The back roads of Texas, "Now this is what I thought Texas would look like"

The Eagle has landed! After a year of planning, months of preparation and logistics that would make the Army proud we have reached our first winter destination of 2012.

Our San Antonio park

Our leisurely trek south through the center of Texas was pretty uneventful and stress free. The last 12 miles, through the heart of San Antonio and its crazy Friday afternoon traffic, made up for all the stress free driving early in the day.

Good grief there was crazy traffic and the drivers were blocking lanes and trying late merges onto crowded off ramps that made me break out in beads of sweat because I was trying to maneuver a large trailer through it all.

But let’s start at the beginning. We got up early, took our showers and made a quick exit from Buck Creek RV Park and began the trek to San Antonio. As is my custom I always claim that Joan has made us an hour late in leaving. The joke is I always tell her the night before we’re not in a hurry, but then kind of push the envelope for an early departure in the morning. Joke is probably the wrong word as Joan doesn’t think it is very funny.

Space 112 - our little piece of San Antonio

This was a rare driving day for us and most of our travel was along small two-lane and four lane state highways with only interstate driving for the first 13 miles and the last 40 miles of the trip. With light traffic we didn’t impede traffic much and more than once I heard Joan say: “This is what I imagined Texas would look like.”

We say beautiful ranches and not-so-beautiful ranches and plenty of cattle. If you closed your eyes, which would have been a really bad idea for me because I was driving, you might imagine cowboys driving cattle across the wide open plains 150 years ago. Today everything is pretty much fenced.

My only concern today was whether I would find a gas station large enough to receive our large rig on those back country roads. Fortunately in Brady Texas, about 100 miles into the trip, we found a two-pump shell station that was next to the highway with pumps in just the perfect position for an easy entry and easy departure after fueling.

The Hungry Farmer Steakhouse

With a full tank of gas I knew we had plenty for the remainder of the trip. Fueling was a lesson I learned the hard way on our first ever trip with the trailer when I pulled into a small gas station and blocked a street with the trailer while I got gas. I’ve been much more diligent in planning my stops since.

We did pass through a Texas town with a name I never expected to see here: Santa Anna, Texas. From my history I thought that Santa Anna pretty much wore out his welcome here when he slaughtered the defenders of the Alamo.

We arrived in San Antonio in the middle of the afternoon and we had a few anxious moments as I had to back the trailer into a tight spot in the back of the Traveler’s World RV Resort. But with a little help from Joan we didn’t knock down any power poles or run into any fences and were set up in about an hour.

The weather was warm and humid and I quickly changed out of my jeans into shorts, so my winter retreat has officially begun. We’ve already been welcomed to the park by a number of “winter Texans” and are looking forward to a good month here in San Antonio.

After the long drive we decided to eat out tonight and when most of the familiar restaurants we like (Logan’s Roadhouse, Olive Garden, etc.) were too far away we played a little OnStar roulette and let the advisor send us to the nearest steakhouse they could find.

The Hungry Farmer turned out to be an excellent choice and we both enjoyed a T-bone steak at a very reasonable price. (I could only imagine one of those cattle we saw grazing along the way today as my current meal).

Hungry Farmer sign

We at early, so we were back at the trailer about 6:30 p.m. in time to catch the national news and then take an exploration walk around the RV park. It turned out we missed the Friday night “Happy Hour” and several people invited us to come back next Friday.

Tomorrow morning is a breakfast and sometime next week is the Chili Cook off so it appears there will be plenty to do here. Adjacent to the park is an 8-mile hike and bike trail that runs along the San Antonio River that I plan to explore tomorrow.

Life is good.

We love church signs and we spotted these two gems today:

“Do you keep your Bible as close as you do your cell phone?”  and

“Where will you spend eternity? Smoking or Non-smoking?”

Mileage out: 4914

Time out:  8:30 a.m.

Mileage in: 5166

Time in: 2:20 p.m.