It was a two-day drive from Carlsbad, NM to San Antonio, but we were able to find a city park in the small town of Junction, TX. It’s a nice park, right on a river, and the City of Junction allows people to dry camp in the park for up to three days at no charge. I wish our schedule would have allowed us to stay there another night.

In San Antonio we stayed at the FAMCAMP (Family Camp) at Lackland AFB. It operates on a “first come, first served” basis, but we had no problem getting a site, and there were openings available during our entire stay.

We didn’t have any plans for a lot of sightseeing while in town. After so many stops in a relatively short period of time we thought it would be nice just to relax for awhile.

We did have some friends in the area to visit. We had met Ernie and Kathy Bader while we were camped at Camp Murray, near Tacoma, WA. We met them for lunch and they showed us around the Continual Care Residential Center where they live. It was interesting to see how many amenities are available to the residents, from a variety of clubs, exercise facilities, and even an RV storage area with electrical hookups.

An old friend of mine from my National Guard days is CSM (ret) Jerry Alley. We met Jerry and his wife, Debbie, for dinner. The food was almost as good as the conversation. It was interesting to hear stories of their time in the Army. Before he retired Jerry had risen to the position of Sergeant Major of the Army and he had a lot of stories. I was privileged to have known him when he was a Sergeant First Class and my unit’s Active Army Advisor.

We did go into San Antonio to have lunch on the Riverwalk and to stop by the Alamo again. It’s always interesting to see history where it actually happened. You can’t always trust movies for their historical accuracy!

Lackland is where the Air Force conducts basic training.  The parade field is surrounded by vintage aircraft.  I wandered by the aircraft and thought the “nose art,” pictures the crew would paint of the nose of the aircraft, fascinating.  I don’t think this is allowed anymore and that’s a shame.

We extended our stay one day to avoid a big weather system moving in from the west. If we had left on time we would have moved east right with the storm. This way we followed it and stayed in clear weather.