SAN ANTONIO TEXAS

SAN ANTONIO TEXAS

A day in San Antonio we started the day off early to visit a few places on our list. We went to the downtown area to find a local parking lot. The price was $5 for 3 hours across from the Alamo. Best deal, we did everything under 3 hours.

First on our list was visit The Alamo. Admission free. http://www.thealamo.org/ Since we were there early we got our picture and went inside with very few people. No picture allowed inside The Alamo main exhibits room. The Alamo takes a picture of you as you enter the main exhibit room and are available for sale on site or online. The online are not free like Jack Daniels was.

Second on the list for downtown San Antonio was the river walk boat ride. http://riosanantonio.com/ Again, early and few people so there was no line for tickets or wait for seat on the boat. Admission $8.25, but $6 for military. The boat ride is about 45 minutes. The city of San Antonio was going to drain and fill in the river walk, but for the idea of one person to vote against it to keep the remarkable sight and build the city around the river walk ... best idea ever!

Saint Anthony the given name of San Antonio

Cafe's line the famous river walk

Amphitheater seat on one side of the river with the stage on the other (not pictured)  

We had about one hour left on our parking spot so we walked around did some shopping and ate Haagen Dazs ice cream.

      

About 20 minutes away we went to a Japanese tea garden that had a remarkable view where we ate our packed lunch and enjoyed the sights. We then took a peaceful walk admiring the park that dates back before WWII. The Japanese family that oversaw the tea garden was rounded up and sent to Japanese prison camps. After the war the family returned and made it what it looks like today.

National Parks are reopened and the last visit of the day was to Missions San Jose National Park. This National Park along with the work of the Missions were questionable in my mind. Native Indians came to these Missions for safety from the stronger aggressive tribes taking what ever they wanted that was in the way. However, these Indians who seeked safety behind the walls had to leave there way of live behind by changing their given names to Spaniards and learning to speak Spanish and learn the ways of the church. They lived in the wall that protected the Mission and had to pay the highest taxes. Those who did not learn all the stages of the church before death was not allowed to be buried inside the Mission. These Natives who were once free and roamed as hunter were caged behind walls and became growers (farmers). Still today the San Jose Mission is an active church that hold services every Sunday in the Spanish language.

 Model of what the Mission grounds would have looked like

Outside door of where the Indians would have live 

 Inside corner wall were soldiers would fight off enimies

A few days before we visit a town or city we don't know, we do our homework to find cheap and safe parking, address and location of sites we want to see by program the navigator to make sure we arrive without getting lost. 

HOT SPRINGS ARKANSAS

HOT SPRINGS ARKANSAS 

We spent two days in the Hot Spring area. Since the National Parks are still closed we are not able to stay at the National Park campground. We stayed at J&J RV Park just 8 minutes from downtown. We were here last year, but the bath houses were closed and we decided to return this year to complete what we missed last year.

Day one we walked around the town to see what bath house we were going to the next day and some shopping. We stopped by Charlene Simon a soap and bath luxuries that are handcrafted fresh from scratch and located on Bathhouse Row. http://www.bathhousesoap.com/welcome.html They make soap for both male and female. The shop layout and display was like a dessert factory. Some of the soap looked good enough to eat. We walked out with two bottles, one for the wife and one for a friend we are going to meet later this week.

Diner we had steaks on the grill and as always the wife cooked her marshmallow over the hot coals.

We decided to go to a therapeutic pools at Quapaw Baths. For only $18 a person we had access to the four pools for a day. The pools temperature ranged from 94 - 107 F. We went from one pool to the next for a few hours. This experience reminded me of the days when I lived in Japan and went to hot springs and  bathhouse. We ate lunch at the cafe in the pool area and soaked some more.

 After all this hot water I wanted to take a nap

For dinner we ate at McClard's BBQ. One of President Clinton's top dinners. I blogged about this last year, if you want to read here is the link http://life-in-rv.blogspot.com/2012/10/to-florida-part-2-day-4-to-sleep-with.html. Scroll to the bottom (Day 8) and you will see it.

If we are ever in the Hot Springs area, we will stop and make it a tradition to stop by a bathhouse and to eat BBQ ribs at McClard's.  

JACK DANIELS

We have arrived in Buckeye, AZ and will be here for the winter. There is a lot going on in a short time. In the next few days ... maybe weeks I will be posting our adventures from the road and Arizona.

JACK DANIELS

182 Lynchburg Highway

Lynchburg, TN 37352

(931) 759-6357

http://www.jackdaniels.com/

We arrived around noon, and all the RV parking was full of cars. I wanted to block them all in until our tour was completed. Instead, I found out that there is public parking a block away and plenty of parking space big enough for all size of RV's. There is also RV camping site located next to the public parking. Not sure the price for a night, but if you arrive late you can spend a night in the town and tour in the morning. The town of Lynchburg, TN is known for the making of Jack Daniels Whiskey. However, what most people don't know about Lynchburg is that is a dry town. Where the sell or consummation of alcohol is illegal. There was two tours, one free and the other one (if I remember correctly) was $10 with two sample tasting. Jack Daniels had some kind of trust to be the only place in town to allow consummation of alcohol. After a short video and just before you get on the bus Jack Daniels takes a photo and is available to download for free from their website the following day. Tour guide note, if you are skipping work or school hide in the back row as all pictures are uploaded to their website and are there forever. There was no photo allowed inside any of the buildings, however I did get some good ones from outside.

Can you spot us?

(double click to see enlarged)

Our tour number was #16. 

First stop was where the Jack Daniels charcoal is made. I did not realize how charcoal is one of the most important part of the making Jack Daniels. (more to follow).

Second, was the local spring water that has been flowing since day one. It was a hot day, so the tour guide told us to sit along the wall and instantly it felt like I was sitting in a air condition room. and the view was pretty awesome too.

The last place we could take picture on the tour was Jack Daniels first office. It's a small building that stand right at the foot of the spring water.

The tour guide gave a story I just have to  share with everyone. Jack Daniels came to work early one day and could not open the safe, so like any person he kicked it. No, it still did not open, but he broke his toe and got infected with gang green. Six years latter because of the infection and lost of toe he died. So bottom line coming to work early will kill you.

The safe Jack Daniels kicked

The rest of the tour was inside buildings (sorry no more pictures). The whiskey is distilled for six days and then drips over the charcoal for six more days. Then, place in the barrels clear and minimum six years later the whiskey comes out colored by aging in the barrels. The Barrels are used only once. They are then sold to other distilleries, hot sauce factory, designed into chairs, bar tables and more.