Take a Walk in a City Park
One of the American Volkssport Association's Special Programs is "Take a Walk in a City Park." During the Texas Trail Roundup, you will do that. And do it again, and again, putting you on track to fill up the 20 walks required to earn the cool patch. We have almost...
Bird Invasion!
In the fall and winter, at dusk and into the night, the trees and utility wires of San Antonio are covered in birds. Squawking, raucous, big black birds, straight from a Hitchcock movie. They are Quiscalus Mexicanus, called el Zanate in Mexico, where they originate....
Stop by the Award-Winning Confluence Park
Last year's Texas Trail Roundup missed the grand opening of Confluence Park by two weeks.. This is your chance to see this amazing park that just won one of the architecture industry’s highest honors, the American Institute of Architects (AIA) Institute Honor Awards...
Two Really, Really, REALLY Interesting Hotel Stories
Last month we were hanging around downtown and an out-of-town friend pointed to the Fairmont Hotel, on the edge of La Villita, and said, "bet that's been there for a while." Not really . . . the small hotel was built in 1906, but it's only been THERE, at the corner...
Yturri-Edmunds House: Original Adobe
On most Saturday walks you will be instructed to pass the turn-off to the Yturri-Edmonds House and Mill. You might be able to get a peek at it through the foliage. Miss Ernestine E. Edmunds, a school teacher and granddaughter of Manuel Yturri Castillo, willed this...
San Antonio: An International City
World War II divided the world and when it ended, after years of suffering, violence and sacrifice, it needed healing. In 1956 President Dwight D. Eisenhower created Sister Cities International to forge bonds between Earth’s citizens. Sixty years later, 545 U.S....
Dr. Shiga’s 1914 Alamo Monument
Nagashino is the Alamo of Japan; The Alamo is the Nagashino of America. Whoever knows the heroes of the Battle of Nagashino Knows the heroes of the Alamo Two monuments, one in Okazaki, Japan and one in the Alamo courtyard in San Antonio, bear these words commemorating...
Beware the Chupacabra
The legend of the chupacabra is a surprisingly recent one, originating in Puerto Rico in 1995. The name means "goat sucker" in Spanish, and a series of farm animal mutilations on the island were attributed to a horrific lizardy creature, like the one pictured above....
Butch & Sundance on the Street Where We Live
The event hotel for the Texas Trail Roundup sits on the infamous corner of Cesar Chavez Blvd, between Urban Loop and Santa Rosa. Unless you're a native, you won't realize that until eight years ago, when it was re-named after the Chicano labor leader, our street was...
San Antonio in Flight: Stinson Field
San Antonio has a rich history of leadership and innovation in civil and military aviation. The first flight of an airplane in the San Antonio skies was in February 1910 by French barnstormer Louis Paulhan. It was quickly followed by the first military flight in the...
Crossing the Commerce Street Bridge (and a little bit about Hannibal Pianta . . .)
The San Antonio is not a majestic river; its bridges are accordingly modest. You won't find a Chesapeake Bay Bridge here, or a Clifton Suspension Bridge. The model for the River Walk was Venice, but we we have nothing like the 400 bridges that span the narrow canals...
The Not-A-Frog Bridge in Brackenridge Park
After the Texas Trail Roundup Sunday walk someone asked us about San Antonio's "Frog Bridge." Actually, it's a TOAD bridge (although everyone calls it the frog bridge. Goes to show what we know.) The city commissioned ceramicist Diana Kersey to decorate a new bridge...
The Gunter Hotel, Robert Johnson & the Birth of Rock-and-Roll
On November 23, 1936 Robert Johnson created the template for electric blues, which became rock-and-roll, in Room 414 of the Gunter Hotel in San Antonio. You'll pass the Gunter, which opened in 1909, on the Friday Friendship Walk: it's on E. Houston St., across from...
The Little Train in the Big Park
Since 1957, the San Antonio Zoo Eagle has chugged along the tracks skirting the banks of the San Antonio River in Brackenridge Park, on the route of the longer Sunday walks of the Texas Trail Roundup. Stops include the Witte Museum, Kiddie Park, and the Japanese Tea...
The Arsenal
The first landmark you will pass on Saturday's Texas Trail Roundup is the Arsenal, now (mostly) the corporate HQ for the H.E.B. grocery chain -- 2.7 acres of it is a public park, including the Commander's House, now a senior citizen activity center. The San Antonio...