Journey of the Old Man

Before leaving the US for Thailand, we paid one last visit to our new friends at the SuTi Distillery in Kennedale.

We brought two bottles of Rượu đế (traditional Vietnamese rice liquor) back with us to Thailand. One - Lion 45 - is for drinking during quarantine, and we've really been enjoying it over these past two weeks!

The other - Old Man - is for a special project. We promised our friends Mr. Sui and Mr. Tien that we would take a photo of this bottle somewhere interesting in Thailand and share it to them on social media. We decided to call this "Journey of the Old Man", and we'll be having one drink from our bottle of Rượu đế on every big adventure we go on this year.

The first picture is from quarantine. It's not super interesting, but it's a start. Stay tuned for the Old Man's Journey as we carry this bottle with us on our travels!

Camp Cooking in Texas

I really enjoy cooking when I am on a camping trip. We made some wonderful meals on my three recent camping trips during my visit home to Texas.

Check out my camping trips HERE:

Dinosaur Valley State Park

Enchanted Rock State Natural Area

Guadalupe River State Park

Pepper Dogs

For lunch at Dinosaur Valley, we decided to try out a recipe for pepper dogs that we had seen online. While the original recipe called for jalapeño peppers to be stuffed with hot dogs and cheese, for some reason, we couldn't find jalapeños at the store! Instead, we used big Anaheim peppers, which we cut in half like a hot dog bun. Inside, we placed a sausage that we had stuffed with cheese, and we roasted them on a grate over a fire.

The pepper dogs turned out really well, but in hindsight, I would have liked to have used some foil, as the outsides of the peppers did get a big charred.

Chorizo Breakfast Hash

The next morning, I rolled out an old favorite from my Thailand camping trips - chorizo hash! Just mix up some chorizo with potato, egg, bell pepper, and seasoning for a wonderful, filling, one-pan breakfast that is super quick and easy to make before a big hike.

Turkey Trail Burgers

At Enchanted Rock, I pulled out an old recipe from my Boy Scout days - trail burgers! We had intended to stop at a Walmart on the way to the state natural area, but because we had taken the tiny state highway instead of the interstate, we actually never passed a supermarket! We had to go to a very rural Family Dollar instead. This recipe required some substitutions as they didn't have any fresh meat or produce! Luckily, we had packed potatoes, onions, and carrots with us, but we were forced to use frozen turkey instead of fresh. That was alright, though, but it did take longer to cook.

Trail burgers are cooked in a foil pouch on hot coals. We used turkey meat, potato, onion, carrots, and lots of cheese to make a sort of foil-pouch cheeseburger. We also topped it with some delicious barbecue sauce. This was always one of my favorite camping meals!

Campfire Cinnamon Rolls

The next morning, we tried something new. We had picked up a roll of those ready-to-bake Pillsbury cinnamon rolls at the store the day before. We didn't have an oven, but we wanted to see if we could toast them on a toasting fork over the flame like a marshmallow. Turns out, you can!

I also tried to make a few in a foil pouch like a little oven. It worked ok, but I think that the toasting fork was the best way to make the cinnamon rolls.

Pesto Sausage Pasta

In Guadalupe River State Park, Pinky decided she would make dinner for us while I tended the fire. We had stopped at HEB in San Marcos before leaving town, and picked up the ingredients for dinner. She made a one-pot dish of pasta with ground Italian sausage, pesto, and tomato topped with cheese. Delicious! We made a lot, and even had leftovers for lunch the next day.

Orange Blueberry Muffins

On our final morning camping, I was super excited to try a recipe I had been wanting to make for a while.

First, we used the biggest oranges we could find at the store. We cut them in half, scooped out and ate the fruit, and filled them up with instant blueberry pancake mix. Then we put the tops of the orange peels back on, wrapped them in foil, and sat them on the hot coals. After about twenty minutes, we had wonderful blueberry muffins that had been cooked in the orange peels and infused with orange oils. 

Spring Branch

The end of our Texas road trip landed on a relatively inauspicious note, yet we were still able to enjoy seeing and doing some new things.

Guadalupe River State Park

Leaving San Antonio, we drove approximately half an hour to the nearby Guadalupe River State Park, arriving just in time to see the park rangers locking up the ranger's station and leaving for the night! I guess they lock up early at Guadalupe River. We were able to catch one of the rangers as she was leaving, and she told us that it would be alright if we go ahead to our campsite as we had already made an online reservation. Interestingly, the park has something of an honor system, where visitors who arrive after the 4pm closing time can still do a sort of self-check-in by filing out a form and dropping cash in a lockbox at the gates.

It was my first time visiting Guadalupe River State Park, and I was impressed! The park had the nicest state park facilities I've ever seen! The bathrooms were immaculate, and even had private, fully-airconditioned shower stalls!

Guadalupe River has tons of hiking and riding trails, but the main feature of the park is, of course, the Guadalupe River itself! In the evening, we took a walk down to the riverside. Although we didn't end up getting in, it was nice to see so many people outside enjoying the sunny day and the cool water.

After dinner, however, things started to go wrong. I was on my way to take a shower, when I took a shortcut through a part of the campsite where they were doing a bit of construction. Not being entirely careful, and trying to make my way in the dark, I accidentally stepped on a nail, which went right through my shoe and into my foot.

Emergency!

It was already dark, and I was stuck in a state park in a part of Texas I had never been to before. The only thing I could do was search on my phone to see if there was any sort of emergency clinic nearby. Fortunately, there was a small private emergency room in nearby Spring Branch, but it was still a decent drive away. Luckily, I had hurt my left foot, so I was still able to drive.

I had to have my wound cleaned, bandaged, and x-rayed to make sure that there were no foreign bodies embedded in the puncture wound. Luckily I had travel insurance (though don't get me started on how confused the little clinic was about using international insurance!).

Fortunately everything was ok, and I was back at the campsite for a campfire by 9pm. Still, it was an awful way of ending what had been a wonderful trip.

St. Joseph's Honey Creek

The next morning, after packing up the campsite, I had to drive back into Spring Branch to get a tetanus shot and pick up my antibiotics at the local HEB. On the way into town, we drove past a tiny old church that looked so beautiful that we decided to stop by and have a look. 

St. Joseph's Honey Creek is a historic Roman Catholic parish just outside of Spring Branch. I have no idea how old the original church building is (a new, modern building was built nearby in a similar architectural style), but if I had to guess, I would think it was well over a hundred years old. Perhaps, it was built by the German pioneers like St. Mary's? Unfortunately, I haven't been able to find much historic information, but the church itself was beautiful!

As upset as I was about having stepped on the nail, I realize that something good can even come out of a disaster. If I hadn't gotten injured, I never would have found this lovely little country church! 

It was a tiny spot of peace in an otherwise hectic day.

San Antonio

We arrived in San Antonio in midafternoon. After visiting the city's huge gothic cathedral, we wanted to try to cram as much of the city's historic old town into one afternoon as possible. We didn't have a lot of time in San Antonio, but we did our best!

El Mercado

We started at Market Square, a historic city market and Works Progress Administration project built in 1938 to replace San Antonio's smaller and older market.

Mexican heritage in San Antonio

Today, the market is divided into two sections: El Mercado and the Farmer's Market. The Market is one of the centers of Mexican-American cultural heritage in the city, and is especially festive during Cinco de Mayo and San Antonio's annual Fiesta.

We weren't in the mood for shopping, but we grabbed a nice cold beer with a salted rim and a slice of lime, then headed off through the sunny afternoon heat to the Spanish Governor's Mansion.

the Spanish Governor's Palace

In all the times that I've visited San Antonio, I don't know if I've ever visited the Governor's Palace before! The palace is an early 18th century relic of the colonial Viceroyalty of New Spain. It is one of the very few palaces in the United States, and the only surviving Spanish colonial mansion in Texas.

the governor's courtyard

Today, the palace is owned by the city, and is open for tours. It's been restored to look very much the way it did in the 1700s, when it was not only the official residence of the Royal Governor, but also the official capital of Spanish Texas as a whole!

inside the palace

The adobe building is made up of ten rooms and a grand courtyard. It's also alleged to be one of the most haunted buildings in San Antonio (but we didn't see any spooky activity!).

In 2018, in honor of San Antonio's tricentennial,  King Felipe VI and Queen Letizia visited the palace on a tour commemorating the Spanish colonial history of Texas, and a modern-day flag of the Kingdom of Spain still flies outside the old palace.

colonial Spanish architecture

Finally, our time in San Antonio running short, we made our way to the River Walk for one of the city's famous guided boat tours. We bought two tickets, hurried to the boat, and started off down the river on a funny and informative guided tour all about the area's history, heritage, and architecture.

two tickets for the boat tour

If you don't have a lot of time in San Antonio, the guided boat rides are the best way to squeeze in as much of the city as you can in a short time. I wish we could have stayed a bit longer (we always seem to be rushing out of the cities on the way to our next adventures), but it was great to spend a bit of time in one of my favorite cities in Texas.

quiet afternoon on the River Walk

San Fernando Cathedral

Leaving San Marcos, we made the short drive south to San Antonio, one of Texas' biggest and most impressive cities. We didn't plan to stay overnight in San Antonio on this trip, but we decided to try to cram as much into a half-day as we could before heading on to to Guadalupe River State Park, where we would camp for the night. As the city's big Gothic cathedral is the central point in the city, and as all of the historical landmarks in the old town were located nearby, it seemed the perfect place to start our afternoon in San Antonio.

San Fernando Cathedral in San Antonio, Texas, the oldest cathedral in the state, serves as the geographic center of the city San Antonio, and played an important role in the Battle of the Alamo. Today, it is the final resting place of the enshrined remains of some of the heroes of the Texas Revolution.

Built in 1731 by immigrants from the Canary Islands and situated literally in the center of San Antonio, the Cathedral of San Fernando marks not only the geographical center of the city, but also the center of the civic and religious life of generations of San Antonio Catholics. The cathedral's ornate baptismal font was a gift from King Charles III, who also helped finance the construction of the cathedral to cater to the spiritual needs of the Spanish immigrants who settled southern Texas and northern Mexico.

The cathedral marks not only the historic, but also the modern geographic center of San Antonio, Texas. Plaques embedded into the floor mark both positions (the city's expansion led to a slightly different "modern" geographic center).

The Cathedral is an impressive building with a large central altar. One of the oldest cathedrals in the United States, San Fernando Cathedral was established in 1738, long before this region of Texas was annexed into the United States of America.

The central altar is beautiful - a multi-story golden shrine filling the entire wall of the altar. It was installed in a major 2011 renovation of the cathedral. When we visited, there were many parishioners sitting quietly in the pews or praying in front of the altar or smaller shrines inside the big, quiet church.

During the Texas Revolution, General Santa Ana raised a "No Quarter" flag from the towers of the cathedral, announcing the beginning of the Siege of the Alamo. At the time, the cathedral became sort of an anti-Alamo - a symbol of Mexican authority over Texas.

Just inside the big, heavy doors of the cathedral, a huge stone coffin stood beneath a set of stained glass windowpanes. Here lies the entombed remains of some of the heroes of the Battle of the Alamo,  namely Davy Crockett, William B. Travis, and Jim Bowie. After the battle of the Alamo, General Santa Ana had the bodies burned in giant pyres outside the cathedral, and ordered the ashes to be buries on the parish grounds.

The cathedral's store features a small museum with relics and artifacts of the region's Catholic history, including a portable Communion set used by itinerant priests during the early Spanish colonial era.