Going On The Road with Monte & Rose

October 19, 2013

Travel day from Junction to San Antonio, TX

While Monte hitched up I drove next door to the Econo Lodge. The office was open with keys in the door but no one was at the desk. I waited perhaps 10 minutes calling out several times.

I drove back to the site and that is when I noticed the sign that indicated we should register at the gas station next to the Econo Lodge.

When I entered, I encountered the same young woman I had spoken to yesterday when I gassed up. I explained that I wanted to pay for the site we had stayed in last night. She said in a very indignant tone of voice, “What do you mean you stayed there last night? Without paying?”

I explained how the instructions on the Passport American site indicated we should go to the Econo Lodge to register but that no one was there so I left a voice message but no one called me back.

She said, “WE ARE NO LONGER ACCEPTING PASSPORT AMERICA AND IF YOU WOULD HAVE COME IN HERE LAST NIGHT I COULD HAVE TOLD YOU THAT.”

Even though I felt my temperature rising I remained calm and replied that I hadn’t seen the sign indicating I should register at the gas station until this morning.

She said that will be $15. I said it is supposed to be $12. She repeated that they no longer accept PA.

I paid the $15. So if you are ever in the Junction Texas area and are looking for a place to spend the night I would suggest you drive right on by the Segovia RV Park unless you like being yelled at and spoken to in a very nasty tone.

We had a very short 100 mile drive to San Antonio.

We have entered into the Hill Country of Texas and the scenery is more appealing to me with its gently rolling hills and vast expanses of GREEN.

We have passed several of these semis carrying these enormous windmill blades.

I knew the blades were huge but it wasn’t until I saw them being transported that I realized how huge.

We had a slight delay as emergency vehicles rushed to the site of an accident. Some people just drive so crazy and fast. Where the hell are they going in such a hurry?

We passed this Network semi.

I had thought that since it was a Saturday the traffic might not be so bad—I THOUGHT WRONG. There was a lot of traffic and we experienced the usual darting in and out that we usually encounter in big cities. It was very stressful.

BUT finally we found the Mission Trail RV Resort.

The clerk was very friendly. She said she had two sites available and suggested we check them out and then come back to let her know which one we chose.

Neither site was exactly a prime site but we chose site 10 because it had less ruts than site 19.

The RESORT has mostly full-time residents, most who have older model RVs but for the price ($20/night) so close to downtown San Antonio it was okay.

It took a long time to get set up because the site was so uneven. Monte had to use leveling blocks. Then we blew a fuse extending our front landing gear. Luckily Monte has a supply of spare fuses.

After getting set up we headed into downtown San Antonio just 6 miles away. We had visited the city back in 2009 so we knew we would have to pay for parking. We found a lot charging $5 6 blocks from the Alamo.

There were some interesting shops along Houston Street.

I had looked up info on the Mission so we knew it was closing at 5:30.

It was already 5PM when we arrived so we took a quick walk through.

Since we had already visited in the past a half hour was plenty of time.

There was a news reporter making a broadcast in front of the Alamo. We didn’t know what she was reporting on until later we watched the news later on in the evening.

Gun rights rally to break century-long Alamo tradition

Published October 19, 2013

McALLEN, Texas – This is how to make another gun rally in gun-friendly Texas stand out: Tell everybody to bring their rifles and shotguns to the Alamo, the state’s most popular attraction, which sits downtown in the country’s seventh-largest city. And be sure to invite the state’s gun-friendliest politician, who also happens to hold the keys to the historic site.

When the organizers of “Come and Take It San Antonio!” made plans for a display of long guns today, this setting seemed ideal but the event is now drawing attention for breaking a century-long tradition against public demonstrations at the shrine of Texas liberty, where Col. William Travis and 200 Texas defenders famously died in a siege with the Mexican army in 1836. Such public displays have usually been relegated to an adjacent plaza.

Some are asking whether a pro-gun group has gone too far in extolling firearms rights, a feat considered near impossible in Texas. And whether a politician may have been too willing to accommodate them.

“We certainly consider the Alamo our family cemetery,” said Lee Spencer White, president of the Alamo Defenders’ Descendants Association. “Our guys died there and we take it very seriously.”

Inside the weathered stone mission church where the Texans made their last stand, “You instantly become reverent,” she said. “You feel the sacrifice and the emotions of those who died there. You can’t help but leave feeling moved and changed forever.”

But rally organizers say the site fits their cause, protesting a San Antonio local ordinance they say impinges on firearms rights.

“We’re doing this to show that we’re not going to back down,” said Victoria Montgomery, a spokeswoman for Open Carry Texas, one of the groups behind the event.

The gun groups organized the rally after a confrontation with San Antonio police two months ago. Police threatened to arrest several activists who were carrying their rifles outside a Starbucks.

Texas law prohibits open carrying of handguns but has no similar restriction for long guns. The Texas penal code, however, does bar display of a “deadly weapon in a public place in a manner calculated to alarm.” A San Antonio ordinance restricts firearms in public parks or at political rallies.

“We are going to fight for our rights, and it’s not OK for police to just say whatever they want and make up the rules as they go along,” said Montgomery.

In late September, the gun rights groups got permission to use the Alamo from the Texas Land Commission.

The four-acre historical site downtown includes the small mission church, whose foundation was laid by the Spanish in 1744, other surviving buildings and artifacts including Davy Crockett’s desk. About 2.5 million people visit every year.

From 1905 to 2011, the Daughters of the Republic of Texas organization kept the church sacrosanct from events deemed inappropriate. But the state took control after allegations of mismanagement by the Daughters. The decision on the long gun protest rested with Texas Land Commissioner Jerry Patterson, who as a legislator was known for carrying a pistol in his boot. The Marine veteran is running for lieutenant governor largely on a single-barrel platform of gun rights.

Patterson acknowledged his office had not developed rules on use of the mission. But he said he doesn’t think the restrictions should be extensive.

“Citizens who want to gather and exercise their First Amendment rights, who behave in a lawful manner, I’m not sure we have the lawful authority to say no, even if we wanted to,” he said Wednesday.

As for the long gun rally, Patterson, who as a senator wrote the state’s concealed handgun law, says he plans to explain to San Antonio city attorney afterward that the city’s ordinance is unconstitutional.

San Antonio officials disagree but say they anticipate no problems Saturday. “We are expecting it to be a peaceful gathering and within the limits of the law,” Police Chief William McManus said in an emailed statement.

Not all Alamo devotees object to the gun extravaganza. Stephen Hardin, a professor of history at McMurry University in Abilene, who has written extensively on the Alamo and spoke recently at a symposium sponsored by Patterson’s office, said the site is a natural rallying place.

“Free speech was one of the rights the defenders fought and died for,” Hardin wrote in an email. “Can you think of a better place for Texans to exercise their rights?”

But White, a descendant of George C. Jennings, who manned a cannon in the siege against Mexican General Santa Anna’s forces, sees this as an ominous step.

“You’re setting a precedent here,” she said. “Today it’s a gun rally. What is it going to be next month, next year?”

After leaving the Alamo we headed across the street to the closest entrance to the Riverwalk, a network of walkways along the banks of the San Antonio River beneath the streets of downtown San Antonio.

It is lined by shops and restaurants.

Not quite hungry yet we sat and just people watched for a while.

How cute is the leash for this wiener dog!

The last time we visited the Riverwalk we took a boat ride. We had enjoyed it but decided to skip it this trip.

As we walked along we took a look at all the different menus posted in front of the restaurants.

We ended up eating at the same place we ate the last time we were here-The County Line. We put our name on the waiting list for a Riverside table and sat at the bar to wait. I ordered a Sangria Margareta. It was delicious!

We shared a brisket platter that was very yummy.

Then I did something that is so out of character for me. The couple sitting at the table next to us was getting ready to leave. They had a half of loaf of bread sitting in a basket. I asked the woman if they would mind if we took the rest of the bread. I just couldn’t see the bread going to waste. I thought Monte was going to be embarrassed but he said he wasn’t.