Extreme Touring Week

It's been an extremely busy week, packed full of activities every day. If I had to choose a favorite, I think it would be our stop at Gruene on Tuesday. It was not planned and a pleasant suprise. Wednesday we were picked up by a tour bus at 8 in the morning and didn't get back until after 5pm.
There were lots of stops on the tour and lots of walking. Included on the tour was the Mission San Jose, Japanese Sunken Gardens, Buckhorn Saloon and Museum, Texas Ranger Museum, The Alamo, Mission Concepcion and the Mexican Marketplace - El Mercado.
We were so packed full of facts and figures that I couldn't begin to retain it all, much of which I took notes on, and I won't bore you with all that here. The tour also included a boat ride in the river downtown by the Riverwalk.
It is mainly a hotel district, packed full of shops, restaurants and bars, but the architecture and historical buidings are supurb!
If you want to learn about San Antonio History I would highly recommend doing it this way. The Buckhorn Museum had tons of animal mounts and pictures using rattlesnake rattles. Bonnie and Clyde's car, complete with death certificates and bullet holes. We had time on our own and stopped at the Buckhorn Saloon for a quick bite and I know we didn't see everything there. The tour bus driver was very knowledgeble and made the day fun. Thursday we got up early again and headed down I 37 to the southern Texas Coast.
We drove on through Corpus Christi and stopped on Padre Island for lunch at a place called Snoopy's Pier. It was by recommendation of a friend and turned out to be a good one.
The shrimp and fish was melt in your mouth good and we had an added bonus while dining out on the deck to watch the Blue Angels practice their formations getting ready for an air show.
The skies were overcast and the wind was really blowning so the day at the beach didn't turn out to be a good one.
We drove by Mustang Island State park and out onto the beach itself. Drove up the beach a ways and continued up to Port Aransas, where we took the ferry across to the town of Aransas Pass. With the weather not cooperating, we decided to return to our home base at Elmendorf rather than stay in a hotel for the night.
I had packed and prepared, but was just as happy to make the drive back to the coach.
I still really like my own bed! Friday was another driving day, only this time we headed Northwest of the city, to a town that boasts to be the Cowboy Capital of the World! Now we ate some pretty good Texas BBQ there, and browsed through some western shops right downtown.
The town of Bandera, with a population of less than 1,000, has lots of older buildings and homes and has a Frontier Museum with a carved totem pole in front, but I cannot see where they can claim that title!
I let DH go for the two hour museum jaunt, and I kept KayCee company outside and in the car. When DH returned he couldn't really give me any facts or names of famous Cowboys to remember, and they didn't have any printed material so that was that.
We left some of our money on Main Street though, after lunch, he bought a pair of shoes and a hat stretcher in one of the western shops, so all was not lost. Today was a regroup day and we went to Wally to stock up, spotted a detail place across the street and had the Suburban Detailed and Waxed. Now that is done for the summer. I am doing laundry and tomorrow morning we will pull into a self serve truck wash and attempt to wash the dirt off of this coach. We will only travel about 100 miles tomorrow and meet up with a friend of ours that is crossing our path. I made reservations today in Savannah Georgia for the 9th of May, so now I have a goal to achieve! We wil bid San Antonio good bye for now, and I know there's lots more to see on a future visit.