Bert Gildart: Writer and Photographer

Bert Gildart: We left Bay Bayou early this morning and are now heading west. The night before departing, we visited at length with friends (Tony, Linda, Bob, Nancy, Cathy, Jim, Myra, Jim (another Jim), Gordy, Rose, John) and compared travel notes. Many were interested in our travels last year in Texas and, specifically, the Alamo—and I promised I’d post a few photographs.

RIVER WALK: The Alamo is located in San Antonio, and for a variety of reason, we highly recommend it. For starters, the old mission is within a ten minute drive of an RV park. For another, it is part of the city’s famous River Walk, so the two should be explored together. But you’ll need several days, at least.

Start with a stroll down the River Walk. Romantics like to believe the Paseo del Rio is like a scene from Hemingway’s book, A Moveable Feast, where the renowned author describes many scenes along the Seine River.

They may be correct, for certainly the walk, with the associated San Antonio River coursing along paths of cobblestones and flagstone—through an assortment of quaint shops, elegant boutiques and elaborate restaurants, deserves comparison to some of Europe’s most picturesque settings.

THE ALAMO: At some point your walk will take you near Crockett Street, and this is the time to climb the stairs and walk to the square where the Alamo is located. Spend hours here! Toward the end of the first day, find a restaurant back along the River Walk, and then in the evening, return to the Alamo, at which time history seems to come alive.

The story, of course, is well known: On March 6, 1836, 189 Texans fought General Santa Anna’s soldiers at the Alamo in San Antonio, Texas. Vastly outnumbered, the defenders fought wildly against over 2,000 Mexican troops—holding out for 13 days. But in the end Davy Crockett, Jim Bowie, William Travis and a host of other American heroes were all killed. But they didn’t die easily, rendering nearly 800 of Santa Anna’s crack troops dead in their determined clash.

BATTLE REENACTMENT: That’s history, but the aftermath has inspired Americans for over 170 years, and the battle cry “Remember the Alamo,” has been repeated over and over, not only by Texans, but by so many Americans, for the phrase has been with us in song and word and in movies and TV serials. Certainly some remember the Davy Crockett TV series from the ‘50s in which actor Fess Parker survives the assault to the end. In the final scene of the several year series we see him as Davy Crockett, swinging his emptied rifle, the last to be killed. Such scenes are replayed each spring, and it is worth timing your visit so it coincides with the play recalling the historic event.

“Remember the Alamo.” At times as children playing soldiers on an Army post in New York the phrase was our rallying cry, but certainly more significant is the fact it has been embraced by real soldiers in many conflicts. The cry has a haunting ring, recalling a time when men truly valued freedom more than life.

Plan to spend a week in San Antonio. Five missions were constructed between 1718 and 1720. Appropriately, the first of these was Mission San Antonio de Valero, later to be known as the Alamo. Other missions along the San Antonio River include Concepcion, San Jose, San Juan, and Espada. Missions were constructed in an effort to help Spain with its desire to create a Spanish America. Essentially, that meant Christianizing the Indians.

At any rate we thoroughly enjoyed San Antonio—and other parts of Texas. Big Bend, for instance, is only a four hour drive from Big Bend National Park, and logically, that should be next on your list.

This entry was posted on Monday, February 26th, 2007 at 4:45 am and is filed under Photography, RV Travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.