The weather has cooled off before the rains that are coming
this weekend. The Texans are bundled in
their jackets and jeans. We are still in
shorts and sandals. Today we visited two
sites that I found on Trip Advisor. The
first is a museum which has art and artifacts from the American West. There were
saddles and spurs, guns and knives, a Wells Fargo wagon and a chuck wagon, a
tipi, a windmill, sculptures, oils, water colors and photographs. At many of the displays a tablet which played
a video gave more information about the item.
At the chuck wagon a modern day chuck wagon cook talked about his
passion for providing hearty meals for cowboys. Another area had comfortable chairs with
tablets and headphones playing contemporary music of the West.
One of the displays talked about cowboy towns. It pointed out that although TV westerns portray
towns that have all-white citizens; in actuality the town’s populace consisted
of Indians, Mexicans, Afro-Americans, Irish, and Germans. After we left the museum we had lunch
downtown and watched the world go by. It
was clear that San Antonio population is still a rich mix of colors of skin,
languages, and cultures.
After lunch we drove a short distance south from downtown to
the King William Historic District. In
the mid 1800’s the area was known as “Sauerkraut Bend” as many Germans moved
into Texas and settled in the cities.
They built large, impressive houses in many architectural styles. They also built several large breweries. We drove around the neighborhood listening to
descriptions of the homes on a cell phone audio tour. Many of the houses have been beautifully
refurbished as well as many of the old gardens.
It was a great tour.
Tomorrow we pack up to leave San Antonio. It has been great to stay in one place for a
few days, but now it is time to move on.
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