A Week in Castroville, Texas

Landmark Inn State Historic Site

Henry Castro chose this site to build his house, store, stage stop and post office because it was 25 miles or one days wagon ride from San Antonio. On this site, 27 people established this European style village in 1844 and called it Castroville. This state historic site has a number of preserved buildings.

This Carriage House, part of the State Historic Site is now used as a Bed and Breakfast.

San Antonio Missions National Historic Park

This chain of missions established along the San Antonio River in the 1700s is a reminder of one of Spain's most successful attempts to extend their domination north from New Spain (Mexico). The goal of the expansion was to find riches. As the realization of riches faded, the new goal was to spread the Catholic faith among the Indians. The most famous of the missions is Mission San Antonio, commonly called the Alamo. We have visited the Alamo many times, so this time we decided to spend the day visiting the rest of the missions in the National Historic Park. We started at the most northern mission and traveled south.

Mission Concepcion

This is one of the country's oldest original stone churches.

Religious services are still held to this day.

Mission San Jose

The National Historic Park is headquartered at this Mission.

The size of the complex testifies to San Jose's reputation as the "Queen of the Missions."

The altar area was very beautiful.

Mission San Juan Capistrano

 Missions Espada

This southern most mission was originally named San Francisco de la Espada

We had a very beautiful day and enjoyed our travel along the historic Mission Trail. We arrived at our destination, the Lower Rio Grande Valley NWR on November 2 for another season of volunteering.  

 

Hello Texas - We're Back

We arrived back in Texas on October 16.

Canyon, a small town south of Amarillo, was home for a week.

Alibates Flint Quarries National Monument

Fifty miles northeast of Amarillo is the Alibates Flint Quarries National Monument located on the shore of Lake Meredith National Recreation Area. This area is where the Alibates flint was quarried some 13,000 years ago up to 1450 AD. Points made from the Alibates flint were found embedded in skeletons of mammoths unearthed in New Mexico. About a thousand shallow pits where flint was mined dot the National Monument.

Visitor Center and Museum

A one-mile guided nature hike is the only way to see the quarry and is available twice daily.

An example of Alibates Flint

Palo Duro Canyon State Park

We hadn't been to Palo Duro in over 30 years. This is considered the "Grand Canyon of Texas", the second largest canyon in North America. The Palo Duro State Park, opened in 1934, consists of over 27,000 acres. The canyon is approximately 120 miles long, and is 600 to 800 feet deep.

Palo Duro Canyon is home to the musical "TEXAS" which has been performed since 1966.

Pioneer Amphitheater

Carving of Chief Quannah Parker

American Quarter Horse Hall of Fame and Museum in Amarillo

The American Quarter Horse Hall of Fame & Museum showcases the colorful history and modern activities of the world's most popular breed of horse and the people who have played a major role in its history.

As you approach the museum you are surrounded by beautiful larger than life bronze statues.

The entrance hall has a beautiful bronze statue of the ideal American quarter horse.

The Grand Hall is home to plaques of all the Hall of Fame Inductees.

Jack Sisemore RV Museum

We spent over two hours at this most interesting and nostalgic RV museum. All of the RVs were open for viewing inside and were stocked with many interesting camping items we recognized from days gone by such as Coleman coolers, stoves, lanterns, stools, maps and all sorts of related gear.   

This 1948 Flxible Bus was used by the Gornike Family in the Robin Williams Movie "RV"

The inside of the Flxible Bus

This 1975 Itasca was the first Itasca ever built.

This is the world's oldest Airstream, the 1935 Torpedo.

Panhandle Plains Historical Museum

Located on the campus of West Texas A & M University, in Canyon, the Panhandle Plains Museum is the largest history museum in Texas. The museum houses extensive art collections, antique automobiles, geology and rocks, windmills, paleontology, weapons, as well as a Pioneer Town. The town was constructed with some of the actual buildings scaled down to fit inside the museum, including a hotel, blacksmith shop, stables, saloon, log cabin, undertaker, school, jail, bank, and even a Chinese Laundry.  

1931 Pierce Arrow Seven Passenger Sedan

The Panhandle Petroleum Story is one of the permanent exhibits. The displays start with the discovery of oil at Spindletop through modern oil production today.

We spent the entire afternoon at this extensive and well designed Texas museum.

Travel to Texas

Hershey, PA, RV Show

We left Maine on September 13 heading for the Hershey RV Show. This is reported to be the largest RV Show in the country. We spent three days there and didn't see most of it. Our main focus was the Newmar Motorhome area. 

While in Hershey, we stopped at the Hershey Chocolate Factory for a tour, which shared a parking lot with the RV Show. The tour was more like an amusement ride. But was a fun distraction from viewing RVs.

Antietam National Battlefield

Leaving Hershey, we relocated near Gettysburg, PA, to visit with family. One day was spent at the Antietam National Battlefield. We drove the 8 1/2 mile battlefield tour with 11 stops along the way. The twelve hour battle began at dawn on September 17, 1862, just ten months prior to the infamous battle at Gettysburg. Antietam was the bloodiest one day battle of the Civil War. Both sides experienced masses of death and injury.

Antietam National Cemetery

4,776 Union Soldiers are buried here.

Maryland Monument

Observation Tower

View of the Sunken Road (Bloody Lane) viewed from the Observation Tower

Apple Picking with Family

Tractor Ride to the Apple Orchards with daughter and family.

We could eat all we wanted, only paid for the Fuji apples we took home.

Kelly and Kurt gobbling apples.

Perrydell Farm and Dairy

On Saturday we took a day trip with the family to York, PA for a tour of the Perrydell Farm and Dairy. 

The newborn calves enjoyed the attention.

We sampled Perrydell milk and ice cream.

The Haines Shoe House

The shoe house was built in 1948 along side US 30 just north of York, PA. We took a tour of this five story shoe house, built by a shoe salesman named Mahion Haines to promote the work boots he sold.

Summers Farm Fall Festival

On Sunday we drove to Frederick, Maryland, for the Fall Festival. There were rides, corn mazes, zip lines, food and games. It was a fun day at the farm with the kids.

Kelly, Julia and Logan

Daughters Day

Visiting Brian and Laura - Top of White Mountain, North Carolina

Smith Center, Kansas

We had an appointment at the Excel Service Center in Smith Center, Kansas, to have our fifth wheel repaired. Two of the slide floors were replaced and the rear wall was reattached to the floor which had separated due to bad roads, followed by wet weather. We stayed in a local B & B for four nights while the work was being done on our RV. This beautiful house was built in 1883 and served as the county hospital for over 50 years until it was converted into this lovely six bedroom home.

Ingleboro Mansion

We stayed in the green room.

The bedroom slide was removed, while the dinette slide was repaired in place.

Guess we aren't sleeping here tonight.