After successful rides to Alaska and Nova Scotia, plus numerous other shorter rides and daily commuting for a while, I decided that my trusty DL-650 deserved a fitting retirement, plus it was time to make some room in my landlord’s garage. Actually, I was thinking about selling the bike after I got back from Alaska and my GSX-650F looked more promising, but the recession killed that idea. I held on to the V-Strom and it ended up being my mount to Nova Scotia since the GSX wasn’t ready at the time. These days when I’m not commuting by bike, taking care of three bikes was getting to be a bit much. My first cousin, once removed, Ronnie, in San Antonio was interested in the bike so I figured I’d give it to him after riding it out there. With 45,000+ miles and the wear from long trips, I figured it would be a hassle to try to sell it, plus the bike market was still soft.
Preparation consisted of an oil change and cleaning the K&N air filter. Fortunately I still had my K&N cleaning supplies lying around, although I did have to look up the instructions on the internet. I’d put in iridium plugs a while back so I didn’t worry about that. They seem to go forever. I decided not to strip anything important off the bike, leaving the Givi racks and bags on the bike. When I tried to get the pink-slip out of my Sentry keypad safe, I found the safe uncooperative (which will be another blog) so I had to order a replacement from AAA and plan on sending it later by certified mail. I also couldn’t find the original suspension links, which I had replaced with lowering links. Oh well, I figured I’d worry about that after I got back in case Ronnie wanted them (he’s quite a bit taller than I am.)
I decided to go on this trip in March since we’d been having this abnormally warm weather and it fitted in with my work schedule. I started making plan for side trips to placed like Gila Cliffs and Carlsbad Caverns, but then I realized I’d better not fool around since it was still March and the weather could change. Turned out to be a good idea. Getting out the door suffered a small setback when I realized my GPS couldn’t figure out how to get to Blythe and I had to head back to swipe the unit on my GSX. Better than the start of my trip to Nova Scotia when I headlights went out near sundown.
The first stage of the trip was a short one to Blythe on Sunday afternoon since I wanted to take my psychotic dog for a walk in the morning. No problem, just like the next day to Phoenix where I visited the Desert Botanical Garden, which was pretty nice:
http://ikemi.info/graphics4/DesertBotanicalGarden/index.html
I had a quick beer at Copper Canyon Brewing and Alehouse in Chandler and then headed to Tucson where I had dinner at Gentle Ben’s. This was the first time back at this brewpub since my bike trip to Arizona when I was recovering from pneumonia. I think there had been a fire since then, but I didn’t recognize anything. Tough parking since it’s near the university and on a street with a lot of shops, but I lucked out. Good beer and I liked the fish tacos. After that I still had some time so I caught a movie at a theater (Arriety, if you want to know).
The next day was a leg to El Paso. Started to hit some winds and the signs warning about zero visibility during dust storms made me nervous. I stopped in Lordsburg for gas and I noticed that my GPS said there was county museum in town. I had heard that my grandfather may have been imprisoned there during World War II since he was a Japanese American community leader when that was a crime according to the Department of Justice. I found the museum and the lady there was very helpful. It turned out they had a special section on the Japanese American internment, plus the Italian and German POW camps that followed.
http://ikemi.info/graphics4/Lordsburg/index.html
I also learned that Interstate 10 was going to be closed the next day due to high winds, so I decided I’d better get moving to El Paso.
When I got to El Paso I saw that east of the town there were huge dust clouds. I figured I might as well not worry about that and look for dinner. I stopped a Jaxxon, another brewpub. Like the brewpub in Chandler, this one wasn’t in the Celebrator, which is causing me to lose faith in it. Although the place looked huge and commercial, the beer and food were both good. After that I headed for my Motel 6 on the outskirts of town.
The next day the skies were clear and I took off for Junction. I hit some high winds, but none as bad as the ones I had encountered in Kansas on my way to Nova Scotia. I was pretty lucky. No brewpubs in Junction but the Mexican restaurant I found wasn’t bad and there were some cowboys at a table who looked like they had just come off a movie set. The Motel 6 was interesting since it looked it had higher class aspirations at one time.
From Junction I headed toward Fredericksburg which finally took me off I-10 and onto some nice roads with some scenery. As the weatherman had predicted the weather was starting to turn and a cold front was coming in, but I was able to walk around without an umbrella. I visited the Nimitz Museum which includes a Japanese garden. The museum is pretty extensive and requires some time, and there is an annex a couple of blocks away that is only accessible by a guided tour. The tone of the museum is fairly objective and even handed. There is even a section on the evacuation of the Japanese Americans. After the museum I walked down the main street and even tried some wine tasting. Dinner was at the Fredericksburg Brewing Company. After that I headed in the deteriorating weather for the Motel 6 in downtown San Antonio. Photos from Fredericksburg:
http://ikemi.info/graphics4/Fredericksburg/index.html
Motel 6 let me leave my bike in their parking lot and I headed off for the Central Square and the Riverwalk. From my first trip to London I learned to always carry an umbrella, even on a motorcycle, and it came in handy during my first two days in San Antonio. Leaving the Motel 6 near I-35 and Commerce Street I encountered Millam Park which a gazebo and a number of Plaques. Then it was the Main Plaza which was remodeled in 2008 with fountains. San Fernando Cathedral faces the plaza and is the resting place of some of the defenders of the Alamo. Beyond the plaza you encounter the Riverwalk. The Riverwalk actually lives up to its hype, even in a pouring rain. Fortunately I also had waterproof pants and a jacket as part of my riding gear, so I survived the rain pretty well. I was mainly exploring the loop downtown. On my last day walked the southern leg, but I’ll get there. The central loop has a high density of restaurants along some stretches, but also a lot of flourishes such as fountains and landscaping and stairways up to the topside world. In general the Riverwalk is 1-2 stories below street level so you usually don’t see the surrounding area from it. I exited at the eastern side near HemisFair park and took a walk to the Tower of the Americas and paid for the ride up to the top. There wasn’t that much to see since the top was in the clouds and there was a fierce wind if you stepped outside.
I walked back along the Riverwalk and then by the surface streets back to my bike. Along the way I found the VIA (local rapid transit system) and bought a couple of all day bus passes. I still had some time so I rode over to the San Antonio Art Museum which is in a building that was once a brewery. Again, it’s right on the Riverwalk if you walk out the back doors. Unfortunately, the museum cafe was closed since they were preparing for a private event. It was a worthwhile museum to visit. As far as I know it and the McNay are the major art museums for San Antonio.
http://ikemi.info/graphics4/Riverwalk/index.html
The next day I visited the McNay art museum, using public transportation to get there. I picked the right day to go there since right after I arrived it really poured. A perfect museum day, and it was a good museum to visit, albeit without food service. They did say that they had discounts at restaurants in the area, but I wasn’t wandering around on that kind of a day. I made do with a vending machine, but it was a good museum so I didn’t mind. Upstairs they had a video on the founder of the museum, a four time married very rich free spirit. Anyway, San Antonio has good museum resources. By the time to leave, it had cleared up so I had a chance to wander around their art gardens. Don’t miss the big head, although it is kind of hard to miss. They also had a kind of Asian garden on the grounds, which seem to be fairly large, although not all landscaped.
http://ikemi.info/graphics4/McNay/index.html
Public transportation wasn’t too bad with the 3G iPad. I had foolishly blown my budget with the Verizon 4g Mobile Hotspot, so I had reactivated the AT&T 3G. With the iPad I could view the VIA bus route maps and get the timetables, which are critical on the outskirts of town on weekends since the buses come by as infrequently as once per hour.
The next day I took VIA to teethe Botanic Gardens. After getting to the general area and after a little confusion I figured how to get on the special tourist line bus which goes to a lot of the major attractions in or near the downtown area. The bus was a good idea since from the map it wasn’t clear where the entrance was. The garden is fairly extensive and a fun place to wander around, from the trademark glass tower greenhouse to the old homesteads and pond. There was a cafe but it was too early so I walked on over to the Witte Museum.
http://ikemi.info/graphics4/SanAntonioBotanicGarden/index.html
The Witte Musuem doesn’t seem to be that great for adults, but their special Darwin exhibit was worth the visit. It was fairly in depth and I learned a few thing about the Darwin family and their relations, as well as the voyage of the Beagle and Darwin’s hesitation to publish. The museum on the edge of the vey large Brackenridge Park which nature walks and a train going through it, as well as the city zoo.
http://ikemi.info/graphics4/WitteMuseum/index.html
From the Witte I walked over to the San Antonio Japanese Garden, which was developed from a former rock quarry. It seems to have had a history similar to the Japanese garden in San Francisco. Developed as a sort of tourist attraction, but with the help of a real Japanese, it flourished until World War II when it was renamed a Chinese Garden. Finally, in modern times it was renamed a Japanese Garden and has gone through significant restoration. It doesn’t look like any Japanese garden I had seen before but it does have a very dramatic look since it is built deep into the former quarry. I had lunch in the guest house, but I can’t recommend the food there. Still, it was a pleasant place to relax after all the walking I had been doing. Al long as you’re on the San Antonio tourist trail, the garden is definitely worth a visit and is a reminder of historical misguided prejudice and redemption.
http://ikemi.info/graphics4/JapaneseGardenSanAntonio/index.html
My finally day in San Antonio I relocated back to the Motel 6 downtown. I had to catch the Amtrak out the next day at 5:40AM so I wanted to be near the train station. Ronnie was going in to the city to drop his son off at a soccer camp so I was able to be dropped off downtown near the VIA ticket office so I could pick up another all day pass. The motel allowed me to check in early so I was able to drop off my stuff. I took the bus over to the train station. There is a nice big train station, but trains don’t stop there anymore. It’s mainly a venue for restaurants and performances now. A security guard showed me where the real train station is. It was around the corner in a small nondescript building and it was closed. I found out that it only opens at night. It was a good thing I had scouted out the location since in the early morning I probably would have freaked out.
I had a couple of candidates for things to do, but I decided to explore the mission trail which is south of town. The bus goes to at least three of the four missions so I decided to make use of my all day pass. Concepcion is the first one you hit as you go south, and they tell me the only way that was preserved without restoration. It is still an operating church. There is a small visitors office and I was in time to join a tour. I learned that the big difference from our adobe missions in California is that the San Antonio ones are built from limestone, and they are fairly impressive. Even so, you can still see the foundations of some of the buildings that did not survive.
Next down is San Jose, which has the big Visitors Center which shows and orientation film and has exhibits about the missions. The walled grounds for San Jose are extensive and it is very impressive. San Jose was allowed to fall into ruins and what you see is a partial restoration. There are more displays near the mission itself, as well as a recreation of a water powered mill behind the mission and a small stretch of the famous water channels which provided irrigations for farming as well as water power. I toured San Jose until it closed-good thing they don’t lock the gates on time. It was then time to catch the bus back. I debarked within walking distance of the Blue Star arts district since I wanted to go to the Blue Star Brewing Company. I could have taken a bus all the way to the brewpub, but it was interesting to walk by the art galleries and open air restaurants along the way.
The Blue Star Brewing Co. was in an arts complex near the southern extension of the Riverwalk. It had a kind of funky atmosphere, but the beer and food were expensive and the beer was okay but not as good as the beer at Freetail where my cousins had taken me. Food portions were small, which was good for me. I decided to walk off the beer by taking the Riverwalk back downtown. This stretch was different from the central loop. After the Blue Star district there weren’t any restaurants and there were joggers. The weather was finally good-it had been hot when I visited the missions-and it was a very pleasant walk amidst nice semi-urban scenery. This leg eventually merged into the downtown loop and I headed west back to my motel. As I emerged from the Riverwalk there was a band playing in one of the side streets. A little later I got on the wrong bus but this was serendipitous since it made me walk back by the Marketplace where they were having some sort of large fiesta with a stage and a lot of vending booths. I decided to stop at a large Mexican bakery (don’t tell my doctor) where there was a long line. The bakery also had a bar and restaurant which were packed. Back outside I listened to one of the bands for a while but I’d better get some sleep because of my early train departure. Photos:
http://ikemi.info/graphics4/SanAntonioMissions/index.html
I got up on time the next day and started heading for the train station about a mile and a quarter a way. From what I had seen of the bus schedules, there wouldn’t be any buses at that hour. I did see some buses, but they were all heading in the opposite direction. That was okay since I had already mailed most of my excess gear back home and I needed the exercise, as well as being too cheap to hire a taxi. The train was already there and my internet ticket was good. My only disappointment was that I missed sunrise from the train since it was overcast again as we left San Antonio. The seat was much better than the ones on jets and the bathrooms were plentiful and okay. The food in the dining car turned out not to be too bad, although I used it only for breakfast and dinner. In the diner I met some people coming back from South by Southwest in Austin. The train did have sleeper cars, but I was poor and just in the regular coach car. The rest of the trip was uneventful all the way back to Union Station. From there I took the light rail system as close as I could to home and then got on a bus again for the last stretch. Out by bike, back by train and bus. Eventually the replacement pink slip showed up and I mailed that off with the original suspension link so I Fedexed them off to Ronnie. A couple of weeks later I even remembered to cancel the insurance. Now it’s back to getting the GSX ready for the next big ride.
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