Exploring San Antionio

Day 9 got a late start as we had projects around the Tin Tent, and the campground staff asked us to move to another site as they were going to be paving the street we were on. That means disconnecting water, sewer, electricity and cable-hitching the Envoy to the Tin Tent-moving it about 40 feet onto another street and hooking everything up again! We left the awning up and did it ever look strange! Then when we finally headed into San Antonio we had to find a Walmart and we had good directions from the campground staff. When we got off the highway we were trapped in a road const. project-30 min. later we were freed up and found the store for provisions and a light bulb for a a tail light on the camper. Then we had to find a bike shop as we had had a crisis of sorts on our way into Mississippi last week. We were on a very-very-very bumpy bridge and the rubber strap holding the bikes on the bike rack on the back of the camper broke-the bikes were pushed back and down onto the highway-a passing motorist indicated we had a problem and that was what we found when we got stopped. It ruined a tire on each bike, tore the cover on my bike seat and we thought one of the wheels was damaged-thus the search for the bike shop! After much frustration we found one-thanks to our GPS! The proprietor said he thought the wheel was not beyond salvaging and he thinks he fixed it-won't know until Hank replaces the tubes and tires and tries to blow up the tire. Once that was dealt with, we found our parking garage and proceeded to do the tourist thing. The Alamo is certainly worth a visit-we enjoyed touring it and listening to one of the volunteers explain the siege of the Alamo! Learned so much more than from history books-'course I was raised in VT-what do they care about Texas? By then the temp. was hovering around 95 degrees in the bright sun so we headed down onto the Riverwalk-much cooler. We walked the whole circuit of the 2.5 mi. walkway, stopped for some late lunch, explored La Villita-an artsy/craftsy area with lots of shops-much Mexican influence. The middle photo shows me enjoying my pecan pie with ice cream! The top photo is of the 750' Tower of the Americas at the Hemisfair Park-apparently in 1968 a World's Fair took place here and this park is what remains. For a less than nominal fee we could take a ride up an exterior elevator to the observation deck which was enclosed-thank goodness! I almost didn't go up, but I probably won't get here again so I had to do it. I was at the back of the elevator and didn't look down while it was going up! It was an incredible view of San Antonio and once up there was glad I did it! We went back down into Riverwalk and made our way back to the parking garage, drove back to our home on the road, and dinner in the Tin Tent awaits-perhaps after a cooling swim in the pool!