Texas Independence, San Antonio, & Bats!: June 26-29, 2018

Monday night we spent just east of Houston. Tuesday, we woke to clear blue skies, 75 degrees, but still humid. 

Took this small ferry to San Jacinto

We drove to San Jacinto, where The Republic of Texas won its independence from Mexico near the Lynchburg Ferry. There is a massive monument, slightly higher than the Washington Monument here to commemorate the battle between Mexico and Texas. Santa Anna, Governor of Mexico, led part of the battle himself after the Texans lost multiple battles as he thought this would be a rout. Sam Houston, General for the Texan forces bided his time and held off attacking the Mexican forces until just the right time and were victorious, capturing Santa Anna himself. Because he feared for his life, Santa Anna agreed to message his large force only a day away to not advance, thus giving the Texans a clear victory. The Mexican government did not recognize the independence of Texas until Texas became part of the United States and after the Mexican American War. I am sure we learned this history in grade school, but did not remember it and we found it very interesting.

Of course, the Texas star is on top and EVERYWHERE in Texas

There is a small Texas History museum in the base of the Monument

We took the elevator to the top of the monument where all we could see were oil refineries surrounding the east side of Houston.

After a quick lunch in the RV, we headed west around Houston and once beyond its large suburbs, the landscape quickly changed to huge fields of corn and milo and even some rice fields, broken up by grazing cattle.

This bridge near Houston reminded us our bridge in Charleston

We stopped for the night in Gonzales, Texas at a city campground next to a small dam and river that is very low. We learned from the local news that they are 3” below normal rainfall for this time of year. We were entertained by a female cardinal who obviously felt that we were intruding and hopped about our windshield wipers and side mirrors. This campground is heavily shaded and we enjoyed watching the deer feed on the lush grass here – thankful for the shade in the high 90 degree heat.

Campsite among the trees - we were the only ones here!

She was busy until dark telling us we were intruding in her space

Wednesday

Westward to San Antonio – we have already done the River Walk and the Alamo, but I was hoping to visit the arts and crafts historic downtown area called La Vilitta but we could not find anywhere to park. We headed instead south to our campground – 99 degrees and the AC struggled to keep us cool until the sun went down.

Thursday

We headed back into San Antonio, just south of the city to visit the San Antonio Missions National Park. A park ranger gave us a guided tour of the Mission which is an active church and ah historical fort. The Spanish built these in order to try to populate their New Spain with Spanish citizens to protect their territory from the French – not too far away in Louisiana. Few folks from Spain would come, so they decided to convert the indigenous peoples to Catholicism, teach them Spanish and a trade which would make them Spanish citizens. In exchange, the native peoples gained protection from marauding Apaches (who were driven from their native lands) and steady food supply.

There were five missions built in the area, the first being the Alamo that was abandoned at the time the Texans made their stand against the Mexicans. The Alamo is a Texas State Monument. The remaining four missions are run by the National Park Service. We visited only one – San Jose and it was gorgeous. Inside the huge fort were living spaces for families, corner garrisons for military defense, numerous buildings for teaching trades and of course, the church. The Mission owned thousands of acres of land in the surrounding areas, and used irrigation to farm crops along with massive herds of sheep, goats and cows. 

This key is about 2' long!

San Jose Church

The defenses in the corners of the fort.  Bottom holes for canons, top for rifles

San Jose is famous for its Rose Window

Gorgeous Detail on the Rose Window

After lunch in the RV, we headed further west to Kickapoo Caverns State Park. I had called earlier, and the ranger said they were not open until Friday, but she gave us the gate code and said we could stay the night and catch up with her in the morning. This park is 25 miles from the nearest town and the road was narrow and in poor shape. Good thing we called in advance. We found a site and had the entire campground to ourselves. We were here to see the bat flight at dusk. At 8:15, we drove the 2 miles up to the parking area next to the bat cave and watched the swallows darting in and out of the cave where we could see their nests near the entrance. At 8:40, the bats came out in droves – arcing up and away from us forming a long disorganized line of them far up and away. Thousands and thousands – they kept on coming in waves steadily until 9:10. One of the most incredible sights we have seen. Jack took a fabulous slow-motion video and we will try to put it up, but haven't figured it out yet. 

They fly for miles and feed on insects (moths are a favorite) that are in the corn and other crop fields

They fly as high as 10,000'

Friday

We settled up with the office for our private campground and I took a short walk to a viewpoint, but never did find the right trail and settled for a nice walk in the shade through the Texas scrub country.

My walk crossed several of these dry washes

We continued our westward ride through the flat mesquite and cactus lands of southwestern Texas to Del Rio on the Mexican border. Temperatures forecast for over 100 degrees, so we elected to stop at a campground early, plug in the AC, do some laundry and visit the pool.