Thursday morning, although it was still drizzling, temperatures were in the mid-30s so we decided the risk of icy roads was minimal. We pulled out of the Gone Fishin’ RV Park around 8:30 and headed for San Antonio. Roads were wet but safe all the way into San Antonio, where our first stop was Mission San Jose, which is also the site of the San Antonio Missions National Historical Park Visitors’ Center. We already visited the San Antonio Missions in 2016 when we were driving home to Belize, and had ended up spending three days in San Antonio because we were having so much fun visiting all the missions and walking on the Riverwalk. So, we didn’t feel like we needed to do the whole Missions trail, but wanted to check out the Visitors’ Center and take the dogs for a walk on the Riverwalk at the southern end of the trail.
The San Jose Mission is having a little work done.
The Riverwalk trail was a little chilly, but it’s wide open so we were able to move along and keep ourselves warm.
We walked to and around this dam, which keeps the San Antonio River levels up in the city. The river was a lot higher than it was when we visited in 2016, when it was barely a trickle.
After our chilly walk on the Riverwalk, we went to a nearby Walmart to stock up for the three nights we’d booked at the Lake Casa Blanca International State Park in Laredo. Shopping was successful, except for the fact that shelves of the staples had been picked bare by people preparing for the storm, and the egg shelf was completely empty. We had flashbacks to store shelves in Upstate New York when a snow storm was predicted. But, we figured we could get eggs along the way (which we did), so we got on I-35 to get to Laredo as quickly as possible.
Driving on the interstates isn’t ideal for us since the big trucks and busses push us around, but it’s faster than the blue highways, and we wanted to get to the state park before it closed. The worst hazard was one semi that had sheets of ice sliding off the back and smashing in the road, but Tom pushed the speed limit and we passed without any incidents. We found the park and pulled in around 4:30, just as the sun appeared. We set up camp in record time so that we could hang all of our wet stuff out to dry.
Driving on the interstates isn’t ideal for us since the big trucks and busses push us around, but it’s faster than the blue highways, and we wanted to get to the state park before it closed. The worst hazard was one semi that had sheets of ice sliding off the back and smashing in the road, but Tom pushed the speed limit and we passed without any incidents. We found the park and pulled in around 4:30, just as the sun appeared. We set up camp in record time so that we could hang all of our wet stuff out to dry.
The campground is wide open, and every site has a covered picnic table.
It didn’t take us long to string lines and hang our damp stuff out to dry under the roof.
Ty and Feetz were happy to be able to look out the screen door when it was dry and warm enough to open up the camper.
It was nice to see a sunset after days of clouds and rain.
We’re booked here until Sunday morning, when we plan to head to the Seminole Canyon State Park & Historic Site, which is on our way to Big Bend National Park. Lake Casa Blanca SP has a beautiful lake and some hiking trails, and we plan to go into Laredo and look across the river at Mexico. With the nasty weather, we’ve considered just crossing the bridge into Mexico for a month or so until it warms up, but the complications of three vehicles and four animals are making us think it’s not worth the time and expense and we will continue on our loosely planned path.