Seminole Canyon, San Antonio, a detour and Waco!

 

Hello from the desert of Texas at Seminole Canyon State park! The sites at the campground were abundantly spacious and with open views for miles, it made for gorgeous sunrises (Dave's picture to the right) and sunsets (my picture below).

The park had 50 amp electric and water with great pressure...so great it blew a hole in the water line! Good thing Dave is so handy and was able to do a temporary repair so we can get to Red Bay and replace the whole line.

While at the park we were able to hike to the Fate Bell shelter and view some amazing pictographs. These are paintings on the wall vs. the petroglyphs we saw at Three Rivers which were carved into the rocks. The modern statue on the left was at the visitor's center and was inspired by the artistry of the wall pictographs.

The hike into the canyon was very dry and hot but the views were worth it.

It was very helpful that the park had these renderings done to showcase the pictographs. I couldn't help but think of Emma and that if this was her park, these would have been her renderings. 💗

Most curious were the fossils that were in the ceiling of the overhang...of sea creatures when the whole canyon was under water! Speaking of water, we are on to San Antonio, home of the beautiful river walk.

The La Antorcha de la Amistad (torch of friendship) given to the city from a group of entrepreneurs from Mexico. The Tower Life building is in the background with it's crazy gargoyles the original owners had built on the building to ward off bad spirits.  Too bad it didn't work for them as they had to sell the building at a huge loss after being open only 3 months...in 1929. That was sure bad timing!

Riding up top on the hop on hop off bus through town with the Tower of Americas in the background.

After seeing the town and going to the Mexican marketplace (note the change in Dave's hat below) it was time for the Alamo. So strange that it sits right in downtown but city ordnance won't allow any of the buildings around it to shadow it out of respect for all those that died there.

Then on to the tower of the Americas built for the 1968 Hemisfair World's Fair. The 750 foot tower is daunting looking up but provides for panoramic views of the city below. We ate in the restaurant at the top, which rotates while you dine! It goes all the way around in about 45 minutes so we got the full 360 view!

Another fun fact is that the building that sits at the front of the photo below is a hotel and was also built for the World's fair but in 207 days! It was modular construction with each hotel room being constructed offsite complete with furniture, bedding and towels and then placed onto the building with a crane!

Here's another view of it from the river walk, which we so enjoyed we took the boat cruise twice (that's also where all these fun facts are coming from!).

It is just so lush (especially after being in the desert for the weeks before) and has great art work along the way. Then at night when all the lights come on, it is even prettier.

 

The weather is turning on us and rain from hurricane Norma is coming soon. It is almost eerie looking as San Antonio gets ready for their day of the dead parade this Friday.

Also on the river walk is Rivercenter, a huge mall currently with a dinosaur exhibit in it! The city has so many interesting buildings and art work. Check out the stained glass Alamo below.

We ended our time in downtown San Antonio at the San Fernando Cathedral. Every night they do this amazing light show on the front the building. It is a "Vegas worthy" production and the church offers it for free. It went on for about 25 minutes but I captured at least a few seconds for you to enjoy as well!

OK, so for those of you counting our missed stops, we took a little detour. This picture makes it look like we had motorhome issues but this was just a minor repair to the tailpipe, but we are in Michelle's driveway! A bit of a long story but I believe providential in that Michelle's dad needed to be transported from Austin TX to Owasso, OK to a new memory care facility and we were close by. Can you say SUPER BIG UBER? 😄 

 

Back on track and we are now at this great campground on Waco Lake. They are supposed to be back in sites but with a view like below we were putting our picture window forward, even Noddle likes it!

Dave looks pretty happy too, enjoying his biscuits and gravy at Magnolia Table. We didn't see Chip and Joanna but we sure enjoyed our time at the Silos while doing a little Christmas shopping before we are on the road again today headed towards the "Big Easy"!