San Antonio, Texas

San Antonio Mission Trail Ride

It’s been awhile since we’ve posted so here’s a recap. We had plans for quite a long time in the San Antonio and Austin area but we curtailed them and are headed further from population centers and to parks that aren’t closing. Living full time in an rv has added challenges in these times as parks and campgrounds are closing. We are fully self-contained in our trailer. Meaning, we don’t use public bathrooms. In addition, we like social distancing normally; we’re pretty good at it and have been largely isolated for long periods of time this entire last year.

That said, we did have a chance a couple weeks ago to ride the Mission Trail when we were in San Antonio for a few days. Our spot for the week in San Antonio was right by a river path that we were able to ride our bikes on. We rode all the way into downtown one day and visited a few missions. The ride was 28 miles with 964’ of climbing. The path runs right alongside the river and is very green. I didn’t expect it to be so green here!

We visited Mission San José, Mission Concepción, Mission San Juan, Mission Espada, and the Alamo. We weren’t able to go inside, but we walked around outside and enjoyed the beautiful grounds. The complexes were built by Franciscans in the early eighteenth century intent on converting the native Coahuiltecan tribes.

Mission San José

Our favorite mission was probably San Jose, known as the “Queen of the Missions”. This is the largest of the missions and the grounds are amazing. Mission San José y San Miguel de Aguayowas founded by Franciscan missionary Father Antonio Margil de Jesús in 1720. It operated as a Spanish Mission for 104 years and baptized over 2,000 individual Indians.

Mission Concepción

This mission was undergoing some renovations when we rode through, but reading some of the signboards posted around, we were able to learn some history. As part of the Texas Revolution whereby the U.S. wanted Texas free from Mexico, the Texan army sent Legendary Jim Bowie and James Fannin to find a defensible position for a fight. They chose a site about 300 yards west of the gates of Mission Concepcion. The battle on October 28, 1835 resulted in victory for the Texan fighters. A really good book about the Texas Revolution is Sam Houston & the Alamo Avengers by Brian Kilmeade. Both Derek and I read it and enjoyed it.

Downtown San Antonio

Downtown was mostly deserted. We parked our bikes and walked along the deserted Riverwalk. For anyone who hasn’t been here, it’s very cool. There are a series of walkways and paths along the San Antonio river. Restaurants, bars and hotels are stacked allover the place along the banks and normally it would be a zoo. We only saw a handful of people. It was eerie being downtown with hardly anyone else. Again, this was a couple weeks ago, I think the first day that some other states enacted their shelter in place orders.

The Alamo was closed but we were able to see the outside and take pictures. A lot has been written about the Alamo. Again, I’d recommend that book if you’re interested in this history at all. This was the last day we were out and about in San Antonio since it rained the next couple days. We definitely will have to get back down to this area sometime.