Davy, Davy Crockett, King Of The Wild Frontier

Okay so the plan was to get into town early today. What really happened was we did other stuff all day and didn’t leave until 4:00pm. When we actually did get into town, it took us a really long time to find parking that wasn’t ridiculously expensive. Our first stop was the Alamo, an old Spanish fort that you may have heard of. It is famous for the last stand of 200 Texans against thousands of Mexicans lead by the self-proclaimed dictator, Santa Anna, that took place at the fort in 1836. It was kind of a 300 situation, if you’ve ever seen the movie, except it starred Davy Crockett, James Bowie and Colonel William Travis instead of Spartan warriors. Basically what happened was the residents of San Antonio were taken completely by surprise by the arrival of Mexican soldiers. The small number of soldiers operating with the Alamo as their base were determined to hold off Santa Anna’s army for as long as possible, hopefully until reinforcements arrived, in the name of Texas and the fight for it’s independence. Well, shockingly enough, the thousands of Mexican soldiers managed to break through the walls of the fort and kill literally every single person remaining inside after a thirteen day siege. In the exact words of the

Alamo website, “People worldwide continue to remember the Alamo as a heroic struggle against impossible odds — a place where men made the ultimate sacrifice for freedom. For this reason, the Alamo remains hallowed ground and the Shrine of Texas Liberty”. Ah, the dramatization of the United States. They think everything involving them is recognized worldwide. I mean, it’s not even recognized in Canada and we’re their neighbour so. There was also a lot on the history of the fort, beginning with the Mission Period, when many missionaries were working to convert the Native American people to Catholicism. The mission which later became the Alamo was established in

1718, and after many changes in location, was moved to it’s current spot in 1724. In the late 18th and early 19th centuries, the old mission was occupied by the Spanish military and was converted into a frontier outpost and military garrison. The first troop to occupy the mission was called La Segunda Compañia Volante de San Carlos de Parra, also called the Alamo Company because of its hometown of Alamo de Parras, south of the Rio Grande. Soon enough, the fort was being called the Alamo and the name stuck. In 1821, Mexico declared independence from Spain and the Alamo remained a military outpost manned by Mexican soldiers until it was taken over by Texan

revolutionaries during the Texas Revolution of 1835-1836. And I already told you the rest. After we had our brief time at the Alamo and we were kicked out because it was closing, we headed over to the riverwalk. I was expecting a riverwalk similar to the one in say, Chicago or Milwaukee. I was very much mistaken and, thus, was pleasantly surprised. The riverwalk of San Antonio is like an underground world, sunk way down below street level. It’s like a city within a city with lots of hotels, restaurant, shop and ducks. There’s even a water taxi. We walked around there for a while, which was really fun. It’s certainly really neat and I would recommend, yes indeed I would. When we started to head back, we had a little bit of difficulty figuring out where we were and on what street we had left our truck but we eventually found it and went home. Peace out m8s.

#camping #sanantonio #texas