Guadalupe State Park and San Antonio, Texas
Thursday, April 14th, 2011April 3rd-7th
We arrived at Guadalupe State Park (in Texas Hill Country) Sunday evening. The park is situated on the Guadalupe River and is a popular weekend destination for locals. We hiked down to the swimming area, a rocky beach on one side with a limestone wall on the other. We waded in to cool off and watched the unusual turkey vultures waiting for the swimmers to leave and hoping to get a bite of their left-over lunch. Back at the campsite, we spent some time on the internet after dinner researching our car problems (see post: Adventures with the car.)
On Monday morning, we drove to the Nissan Dealership in San Antonio to get the gas gauge fixed, had some Tex-Mex for lunch- Fabien had beef fajitas and I had chicken chalupas. Since our day was cut short, we opted to drive up to New Braunfels and Groene rather than visiting San Antonio. We hit the outlet mall to buy new hiking boots and then went to Groene, an old German town on the Guadalupe River that today consists mainly of antique shops, art galleries and the oldest dance hall in Texas. We took advantage of the free samples in one of the shops and tasted all of the varieties of Texas salsa.
On Tuesday, we had our windshield fixed (see again post: Adventures with the car.) We spent the rest of the day in the park, testing out our new backpacking gear. We also took advantage of the river to take out the kayaks. We had to pass a couple of rapids (Class 1)…on foot going up the river and in the kayak coming back down. After a day of outdoor fun,we drove back to Groene on Tuesday night to listen to some live music at the Groene Dance Hall. There was a folk/country band that played a mix of classics and their own stuff. It was a good time and an interesting mix of people from cowboys to military to families and tourists.
Wednesday was an absolutely gorgeous day…we drove in to San Antonio. Our first stop was the Alamo: the most important site in the fight for Texan independence. There isn’t a lot to see today, just the remains of the old mission and some of the fortress walls, but the spirit lives on. Then we took a long walk along the Riverwalk, a beautifully developed area with hotels and restaurants and a nice long walking path. After a picnic in one of the city parks, we went to La Alameda, the Smithsonian affiliated museum on Mexican/San Antonioan culture and learned about the influence of San Antonians in the Mexican Revolution in addition to seeing some interesting Mexican-inspired art. From there we visited El Mercado, a tame version of a Mexican market and then walked back through downtown by the San Fernando cathedral and central square to our car. We drove out the Mission Trail from the Alamo to Mission Concepcion, ruins of one of the Spanish established missions. San Antonio had a great vibe. We almost forget it was a city of 1.5 million until we got stuck in a bumper to bumper traffic jam getting out of the city.
The car was in order; we had our gear; it was time to make our way to a more remote and less urban part of Texas.
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