Moeller Travels: Texas, Von Ormy Oct 30

Alamo River RV Park, Von Ormy, Texas. The park is located just south-west of San Antonio, Texas. The location of the park made it very easy to drive into San Antonio to do all the tourist things.

Von Ormy, Texas

The Alamo river runs through the campground. I tried my hand at fishing this river, but did not have much luck. The dogs really enjoyed walking by the river but they did get a lot of burrs.

Got this Air Force plane landing at Lackland AF Base as we were driving into San Antonio. Every time we would drive into San Antonio we'd see the planes flying low over the freeway.

This building in downtown San Antonio, reminds me of the one in Denver.

This statue in the Alamo Plaza is for all the men that died at the Alamo.

The main entry to the church on the Alamo grounds.

Some of the interior walls on the Alamo.

Just thought this was kind of an interesting picture of a window at the Alamo.

Lots of interesting buildings in downtown San Antonio.

San Fernando Cathedral

Bexar County Courthouse

Boat rides at the river walk are a must. After we walked around for a while we took the river tour. Well worth the $6 charge. The following are a variety of pictures taken along the river walk.

Lila Cockrell Theatre. The mosaic has many thousands of little tiles.

It was right around the Day of the Dead celebration so there were several displays.

Saint Anthony on the river walk in San Antonio.

We ate at Maria Mia's Bistro on the River Walk. It was fabulous.

Marty ordered a shrimp dish and he said it was some of the best shrimp ever.

This picture was taken at the restaurant. At one point a sparrow hopped up onto the table to help himself to a chip.

Kay and I spent the afternoon with Don and Connie Catron at their home in Pleasanton, TX. What a good time we had. Connie fixed South Dakota Chili for supper. Was it ever good, I had two big bowls of it. Connie and I spent a few hours going over a lot of genealogy stuff, while Kay and Don sat in the kitchen talking over our travels. Thank you Don and Connie. Connie and I are somewhat related through the Gruenwald Clan.

Connie's pool

Connie's flower garden and butterflies

I always have to have a flower with a bug in it.

She loves her horses. Both Connie and Don ride a lot.

Supper time.

The mission of Nuestra Senora de la Purisima Concepcion was transferred from east Texas in 1731. The church looks essentially as it did in the mid-1700s as the mission's center of the religious activity. Colorful geometric designs once covered its surface have long faded.

Mission Concepcion.
There are four other mission in the San Antonio area besides the Alamo. One day we drove into town to visit them. We were surprised at how much bigger and more elaborate than the Alamo they were. We only found time to visit two of them but really enjoyed our day.

Kay just loved what remained of the old frescoes on the walls of the missions.

Inside the chapel of the Mission Concepcion.

The main visitor center was at the San Jose Mission.

Artist rendering of the mission.

Main gate to the Mission.

We took a guided tour. Our guide was very knowledgeable on the local history so we learned a lot.

The beautiful Mission San Jose.

This is the Rose window. There are several legends about this window's origins.

The original missions were painted with bright colors and patterns because the Spanish thought that the native people liked and would be attracted by these colors.

Front of the chapel of San Jose mission.

More of the beautiful frescoes.

An example of the colors and patterns they used in the old missions.

Another Day of the Dead display.

One of the stone buttress that hold up the grainary storage building.

Some of the many two room living quarters for the Indian families. Some of the families had as many as 10 -15 people in them. They all lived in one apartment.