Week ending Jan 28, 2016 Victoria and Hondo

Friday after our weekly skype visit with Mom and Dad, we visited Fannin Battlefield  Historic site which commemorates the Battle of Coleto Creek, a battle of the  Texas Revolution, fought on March 19 and 20, 1836 between Texian forces commanded by Col. James W Fannin and the Mexican Army commanded by Mexican General Jose de Urrea.   Fannin was heavily outnumbered and eventually surrendered to the Mexican Army, expecting his troop to be treated as prisoners of war.  However, he and his troops were executed several days later at nearby Presidio La Bahia.  The site has a well-done display covering Texas independence events starting from 1810 through 1848 when the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo was signed.  This treaty settled the border between the USA and Mexico.

Saturday we visited The Museum of the Coastal Bend  which showcases the rich multi-cultural heritage Texas' mid-coastal region. The museum's purpose is to collect, preserve, exhibit, interpret, and educate using the history and heritage of the region. This  interesting museum is located on  the campus of the Victoria College. It covered indigenous people of the area with information on how they lived, including a replica atlatl which kids could try out to see how it worked.  Atlatl is word from an native language in Mexico.  

It also covered the expedition of La Salle, who tried to create a French settlement in the area near here that would have access to the Mississippi Valley, and aid France  to control the river and connect to the French settlements on the St. Lawrence in Canada.   There was a temporary display on birds of the area, including the whooping cranes.

After our visit to the museum we went to Riverside park were we enjoyed the parks trail along the  Guadalupe River.  We saw a pileated woodpecker trying to get insects out of a utility pole.  

There was a historical marker about Margaret Wright, the "Mother of Texas".  She aided Texas soldiers, supplying their needs as they hid from the Mexican Army.   She also had the first recorded divorce in Texas, as she believed her second husband killed her son from her first marriage over a land dispute.

Sunday we went to the Aransas National Wildlife Refuge which is situated on the Texas Gulf coast along San Antonio Bay.  The 70,504 acres of the Refuge are host to an exotic array of wildlife, including  alligators, javelina (collared peccary),  snakes, bobcats and is the winter habitat of the whooping cranes. We only saw deer, alligators and although whooping cranes had been seen on Saturday they were not to be seem on Sunday.

We also completed 4 trails throughout the refuge, one of them to the Big Tree, sprouted around 1540, around when Francisco Coronado headed into northern Mexico searching for Eldorado.

Big Tree

Cardinal

 We also saw a cute little duck, diving for food in a swamp. 

Monday was moving day.  Our destination was Hondo, a town recommended to us by some Texas residents we had visited with 3 years ago on our way to the Yukon. We arrived at The Quiet Texas RV park, got set up. When we mentioned this to our hosts,  they didn't know why they would recommend it. We couldn't remember why the people had recommended it to us, but figure maybe because it is close to San Antonio??

Tuesday we headed into San Antonio to an  RV dealer to pick up a new Teflon plate for our the goose-neck on the trailer.  We stopped at  Laz-y Boy to check out some chairs we are thinking about. Then we returned to the trailer in time to watch tennis.


Wednesday was chores day.  Joan did laundry, John did windows and the monthly check of the generator by running it for a short while. After lunch Joan went for a haircut.

On Thursday morning, which started out around the freezing mark, we packed up and headed north-west to Garner State Park, near Leakey, Texas.   By the time we got setup, it was 25C.  We had been planning to go a bit further north to South LLano State Park, but were checking out where to stop for a half-way break, and discovered Garner.  It is supposed to be the most visited Texas state park.    After we got all set-up, then started to do the blog.  Our t-mobile hotspot didn't work, because there isn't any coverage in this area.  In fact, we won't see any more coverage until we get to El Paso.    The wi-fi at the park office was too slow to post a blog, so we headed 10 miles north to the library in Leakey.