Remember the Alamo

One can hear the cries of the men and woman who so bravely defended their "Alamo"- the small group of brave soldiers mostly farmers and woodsmen stood against the many soldiers of the Mexican Army to defend their home and families. Of course as we all know they had no chance since a small band of 200 or so had no chance against an army of almost 2000. We braved the cold today (22 low-34 high) to explore the ruins of this famous Texas Mission. What is left of the large sprawling fort can be seen in the center of a very modern San Antonio. Some of the structure lies beneath the new buildings, parks and streets of the city as it is today. What can be seen is in remarkable shape.
We were able to take photos of the outside, the gardens and the long narrow courtyards with arches and gates for gaining entrance into the fort. Inside where so many lost their lives photos are not permitted, this being considered hallow ground and is granted such respect.
There were exhibits of clothing, jewelry, guns and other means of warfare of 1836. In the Barracks
were letters written by many of the men and woman of "The Alamo"..these were very interesting reading. Jon found a lot of these online and did some reading before we went there.
The weather as you know was not on our side so we were glad to step inside and read a lot of the history.
After the Alamo we walked down to the Riverwalk, no water in the canal because they are cleaning it so we will have to wait a week or so to see this or take a boat ride if they even do that in their Winter. The area looks very inviting but not today, we ducked into a restaurant where it was warm, watched the people from the inside (not many) and enjoyed our lunch.
We are excited for warm weather so we can explore this facinating, Southwestern style area. We are back in our MH with the heat on, suppossed to be colder tonight, right now 32. Just heard there is something of a strange happening for the end of next week...gearing up for colder weather. We thought we would stay an extra week but now, not so sure-we will give it a few days and decide what to do....I don't think it's warm any where and Jon says we're not going to South America. Have fun Judy and Ernie, you may be in the warmest place on earth.

San Antonio Zoo

The day started out 28 degrees but ended in the 50's with a lot of sunshine. A good day to go to the Zoo, yes ? so, we did. Well, get out the maps, gear up for a ride in the blender and let's go. What would we ever have done without this GPS (thanks guys) it saves us every day we hit the streets. the ride was short, just busy and a bit concerning when everyone travels 80 miles an hour. We got to the Zoo with no problems once we took that exit, THAT ONE, whew, made it.....not sure if the guy behind us did. A lot of the animals were in hiding when we got there, it was cold and they were not going to co-operate, a lot of the monkeys and birds where sitting vey close or on top of the heat lamps which were placed in their cages....i don't blame them. The zoo is very well taken care of, the cages are super clean as were the animals and they all seemed very happy and willing to come out and great us as it warmed during the day. We took a double trip around some of the exhibits and were glad we did as the animals had decided to come out and do there thing in the sun. I never saw so many birds, snakes and lizards.....the grizzley was a great sight, an old man i think and he didn't want to be bothered to dance around, just laid there in all his glory and enjoyed the sun. the hippos were in and out of the water, watched as 2 or 3 of them just laid in the pool and enjoyed the clean baths they were taking...never even left to tank to relieve themselves but i guess that gave the fish something to ponder over, and they did..yuck.
the zoo has a lot of construction going on for a lot of new exhibits, it will be beautiful when completed...we were impressed.
Going to be a cold one tonight, I guess the whole country is in the cooler, stay warm, love to all.

Life after DC

Left DC with another storm chasing us, wow, we got out of there just in time though it might have been interesting to see how the big city dealt with 18" of snow. We spent a night in South Carolina before making the trek to Cocoa Beach Fl. in search of warmth and sunshine. Fun in the Sun should be changed to Searching for fun in the sun. The weather was a bit warmer, though not "warm" like we were searching for. Spent a few days at Patrick Air Force Base, very windy and rainy but no snow. leaving PAFB we went to Bradenton to spend time with Geno, no, he hasn't changed..still going strong, working and playing hard. We spent a week visiting, catching up with the past and enjoying a little warmer weather. Christmas came and went with no snow, very weird as we are used to those winter Christmas days up north. We left Bradenton, headed for tallahasee and then on to Eglin on our way to San Antonio..it has to be warm there. While at Eglin, cold, we went to Destin Beaches, very white, powdery sand, beautiful, all you need is a lot of $$ to stay there. The Gulf waters are gorgeous. Not a lot of sighseeing, we were off for warmth and sun. After 2 days of travel, through Houston will never be forgotten, so much traffic. Well, here we are in San Antonio, 1st night spent in a parking lot, troubles with lights on the RV so we stayed there and took care of the problem in the morning. Went to Lackland western side of San Antonio and here we are settled for 2 or 3 weeks. very nice, very cold, 37 degrees right now...i think we need to go to South America. We may even see some snow by the end of the week, hope not !! Give us a couple of days to set up and we will be out sightseeing. Oh, this is the coldest it's been in San Antonio for 40 years...know any place that needs cold, we will go. Also, the River of the Riverwalk will be drained while we are here, no Gondola rides for us. Guess we need to stay longer so we will be here when they refill it. it's a canal that they drain so they can clean it..We are so lucky to see this process. Will see the Alamo, museums, the zoo and a bike trail along many missions. I think we have some interesting days in our future. Will check in later when we have experiences to share. Happy New Year to all..........

Afternoon everyone, I do this so i will know what the day/date is as much as letting you all know where we are. So, let's start from the beginning. It was Sunday night and Jon saw the weather report, snow and sleet on the way for Wed. Well, the cars oil got changed a day early, I was kicked into high gear to finish the packing and we were to be on the road tues. a.m. As you all know that did happen and we beat the snow and from what we hear, a lot of it. Sorry to leave all that behind with you nice people to deal with.
1st day within a couple of hours we ran into a small snow squall in New York, oh no ! we can't be driving into a storm...no, just a scare. We made our way down through NY and to Washington DC.
Wow, Ernie we didn't even get lost, got our Mona (GPS) p....off a couple of times but we all lived through it. Used some of your direstions Peg and Les and took your advice and went to Andrews Air Force Base....great choice, 4 miles from the subway and we were on our way to the city. Thanks, worked out better than Quantico.
The weather ? whoa, it was cold, thawed pipes (hoses) to the RV every day and had to dress like we were going skiing. headed to the city and had a ball, walked our feet off....more later

Here we have the Washington Monument viewed from the Capital building and Julia Child's' Kitchen in the American History Museum

Washington DC

here are some of the sights of DC

Washington DC

We went into the city via the metro, very modern. Thats one of the pics posted , then we visited at least 6 of the smithsonian museums! Nice and clean city from what we could see.
to be posted later...........