San Antonio was amazing! We stayed at Travelers World RV Resort which was right on the river walk trail. We spent the first couple of days exploring on our own. We rode our bikes 10 miles round trip, from the RV park to the downtown area along the river trail. Along the way, we saw two ducks killing a hawk in the river. A guy stopped and went out in the river to save the native hawk. We found a nice restaurant in downtown along the river walk, where we sat outside under the trees. The wonderful dinner included a giant cornbread in the shape of Texas and a personal serenade. We rented a 4 door Dodge Charger to accommodate all the visitors, but before they arrived, we took a drive to Corpus Christi to find the beach and check out the area. We drove along the Gulf of Mexico, found a spot for possible future camping and enjoyed a dinner at one of the local restaurants on the water. It was sure nice to drive a real car that actually had some room, and lots of power! We also got in some pickleball. The RV park had only one court, but as always, we met some great folks playing pickleball. However, the highlight of our time in San Antonio was when David’s daughter Jenna, son-in-law Evan and grandbaby Jolie arrived. It was so nice to have them visit. We played games (Jenna got us a great new game, Sequence), we rented two additional bikes and baby trailer and rode the river trail. Jolie really enjoyed her ride in the trailer and Evan did a great job pedaling her around. We all went to The Tower of Americas, which is 750 feet tall (that’s 87 feet taller than the Space Needle for you Washington folks). We could clearly see just how flat Texas is and we could barely stand up in the wind out on the exterior observation deck. Jolie took some of her first steps while she was with us and also got a pair of Texas cowgirl boots. We went to this very large outdoor mall, where there was a place called Tapville. You get a card and then you insert it above the tap of what you want to drink and it charges you by the ounce. There were beers, ciders, seltzers and wine to choose from and you could mix and match. Every mall needs one! We all spent some more time exploring the downtown river walk area together. We really enjoyed having them visit and are looking forward to seeing them again soon. The only bad part was that we all ended up with a nasty cold, they came down with it the day they were leaving and we got it a couple days later. After the family left, we took a guided tour of the Alamo. It was very informative.

Off to the next stop… Beaumont Texas. We did finally get the motorcycle out for a ride. We rode toward the coast and ended up in the town of Port Arthur which was not a nice area. Most everything was abandoned in the 1960’s and 70’s. Port Arthur has several of the largest oil refineries in the country. There have been oil spills, toxic chemical releases and general contamination there for many years. Needless to say, we did not hang out there very long. We did ride over a neat bridge, found a cool veterans memorial, and explored some breweries. We met some really nice folks at a brewery in Beaumont, who told us everything to do and see at our next stop in New Orleans. Thanks for subscribing Mike and Nikki! Hope you enjoy our blog. We did stay an extra day in Beaumont hoping to catch a glimpse of the eclipse (92% coverage) with our new fancy glasses we got on Amazon. The weather had clouds predicted all day but we got a couple of short cloud breaks and saw the eclipse. We attempted to take some pictures by putting the fancy glasses over the camera lens on our phones, but it is not the easiest thing to do.

Finally, the unusual things along the way; dead alligator on the side of the road, tree falling across the freeway right in front of us (thanks to the driver helper Kim for spotting that) and unfortunately a fender bender 1.5 miles before the RV park in New Orleans (more to come on that).