Our Nest on Wheels

Five Missions and a Riverwalk

We don't always immediately post about places that we visited. So our posts, when we do remember to write them, are often out of chronological order. We hope you don't mind. I (Steve) was looking at our blog recently and realized that while we had traveled from Florida across the south to Arizona, we hadn't written about any of the places that we'd seen. We skipped right over New Orleans, all of Texas, Carlsbad Caverns, and Las Cruces. I'll address one of these now with some thoughts about San Antonio.

San Antonio is famous for a few things, most notably the Alamo and the Riverwalk. The Alamo was a Spanish mission, one of many that dotted the southwest. The missions were typically spaced one day's walk apart, and so San Antonio actually has five missions. We stayed in an RV park that was located on the Riverwalk, between a couple missions and about five miles from the Alamo. The Riverwalk extends way beyond the downtown area as a bike and walking path along the river. We could have ridden our bikes right into the downtown area, but as securing bikes is challenging, we opted to ride the city bus that stopped right in front of our park.

The fvie missions are the Alamo (Mission San Antonio de Valero), Mission Concepcion, Mission San Jose, Mission San Juan, and Mission Espada. Mission Concepcion, pictured above, is probably the prettiest of the group. The interior is nicely maintained, and it has a large lawn in front of it.

The missions are all still active congregations, so while the sites are part of the National Park Service, the insides are taken care of by the local congregation. It makes for an interesting mix.

Mission San Jose is the most complete - with most of the grounds intact. These grounds included sleeping quarters for the residents, workshops, storage for foodstuffs, and a wall to enclose the entire compound.

The Spanish were looking to populate the new world that they had claimed, and the quickest way to accomplish this was to convert the local Native population. Finding food in the desert southwest can be challenging at certain times of the year, particularly for hunter/gatherer groups. The Spanish brought agriculture, food storage, tool making, and other technologies that enabled the missions to have a steady food supply. This made it relatively easy to recruit local people to work in the missions. In exchange for pledging their allegiance to the king of Spain, adopting the Catholic religion, giving up their culture, and agreeing to work for the mission, they got three meals a day and a place to live. Mission San Jose does a good job of showing a glimpse of what that life might have been like.

The other two missions are fairly small, and the buildings aren't open much for visiting, but they are worth stopping by if you have the time.

The Riverwalk is a quite a contrast to the missions. The missions, with the exception of the Alamo, were not crowded with tourists when we were there, and were quite serene peaceful places that gave us a view of our history. The Riverwalk is all about commerce, with lots of restaurants, cafes, shops, and hotels. There is history there about controlling the flooding that used to occur. You'll learn it best from a boat tour. The best way to see the Riverwalk is to not walk, as there are tourists jammed everywhere. Ride the boats that ply the waters of the river and you'll have a more enjoyable time.

Here's Steve enjoying his first senior discount.

We enjoyed San Antonio. We were there only four nights, so I'm sure that there is much more to see. But we'll have to save that for another day.

--Steve

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, by Steve and Jane Vogel

Arizona

Big Hole in the Ground

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, by Steve and Jane Vogel

by Steve

Deep Dive into History

by Steve

One of the benefits of this mobile lifestyle is that we can spend however much time we want in any one place. In one sense, it's a bit like we are always on vacation. We're going new places and seeing new things all the time. But in another sense, it's not. We're just living in different places, and much like the people who already live there, we don't go out and sight-see every day.

Capitol Building

When we initially thought about doing this, we thought about living for a month or so at a time in different locations to see how we might like to live there. That way we could get a feel for the place in a way that you don't get in just a one-week stay. But you can't stay for a month at every stop or you'd never get anywhere. We've been on the road for 10 months now, and have been in over 40 different locations. That's an average of about 7 days in any given spot. But we have managed to stay for a month in a few places, including Door County, Wisconsin; Williamsburg, Virginia; and Cedar Key, Florida.

Governor's Palace

Our second month-long stay was in Williamsburg, home to Colonial Williamsburg, the largest living history museum in the US. We've been to Williamsburg before, when our children were very young—like 3 and 6. That was 20 years ago or so. We have good friends and relatives who live there, so we decided on a return visit as we worked our way down the east coast in the fall. We spent the month of November there, so we could do a deep dive into experiencing the full history of the place—the kind of deep dive that you can't do with a 3-year-old.

Young James Madison

If you've never been to Colonial Williamsburg, consider this strong urging to go. Spend some time there, like a week or more. There probably are a lot of people who spend one day, see many of the major historical buildings, and learn a thing or two about our country's history. But to really appreciate it, you need to commit some time. As a living history museum, it is populated with characters who once lived there. You may encounter Thomas Jefferson, George Washington, or General Lafayette among the more famous residents. But you'll also meet the printer, the blacksmith, the milliner, and the tavern keeper. All of them will be fully in character, and generally won't step out of character. On any given day, there may be as many as 700 people working in CW, and at least 300 will be specific characters.

The Marquis de Lafayette

While there are lots of interesting historical buildings in CW, they don't tell too much of a story. It's the people that bring the place alive. Each of these actors playing a character knows a wealth of history about their character—much more than you can imagine. They are basically historians, with detailed knowledge about the person that they portray, dedicating time each week to continuing their research on their character. This is where the gift of having as much time as you want comes in. To fully benefit from the experience, you need to engage the characters, and through asking questions you can learn so much more than a casual brief visit will garner.

Printer Alexander Purdie

But remember that while these are actors, they will stay in character. So don't ask questions about current events, as they will have no knowledge of them. We heard people ask Thomas Jefferson what he thought about President Obama. Of course, he didn't know what on earth the question was even about. And try to use period appropriate language. I remember one adult asking George Washington if he did become president, whom he would like to see in his cabinet. Washington responded that he could not think of any person whom he would want to put inside a piece of furniture. (The term "cabinet" to refer to secretaries of executive departments was first used by James Madison in 1793.) And don't call him General Washington when he's only a major. (Insider tip: You can tell by the color of his hair: brown is Major; white is General.) If you're a young child the actor portraying the character will likely help you along with your question, so you learn in the process.

George Washington (and Jane's cousin-in-law)

And that's really what history is all about, isn't it? Learning from the past to enlighten our view of the future. If you take the time, there's so much to learn, see and do. If you play your cards right and nobody else is looking, you may get to try your hand at working at a historical craft.Here Jane learns that creating a book was a little more involved in the past.