Texas - Part 2

San Antonio - Day 1

Two days before the solar eclipse we moved closer to the path of totality by traveling from Houston to San Antonio. On the way we stopped at a Buc-ee's country store/gas station extravaganza.

Visiting the huge Buc-ee's was quite an experience! In spite of all the tacky kitsch on display, there were lots of good things available for travelers. Here you could find an enormous variety of sandwiches, fresh baked goods, snacks, travel essentials, and, most important, absolutely spotless, well maintained restrooms. I witnessed a restroom attendant actually scrubbing down the walls of a stall!

We had fun looking at the merchandise available.

For a brief moment I considered buying this sign which accurately expressed my introverted nature and the stress I felt during the tour from expected socializing with other tour members, especially at breakfast!

I've heard a Buc-ee's will soon be constructed along Interstate 64 near our Virginia home. Looks like managers will have a good salary.

Eventually, we arrived in San Antonio where I survived another spicy menu minefield at lunch near a lively farmer's market. After lunch we visited the San Jose Mission, one of five old Spanish missions arrayed along the San Antonio River. This mission was founded in 1720. The missions' purpose was to colonize the region for Spain and convert the native population to the Catholic faith. The priests somehow convinced natives to do most of the heavy labor. My understanding is that it wasn't particularly pleasant for natives. The next picture shows their living quarters.

The church and surrounding grounds were carefully reconstructed in the 1930's.

(Notice the increasingly cloudy sky in the previous three pictures. Eclipse viewing conditions were deteriorating as each day passed.)

I wonder what the indigenous people thought about the colorful decorated church interior.

An interior room in the walled enclosure near the church gave a good idea of life here on the edge of the Spanish Empire in the mid-1700's.

We left Mission San Jose and drove to Mission San Antonio de Valero, better known as the Alamo. (Where does the name Alamo come from? Apparently, this was the name of a nearby group of trees, either poplars or cottonwoods, called alamo in Spanish.) Unlike relatively rural Mission San Jose, the Alamo sits right in the middle of modern San Antonio surrounded by modern city buildings, streets, and traffic. We crossed a busy street, walked on an urban sidewalk, turned a corner, and there it was. It was strange to finally stand directly in front of this famous building I had heard so much about.

Like many people my age, the Alamo is stamped in my memory from watching Walt Disney TV episodes about Davy Crockett which ran as a series of one-hour programs in 1954-55 when I was a kid. We all loved Davy Crockett and had coonskin hats. The linoleum on my childhood bedroom floor had Davy Crockett images and pictures of the Alamo. So it was fun to encounter this wonderful sculpture of Crockett in front of the Alamo.

There's more to the Alamo than the iconic front face. Inside the front door was a church whose interior seemed quite bare compared with the San Jose Mission.

There was a walled compound associated with the Alamo which you can see in this informative poster illustrating the 1836 battle. It would have been nice to get a better picture, but too many people blocked access to a head on shot.

On the grounds were several sculptures of famous people associated with the Alamo including Jim Bowie and William Travis. Both featured prominently in my Disney memories. Bowie is shown with his famous knife, and Travis is shown using his sword to mark a line on the ground. Travis asked Alamo defenders to cross the line if they were willing to fight to the end, and everyone but one person crossed.

After the Alamo we went to our San Antonio hotel, the Gunter Hotel. Unlike our ultramodern Houston hotel, the Gunter was constructed and opened more than a hundred years ago in 1909. It had a certain antique charm. Here's a panoramic view of the lobby.

Original old-time mail chutes were present near elevators on each floor. I assume letters were dropped into the chute where they fell and accumulated in the large box below near elevators in the lobby.

The original old fashioned telephone switchboard was on display in the lobby.

Our evening dinner was a group affair for all tour participants at a nearby Tex/Mex restaurant located just above the San Antonio Riverwalk. A spicy minefield buffet was offered in a noisy, crowded setting. We didn't last long at the restaurant. Upon leaving we descended a convenient staircase and found ourselves on the Riverwalk itself. After a short walk along the waterway we had this view looking backward toward the restaurant which is the area with curved lights just above the left end of the bridge.

Just by chance we had chosen to walk in a direction away from the busier parts of the Riverwalk. It was relatively peaceful here and we came across a few tile mosaic artworks.

As the path became more quiet and isolated we decided to turn around and explore the other direction. It wasn't long before we encountered increasing crowds jostling us on the narrow walkway. If we had continued for another few minutes, we would have come to a brightly lit section with restaurants, shops, and nightlife. But we were getting tired, so we turned around and walked back to the hotel. On the way to the hotel we passed one of the illuminated horse drawn carriages roaming the streets.

Our tour guide presented the next day's agenda on a white board in the lobby.

Eclipse day was approaching and weather prospects were not improving.