Thursday, November 26, 2009 THANKSGIVING

Our little van must look strange to our neighbors – the photo shows us in our little Sprinter among all the Big Rigs. Nice people though and everyone we talked with was interested in what we were doing…most could not image living in a little one room van as their rigs have anywhere from 3-4 pretty distinct living areas.


Sprinter at Fredericksburg RV Park

We were on our way about 9:45 after spending a little extra time packing for 3 days in a hotel in San Antonio. We made a stop at another Donut, Crossant, Kolache Bakery for Ben to try again to purchase something special for his breakfast. Jane passed and called her mother. He did find some fairly decent donuts with fruit on top – did not taste like a kolache just a donut with fruit topping.

We headed southwest of TX 16 to Kerrville where we would pick up I 10 to San Antonio. In Kerrville we stopped at a park along the Guadalupe River to take some photos for Jo Anne Jones who used to live in TX and really liked this river. It was a very peaceful park with not too many people enjoying it at 11 AM on Thanksgiving morning! This area has the most fall color we have seen anywhere.


Color along Guadalupe River near Kerrville

Among the live oaks which are green are other types of oaks in deep red and gold. There were also fairly significant hills so the color showed to great advantage. We also talked to Jeff so we were at least in touch with family by phone if not in person today.

We found, or rather Garmin (our unimaginative name for the GPS) found the way easily to our hotel. This La Quinta is a very good location. Not on but very near the RiverWalk and the Alamo; and across the street from a Macy’s and the RiverMall – and tomorrow is Black Friday! Ben says he will let me set the alarm to go as early as I want…I will go sometime but not early in the am!

They let us check in early about noon and we had a short rest before heading out to the Alamo. Several of the locations we wanted to visit were not open on Thanksgiving but we knew it was open. Many of the restaurants were closed along the 3 blocks to the Alamo but we did find one spot open and had a turkey croissant – our Thanksgiving Turkey!

We headed across the street and visited the Alamo. It is quite an impressive story and reminds us to be thankful , especially today on Thanksgiving, for the freedoms we have in our country that often are taken for granted. It is certainly well cared for by the Daughters of Texas who have been charged with its care with no government support since 1905.


Alamo

Their only sources of income are donations and proceeds from their gift shop….and it was quite a gift shop! After our visit to the Alamo we walked down the street and found the IMAX Theater and watched the Alamo film. It was very well done and just emphasized the sacrifice these men were willing to make for the freedom for their land. The battle on the huge IMAX screen was pretty exciting.

After this and a short walk to find the area of the RiverWalk where we will watch the parade tomorrow night we returned to the hotel and did some reading and planning. Some of the restaurants were closed but not the majority so we selected an area where we knew one was open and headed that way knowing we could eat there for sure. We settled on the Texas Land and Cattle Steak House. Ben wanted to try a mesquite grilled steak and Jane wanted to have chicken fried steak again….they had both! Good food but way too much so we have another dinner in the refrigerator. Ben says if we get much more leftover food we will have to buy another refrigerator!
After a great dinner we walked back to our hotel – following the RiverWalk about half the way. It is certainly an interesting place to stroll – plenty of other people around! Very nice place and tomorrow they will add all the Christmas Lights to the already festive atmosphere. Tomorrow we will take the river cruise and take in several other sites. This place is quite a finale for our great Texas trip!