San Antonio, home of the Alamo and the River Walk

Off to San Antonio! A city of almost a million, it sure feels like it when driving into town.  The highway is full, spaghetti overpasses are everywhere, and more  overpasses are being built. This is NOT indicative of the highway traffic we saw!

And we are in TEXAS!

Once into town, in the River Walk area, there is a much less hectic feel - at least in late Jan!  First on my list was the Alamo,  Here is the now Cathedral Alamo, sitting across a wide street in downtown San Antonio.

A little closer.  As with many historical sights and museums, admission is free!

The story of the Battle of the Alamo in 1836 is a sad one.  Texas belonged to Mexico at that time.  Determined to gain their freedom and become The Republic of Texas, a group of about 180 men - civilians, military, and rebels from several nations - gathered in the Alamo to fight off approaching Mexican forces who were determined to put down the rebellion once and for all.  Eventually a total of about 180 men fought for almost 2 weeks against General Santa Anna and his 5400 troops. Lt. Colonel William Travis, frontiersman Jim Bowie (the Bowie knife guy...), and former congressman and frontiersman Davy Crockett led the TX resistance at the Alamo.  Hoping for reinforcements that never came, the "heroes at the Alamo" fought until the last man was either killed or executed .The building has been many things since then, including the current status as a cathedral.

Here is a very comprehensive article about the Battle of the Alamo, events leading up to it, and the eventual capture of General Santa Anna by Sam Houston.  Santa Anna agreed to give TX its freedom in exchange for his life.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Alamo

No photos are allowed inside the Alamo Cathedral, but here is a stock photo.

Although the Alamo is now surrounded by city, the original compound  has been converted into a nice little park secured by the original walls.  The back of the Alamo

The walled area along the side with one of the large Live Oak trees.

It was a dreary and chilly day, but we still opted for the  narrated electric riverboat ride on the San Antonio River in the River Walk area. The area has always had aqua-ducts and flow control, but after the September flood of 1921 that put San Antonio under 2-10 feet of water, killing at least 50,  the Olso Dam was build.  Cutoff channels were still needed.  In 1929 visionary architect Robert H.H. Hugman designed a floodgate at the north end of the Great Bend in the river and an adjustable weir at the south end, completely isolating the river area in town from flooding.  Commercial development could be done at the river level.  Funding was secured after years of debates and the Great Depression. In 1939 the work was begun for the river walk.

Here is a picture of the cute little boats.

It is a nice walking area.

We walked a bit and had lunch before we took our 35 minute ride.  Do you think the ducks here are accustomed to being fed???  He came paddling eagerly over to us.

Our ride took us past town

restaurants

and the second tallest observation tower in the US, The Tower of The Americas.

One last visit for our day in San Antonio was a visit to the San Fernando Cathedral.  Built in 1749, this is the first church built in San Antonio, the oldest standing church in TX, and one of the oldest cathedrals in the US.

It is very beautiful inside.

Most interesting to me is the fact that the ashes of Travis, Bowie, and Crockett are interned here, along with the ashes of the others who died in the Battle of the Alamo.

Home in the rush hour traffic and ready for a quiet day in the rain.  It was relatively quiet until a piece of tooth filling appeared....The amazing dentist in small town Blanco saw me as quickly as I could get there, about 15 minutes.  A crown.  Another crown.... But this facility is totally high tech, has a 3D printer that makes the crown, and the entire ordeal is done in 3 hours, not 3 weeks!  So, a little moving around of campground dates - always fun - and we will be here until Monday noon-ish when the procedure is finished.  We will head towards Marathon TX and the Big Bend National Park next!

Leaving Fontainbleau SP and exploring the Lake Charles area

On our last day at Mandeville we explored the park a bit.  They have about a dozen very nice cottages, literally overlooking the water.

The picnic area of the park is huge (the park itself is 2800 acres!) and makes up most of the park.  Massive live oak trees, dripping with Spanish moss, dominate the park.

Nice walks take you out to the swamp area.  This isn't solid ground under our boardwalk - these are floating swamp grasses.

We drove to one of the large parking lots in the park to hook up the car to the RV on the morning of our departure.  We barely made it under the trees!

Our next stop was Sam Houston Jones SP at Lake Charles, a mere 200 miles westward. 

Lots and lots of swamp and Cyprus trees here.

I love the Cyprus tree knees.  We are familiar with them from the Dismal Swamp in NC.

A nice boardwalk gives great views of the swampy area.

The park also has a boat ramp.

Today was sight-seeing in the area.  First to Lake Charles.  A stop at the Visitor Center got us a good agenda.  Luke tried to go "Mardi Gras", but just wasn't quite dressed for the occassion.

The Civic Center has a beautiful waterfront park. We liked this sculpture.

Across the lake you can see the business end of Lake Charles, the oil refineries.

The Carpentier Historic District is a 40 block area of the old houses in Lake Charles.  The collection of diverse architecture is amazing.  These homes go from small and simple

to medium and a bit Victorian

to large and very impressive!

The Town Hall, at the far end of the district, is a work of architecture itself.

We had to see the 375+ year old Sallier Oak.  Not only is the oak unbelievably large, it also comes with it's own ghost stories and sordid gossip. Strange lights like flashes from muzzle flares of derringers are reported to be seen at the tree, a known site of several duels.  Also, it seems that Charles Sallier (yes, the Charles of Lake Charles) had a young second wife who was caught under the tree with the pirate Jean Lafitte!  Charles had a fit of rage, shot her, and ran.  She lived because the bullet hit an amethyst broach she was wearing.  The story goes that the chastened Charles forgave here and ultimately had 6 children with her. 

We drove to Sulphur next. Ready for lunch, we researched for a "real" Cajun dinner - found one!

We shared a shrimp basket but the highlight of the meal was the appetizer course.   Luke tried a Boudin ball.  That is a rice and sausage filled ball that is deep fried.  ugh.  He said it was ok but ate only 1/2 of it.  "I" had a pistolette roll with crayfish etouffee! THAT was perfect!  Luke had 1/2 of it.  Had we know how good it would be, we would have simply both had crayfish etouffee for lunch!

As you might imagine, Sulphur was founded on the sulphur mining business.  The Brimstone Museum chronicles the history of the city and of sulphur mining.  The best thing they have is an O gauge railway set up to show both the mining and business sides of town.

and town

The sulphur mining business was an expensive, time consuming, and deadly one until Mr. Fresch came to town, bought 1/2 of the defunct sulphur mining concern, and introduced his new process for extracting sulphur in huge blocks. After a few years of getting it right, he was unimaginably successful.   His  backers literally made $30,000 per day in the 1920's!  Here is a short description of the system.

Sulphur  mining has now gone and the new industry is the oil business.  These aerial views of Lake Charles show the expansive oil refinery buildings.

A 37 mile drive down the Creole Nature Trail (route LA27) bought us to the Gulf Coast.  This is the first time either of us has seen the Gulf Coast.  We could see refineries in the distance as we approached

The Gulf Coast beaches (at least in this area of Holly Beach) are wide and white, with bright cottages high on stilts.

In the far distance you can spot some of the oil rigs.  Not great pictures due to the distance, but you can still make them out.

On our way back to Lake Charles, we stopped at the Wetland Waterway in the Sabine National Wildlife Refuge.  A combination of concrete walkway and boardwalk gave us a nice 1 1/2 mile saunter along the marsh.  

This area is touted as a superb birding region, right along a major migration path.  But this isn't the right time of the year and we saw only a very few large herons and a few ducks. 

The shrimping boats were in by the time we headed back north.

As we drove over one high bridge, we could see an enormous barge heading out to sea.

Back just a little after dark, around 6:30.  Tomorrow we will go to San Antonio! 

The Plantations of Louisiana

After  tales from the LA State Visitor Center of the beautiful plantations about 90 miles from our campground, plus the assurance that you can tour all of the grounds for free and pay only if you want to tour the house, we set off to wander the lovely grounds of the plantations. 

First stop was Laura's Creole Plantation.  Born in the south, the camellia is one of my favorite flowers in bloom.  This blossom is getting a bit worn, but still beautiful.

A fountain was made from a large metal container.  We saw this same container at several of the plantations and have no idea what it's original use was.

SO. We were terribly disappointed to learn that each plantation costs $25 each to even enter the grounds. $50 at 4 plantations - we are just not that much into plantations!  Here is a stock picture of the plantation plus a link to it's history.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laura_Plantation

A bit of info from the link -

In the years before the American Civil War, the slave quarters included a slave infirmary, 69 cabins, communal kitchens, and several water wells located along the road. Each slave cabin was occupied by two families, as duplex units sharing a central double fireplace. Near each cabin was a vegetable garden plus a chicken coop and/or pigpen.^[6] By the time of the Civil War there were 186 slaves working the farm. The DuParc Plantation exported indigo, rice, pecans, and sugar cane.

 Also, a piece of trivia - the parents and family of Fats Domino once lived on the plantation!

Our next stop was Oak Alley Plantation.  This was a sugar cane plantation and the owner the richest man in the south  in the mid 1800's. Again, a stock photo of the house.

The grass is NOT that green in Jan! :-)

Luke got a nice shot of the canopy of oak trees.

A walkway outside of the plantation grounds goes to the gift shop and restaurant.  From there we got a picture of the replica slave houses.

Ah ha! at least one mission accomplished...

For more info on Oak Alley Plantation -

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oak_Alley_Plantation

To get to our last plantation,we crossed back across the Mississippi River. 

Barges upon barges were on the river, huge groups of them ready to be taken to their destination.

 We were amazed at the continuous line of industrial facilities along the river, each with the capability of funneling products over (across) the road and into the waiting barges on the river.  This is a bauxite and alumina processing plant.

The largest plant here is Marathon.  The company has actually bought the land of the last plantation.  They care for everything except the actual house for which they prefer to have no liability.  The plantation is a  small enclave completely surrounded by a farm of oil tanks.  We  got a picture of the house from outside of the fenced property.

And again, for more info

 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Francisco_Plantation_House

We managed to get back before dark for a change so we drove out to the actual park rather than the campground.  This proud guy stood watch high in his tree.

And lots and lots of deer.  LOTS.  They seem to know that humans pose no danger and probably have food.

This morning has been spent trying to fix things.  I hate fixing things.  Luke adjusted our brake system that connects the car to the RV, is currently trying to get the DirecTV system to work while talking to customer service, found the problem with our leaking shower head, but has not been able to get our water heater to make hot water, just sorta warm.  That is a major problem.  Oh, and our recently replaced bathroom faucet leaks (spews...)--- reminds us of the boat! But we do plan to spend the afternoon in the park while it is sunny and relatively warm (57).  Tomorrow we will leave for Lake Charles for three nights.