Sunday was time to try to see the Missions.
There are a few ways you can do this. I chose the solo method. I got in the rental car and headed that way. I had a basic map from the hotel, and signs pointing me to the Mission Trail. You can look up the particulars as to how many Missions there are and what they are called. I tried to see two and was only successful in seeing one. Remember the pollen bombs? They were starting to get to me so my touristing enthusiasm was low. The parking was horrible at Mission Concepcion so I didn’t see that one. I did go to Mission San Jose and see it. There was a Palm Sunday service letting out as I got close to the chapel.
One of the most interesting thing about the Missions, at least the ones I saw, was how very incorporated into the town they are. Mission Concepcion is right in a neighborhood. I think some people even parked on the streets in front of peoples homes. The town had grown up around them. And as I gathered from the presentations at San Jose, that is pretty much as it was meant to be. They were meant to be incorporated into the community.
As I mentioned previously. The people of San Antonio are proud of their city. Everyone
had something I should see. Several had the same recommendations and those were the ones I tried to get to. As I said, I missed out on the light show and a few of the Missions. I also missed out on taking a boat ride on the Riverwalk and the ‘hop on, hop off’ bus tour. But I did get over to the Pearl Brewery area. The Culinary Institute of America at San Antonio is there and there was a stand sponsored by the school. I didn’t eat there so I can’t vouch for how good it was, but it looked unique. I did have an ice cream at Lick. They have some really interesting flavors that I would not have made into ice cream, as well as a vanilla and a chocolate. I had the horchata ice cream. Very tasty.
I happened to get to Pearl during the market. It’s like a public or farmer’s market. They are there every Saturday and Sunday. Go before 2:00pm though, I think that’s when they start closing up the stalls. This was the second place I found live music in San Antonio.
Jorge y Nicole. They play what they call Acoustic World Music. Jorge plays guitar and Nicole plays acoustic bass guitar. I was struck by the sound of their instruments as well as the beauty. Wow. They were nice enough to take some time to chat with me about their instruments and a bit about what they are doing musically. Including a little about recording their CD. It’s also available for digital download. They shared that it was tricky finding someone to record the acoustic instruments well but they did finally find a studio in Arkansas. They play some really beautiful music. Well worth checking out. Oh, and, I asked, the guitar is a Cordoba and the bass are Fenders.

And then there was a book store. There are three places, maybe four, that I consider the most dangerous places for my wallet. Music stores, record/cd stores, sometimes boot stores, and definitely book stores. I wandered in and found some gems. There were some books on music put out by the different Texas University presses. I bought three. So far my favorite is “A Perfectly Good Guitar – Musicians on their favorite instruments”. It is about musicians and their favorite instruments as it says. It includes a picture of a musician with their instrument and also some detail shots of some of the instruments. It also includes a story from the musician about their favorite instrument. It’s may favorite so far because I’ve already finished it. I read it that night at the hotel. It is fascinating and right up my alley.
And that was Sunday. Monday was next and that meant leaving San Antonio and heading back to Charlotte. And this was the most annoying part of the trip. I found out when I got back that my bag had be selected to by opened by TSA. They did a really poor job of putting things back as neatly and safely as I had packed them. I’m really glad that I decided to hand carry that CD back. I was really trying not to break the case since the copy I have already has a cracked case and I carry that back and forth everywhere right now.
So that was my trip to San Antonio to see Olivia Newton-John and be a tourist. I’m certain, I have not done the city or it’s people the justice they deserve. I had a really good time and don’t think I could have chosen a better place to go. And I made a few friends while I was there, either for the moment or longer, friends either way. And yes, I would go back to San Antonio. I know I missed things while I was there but, in addition to my primary reason for going, I saw the most important part of the city, its people.
The hotel I stayed in was right on the Riverwalk. I could go out the back and I was there. There were a lot of restaurants and eating places, and a few regular shops. There was a CVS, and a Hard Rock Cafe, and a Ben and Jerry’s Ice Cream. There were two places that had been there for over 70 years. I ate at one, called The Original. The food was good. It was Mexican. Watch out for the salsa, the heat just keeps building with that one. But the chips, for sure, weren’t Tostitoes.

When I planned the trip, and then heard about the March for Our Lives I decided that if there was a march in San Antonio I would try to participate. For whatever else you may think there are things about the movement that I consider positive. And I can support that. So vacation or no, a few hours to go support a cause and support the people organizing it, was the right thing to do.
and at one point I turned around to no less than what I thought was 5 members of the clergy standing together. As it turns out, I have a few pictures of at least 6. And I know for sure at least 2 of them marched along side us.

met at the Corynation line, dance Folklorico. I thought he was dancing around 2:00pm but as it turned out, he had danced earlier so I missed it. I did stay to watch the women from a local dance studio perform some Flamenco and Folklorico dances. There were a couple who were quite talented.







In all of this I have managed to work on some music and some painting. I worked on that second pass of the Flame Red for the Ovation Painting. I made quite a bit of progress and if I weren’t traveling this week, I’d be finishing it up and moving on to the next step. Which will probably be the blending layer of red. That’s where my thoughts are on this piece so I might as well get those cleared out so I can make space to think about how I want to handle the fret board and a few other areas that will require some color mixing. I took a picture of the progress for you.
I’ve been practicing guitar so much lately I have worn the strings on my Gibson out to where they are sounding a bit dull. It’s already time to change the strings that I just put on in December. Unfortunately, I don’t have another pack of the ones I put on there so I ordered some. Since the strings are not here yet I have been playing other guitars. I found two more that needed new strings. Those I had a spare set of strings for each so I have changed them. I have one more that, while the strings don’t sound bad, the ones that are on it were some I was trying out to see how I like them. They are ok. I don’t like them. So I want to change those to the strings I like. Which I have a spare set of. However, this is the classical guitar and restringing it is usually the more time consuming restring of the six-string guitars I have. Oh, but that Schecter. With the locking tuners. Wow. That was a quick and easy restring. Here’s a shot of my tools and one of my string surgery patients.
I suppose, on the surface, it doesn’t seem like I’m that busy. I just come home and play guitar and sing, or paint. It’s not like I’m in a band and have rehearsal several nights a week and performances other nights. And unlike my very talented friend in Austin who is an artist, I’m not preparing for an art show, or writing articles for artist magazines. But that’s just the surface. And all of it takes large amounts of time. But every once in a while, you get an unexpected opportunity that makes you stop a moment, admire and breathe. Here’s one I tried to capture one morning this week as I was getting ready for the day job. My camera doesn’t do it near the justice it deserved.

