of the cities along the trail and our drive were New Iberia, Jeanerette, Baldwin (where Suzy spotted this sign), Franklin, Patterson, Morgan City, and Houma. We had seafood gumbo and boiled crawfish and shrimp for lunch at Big Al's in Houma. We really enjoyed seeing this part of Louisiana.

We were intrigued by the spanish moss growing on oak trees. It is actually a plant but resembles moss.

Because of the high water table in Louisiana, the vaults in the cemeteries are above ground. This is an older cemetery and needs a little TLC.

Here's a newer cemetery. It was fascinating.

Because of the frequent floods, most houses are built on blocks of sorts so the water can just flow under them. Probably helps in drying out after the water recedes.

We saw water everywhere. They are actually called bayous.

Everything was green in this area. There were flowers and wildlife along the bayous.

Saw this snapping turtle along one of the waterways.

We ended our tour of this part of Louisiana with a stop at a french bakery.

Bill enjoyed the orange blossom baklava.

Just for Fun - Pictures of Grandkids

Merry, Jayden and Megan all dressed up for Easter.

Jayden and Megan are smiling for pictures.

Megan looking cute.

You are never too old to hunt Easter eggs.

Spring Break in Texas for Becky, Lindsey and Brandon

We picked up the happy travelers at the DFW airport on Friday, March 26th, to spend a week in Texas to see friends in Waco and be tourists in the Dallas - Fort Worth area. We went to Waco on Saturday and enjoyed a great reunion visit with Kevin and Kelly Brister who lived in the Yakima area for about 3 years in the mid 1990's. We met their daughters, Katelyn (13) and Kamryn (9) for the first time.

We stayed at Airport Park on Waco Lake. The first afternoon we took a walk to the dam on Waco Lake and were treated to some Texas redneck fun - sliding down a hill on cardboard. We got some laughs while watching the kids. Katelyn and Brandon tried to get going but only got a few feet. They had fun anyway.

On Sunday, Kevin prepared a pot of southern food for us. It was so very, very good. He boiled everything in one pot with his special seasonings over a propane burner at our campsite. There was crawfish, shrimp, two kinds of sausage, corn on the cob and red potatoes. They covered the picnic table with butcher paper and just piled everything on it. We dug in and enjoyed some good southern cooking. Thanks, Kevin, it was a huge treat for us.

This is Kamryn getting ready to enjoy her dinner. She is quite the character.

Around the table (from left to right) are Kamryn, Lindsey, Becky, Kelly, Kevin, Bill, Brandon and Katelyn.

Kevin's dad and mom joined us, too. Bob is chowing down next to Kevin and I only got Judy's hand. Sorry. We enjoyed meeting them and hope to see them again.

Kelly drove us all over by their home town of China Springs, TX. Above is the house (they called it a cabin) that Kevin and Kelly lived in when they returned to TX from WA. Katelyn was born while they lived here.

Kevin took Bill, Brandon and Katelyn fishing on Monday - the only day the wind didn't blow while we were by Waco Lake. They caught 11 bass but Brandon was disappointed that he didn't catch a fish. He wanted to be able to say he caught a fish in TX not just that he went fishing in TX. Kevin is taking Lindsey and Kamryn for ride while they go to the boat launch.

Brandon had fun with a new airsoft rifle. He was happy that Katelyn also enjoyed the wars with him. There weren't very many people at the RV park so they had lots of space to run around.

We went back to the Dallas-Fort Worth area on Wednesday and on Thursday, we did some tourist stuff. Our first stop was at the Bureau of Engraving and Printing. We tried to get free samples but couldn't. Imagine this - they wouldn't let us take any pictures of them printing all that currency. I took pictures of our souvenirs.

They are constantly inspecting the sheets of bills during the printing process. It's totally amazing how many bills they print each day - millions of dollars at each plant. There are only two plants in the United States. This one near Fort Worth and the one in Washington, DC (which we have also visited).

Next, we toured the Dallas Cowboys new stadium. (Couldn't help but think of my niece's husband, Sean. He is a dedicated Dallas Cowboy fan and he got to tour the stadium on its opening day.) The locker rooms were huge and expensive looking with special imported wood.

This is a picture of the nosebleed section where it is standing room only for only $29.95 per game. The field was pretty far away but you could see the game close up on a giant HD screen.

Windows and light fixtures were done in the shape of footballs.

Everything about the stadium was huge. This set of speakers was the size of an 18-wheeler semi-truck.

Here's a picture of the stadium from the top section of the stadium.

Here's Bill posing in front of Tony Romo's locker.

Brandon and Lindsey had fun running up and down the field.

Our last stop for the day was at the Sixth Floor Museum in downtown Dallas. The museum is at the Texas Book Depository where Lee Harvey Oswald shot John F Kennedy. It was an excellent museum. They had individual audio tours and outstanding displays. You actually saw where Oswald stood when he shot the President. Again, we couldn't take pictures inside the museum but here are a couple pictures we got outside.

On Friday, Kelly, Katelyn, Kamryn and Lauren (Kelly's niece) joined Becky, Lindsey and Brandon at the Six Flags over Texas amusement park. They all arrived about 10:30 in the morning and stayed until 8:00 pm. They got some rain in the morning but the rest of the day was perfect for enjoying all the rides. It was great fun for them. We spent the day getting haircuts and getting supplies for Lindsey's BD dinner.

We celebrated Lindsey's BD with chicken ceasar salad wraps, fruit salad and frosted brownies. It is a special birthday for Lindsey - she turned 13 on April 11. We are really proud of her. She is a special young lady.

Here are the travelers just before loading up to go to the airport.

They are ready to go home and see Dad who really missed them. Thanks, Dad, for sharing them with us. It was great to have them meet us in Texas.