San Antonio

We figured we would have brunch today, so we did Mexican breakfast, was good but "Spicy Hot"

It started out as an overcast day with showers so we decided to take a ride into San Antonio for the day.

The Alamo

We took a stroll along the Riverwalk to see the sights, it is really a beautiful area and there is a lot of shops and restaurants along the walkway.

One of the Hotels along the Riverwalk.

San Antonio Riverwalk

I really needed a cold drink after all that walking.

From the Riverwalk we strolled to the Market Place which was about six blocks away. This is a large area with indoor / outdoor vendors and restaurants.

A small part of the Market Place in San Antonio.

Children Performing at the Market Place

Joyce has been wanting a Palm tree for a long time. On our way back to camp, I spotted this guy selling Palm trees on the side of the road.

I was able to get a Mexican Fan Palm for $20 and he also gave Joyce a Date Palm.

The larger tree is the Fan Palm

Yesterday & Today

Today we took a ride to Fredericksburg, Tx.. This town is a shoppers dream with small shops lining both sides of Main street. We were in and out of so many shops that I forgot to take any pictures. Oh yea, I had to get some of the local chocolate praline fudge and mexican chocolate cake, mmmmmm!

On our way home to camp we also stopped at Luckenbach, Tx. population 25. They were preparing for a wedding and the dance hall was decorated for the blessed event. This town has some interesting history and you can read it if you click on the town's name above. Below are some pictures of the place.

Junk Store

Entertainment Outside
Hat Store

Post Office

Yesterday we traveled to the San Antonio area to see four of the five Missions. We didn't have time to see the Mission Alamo but we did see it last year while I was in Houston on business.

The missions were beautiful, but located in less than desirable looking locations. The gas station where we stopped for gas even had the soda machine behind bars for protection. Glad we had the GPS so we at least looked like we knew where we were going.

Mission San Jose

Mission Espada

Mission San Juan

Mission Concepcion

Stonehedge II

There was a Winery on one of the back roads we traveled on our way to Stonehedge II, so we stopped to check it out. They had a nice little business going on but we didn't get to do the tasting thing. Was getting late and we had to move on.
When we drove by these two guys, the donkey was biting at the bull's neck. We had to turn around to get the picture but by then I guess we were more interesting than the horse play.

This was a Donkey that hadn't lost his winter coat, looked like he had dreadlocks.
Woke up to an overcast day in the 70's. Joyce found this place called Stonehedge II that was built by two Texans with a lot of spare time on their hands. After about two hours of running through the back roads of Texas we arrived, thank God for GPS.

Everything in Texas IS Big

Joyce offered to give me a quick trim on the top so I figured, what the hack!

I thought it was just a trim!We are just North of San Antonio in a small town called Canyon Lake. The first campground we were in wasn't that nice so we moved to a State Campground about 4 miles away named Potters Creek which is run by the Corps of Eng.'s and we can use our Senior Card for 1/2 price. We are now parked facing Canyon Lake. This place is beautiful, right now the sun is beginning to set and we have 16 deer grazing about 30 feet in front of us, unbelievable. We are here for at least a week.We need some groceries so took a ride to the grocery store which was 17 miles away.

Deer grazing

Beep Beep!

Tough Life

A Day in the Big Easy

We traveled for the last two days and are in Texas but I needed to catch up on our day in New Orleans. We were both expecting the French Quarter to be an area that was run-down and trashed but boy were we wrong.

We found the city to be clean and in the process of a repair and rebuild everywhere you looked. We really had a great day walking throughout the French Quarter and enjoying the street performers. We parked on the other side of the Mississippi and took the free ferry to the Canal Street dock.

Boarding the Ferry

Canal Street

Tug Boats Working the Mississippi
Joyce buying gifts
I Love Trains

Riverboat

One of the Restaurants on Bourbon St.

A little history

Street Performers

This guy was just standing like a statue

Us saying Hi from New Orleans

Devastation Still Remains from Katrina

We took a ride today to the 9th Ward of New Orleans where the damage from Katrina was the worst. It is difficult to imagine what these people went through. The majority of the damage was due to flooding, the pictures below tell the story about what these people are still dealing with. There were a lot of people working on their homes while they lived in trailers on their property. The total interiors of the homes must be removed because of mold.
Note: Clicking on the smaller pictures will enlarge them.

On the lighter side, we also stopped at Mardi Gras World where the floats are manufactured for Mardi Gras and various other parades around the country. We took the tour of their facility where they are now working on the floats for 2009 Mardi Gras. Below are some of the characters that are made for the floats. Do you see Joyce?