Jan 3, 2011: We are still in San Antonio staying at Braunig Lake RV Resort for 3 more days when we plan to leave for Corpus Christi for a short few days before turning north again. Since mom has been getting weaker we've decided that it makes more sense to move towards Oregon at a slow pace instead of heading to north Florida as we had originally planned. We don't want to run the risk of staying in Texas or going to Florida now. Moving more north will reduce the distance to Oregon in case mom worsens and we have to get there fast.
Christmas day - San Antonio: Although its been in the 60s and 70s here all week yesterday the wind started gusting to about 35 or 40 and we got a couple of hours of heavy rain blowing sideways. This morning the wind is still blowing, though not as strong, and its about 50 degrees. This morning came bright, cloudless, and warmer - apparently we got a free trailer and truck wash last night - Texas style. Everything that had a coat of dust is now bright and clean! No water leaks around the slides in spite of very heavy rain.
Our new Montana and some nice things for inside it is our Christmas present to each other this year. We have a small Christmas tree and some lights for both inside and outside.
Most of the folks in the RV park got together today at the clubhouse and had a pot luck Christmas dinner. It panned out to be a pretty good dinner, both the food and the company. Betty made her delicious corn bread stuffing and as usual it was a very popular dish among the travelers. As with most holiday dinners I overate and felt stuffed the rest of the day. There are lots of folks here that are either 1/2 timers or full timers like us, spending the winter in their RV away from someplace cold. I talked to a man from Anchorage during dinner. They're full timers that spend their summers back in Alaska like us. There's a wealth of knowledge among these folks about where and how to travel. People really notice our Alaska license plates and excitedly grill us for information about traveling there, or tell us about their Alaska vacation from the past and how beautiful they found Alaska to be.
Nearly Christmas - San Antonio: We learned recently that a couple of wind storms blew down some sections of Cedar fence on our deck at home (Wasilla). We've been on the phone with our property manager off and on for the past few days trying to get someone to simply remove the remaining fence panels before they tear themselves apart in the wind. When the temps are below zero you can't really find anyone to do this kind of work. As much as I hated to do it I finally called Ed hoping to get some help. As he always does he came through and will take Zane over soon to remove the fence and stack the panels near the workshop. He says it has warmed up and its now a "balmy" 10 degrees. Thanks, Ed, Roxy, and Zane, I owe you. I can't tell you how much stress you removed by doing this. I know what a pain in the @## it is to do this kind of work when its cold. I'm really motivated to help build your deck this spring when we return. Ed has given so much of himself to my building projects over the years and he does such good work....here's a couple of examples:
Fish camp warehouse - Sterling, Alaska
Liar's Lodge - Sterling, Alaska
Mid December: The weather here in San Antonio has been very nice. Well, the locals think its a pretty hard winter because there have been some days with temps in the 50s. The past few days has been in the middle 70s and feels almost too hot because its a little humid.
Our friends Pat and Patty who we met in Tucson are here in they're fifth wheeler also so we have dinners and play cards together. Last week we went to the river walk near the Alamo with them. Lots of fun...good food, great scenery, and since I was with Betty - excellent company.
I included some pictures of Arizona missions in an earlier post - adding to our mission experience we've now visited 2 of the 5 missions of San Antonio so here are some pictures:
Espada Mission
Espada Mission
San Juan Mission
As we walked through these historic sites I was intrigued by the interesting woodwork, especially the doors. Imagine the labor that went in to building these without De Walt power tools. Here are a some examples:
Now that we've seen the first two (Espada and San Juan) of the 5 missions of San Antonio, I'm looking forward to visiting the Jan Jose, Concepcion, and Alamo missions after Christmas.
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