Back to San Antonio

Last Wednesday (Dec. 10th), while we were still in Beaumont, we took Chuck to an urgent care clinic because his throat was still extremely sore and he was still running a fever.  By 10:30, Chuck had seen the doctor, gotten a shot of steroids and antibiotics (ouch!), picked up a prescription for more antibiotics and gone back to the camper.  Chuck rested most of the day on Wednesday but was starting to feel a little better by Wednesday evening.

On Thursday morning, I walked to the meeting room where Gulf Coast RV Resort provides a FREE breakfast between 7 and 9 am.  I don't know if they do this all the time; but this was the first time we had been to a campground that offered a free breakfast.  The breakfast was as good as any "free" hotel breakfast I had experienced with biscuits and gravy, bagels, donuts, cereal, oats, coffee, various juices and waffles.  TEXAS waffles!!!

I spent Thursday getting all our laundry done at the campground laundry (rather than using our Splendide washer/dryer) since it was only $1.00 a load and had 3 loads of laundry done in a couple of hours.  Chuck was feeling better and we made a trip to Home Depot to get some nails so he could re-nail a piece of decorative wooden trim that was coming loose inside the slide-out that had been repaired back in September.  He had it fixed in just a few minutes!  

We left Beaumont by 8:30 Friday morning and headed west on I-10 towards San Antonio.  The weather was nice and the terrain flat.

As we approached Houston, we saw more oil refineries...

before coming into and going through downtown Houston.

Fortunately, the traffic was not bad at all since it was not rush hour.  There was an unusual looking building on the west side of Houston that almost looked like an air traffic control tower from a distance.

As we got closer, we discovered that it was not an air traffic control tower but a hospital:  Memorial Hermann Hospital.

The ride to San Antonio was good...

...and we arrived at Travelers World Carefree RV Resort around a little after 2 pm.  We are parked near friends we met last year:  Warren & Jocelyn and Too Tall Terry & Gloria.

We enjoyed visiting with them Friday evening at Gloria & Terry's and also visited with more of the friends we had met last year as well as meeting new friends. 

On Saturday, we attended the gift exchange in the recreation hall.  The gift exchange was more like a "Dirty Santa" where people can steal your gifts.  

Everyone who had brought a gift (and there were a lot of gifts) got a number.  The numbers were called in order and you had a choice of either taking a bagged gift or stealing one of the gifts someone else had already opened.  A gift could be stolen twice.  After that, it was "dead" and couldn't be stolen again.  

Chuck and I got fairly low numbers so we (along with most of the first gift receivers) just chose a bag to be opened.  I got and chicken wing rack for a grill, some barbecue sauce and marinade.  A nice gift but not likely to be stolen.  However, when Chuck went to the front to open his gift (so everyone could see it)...

...he opened a bag that contained a very cool little tool set with all kinds of wrenches and screwdrivers and stuff.

Unfortunately, his gift got stolen fairly quickly.  He opened another gift and got movie tickets and then it got stolen.  He stole another tool set identical to the one he had opened.  Then, it got stolen.  Finally, he opened a gift that nobody else wanted but still wasn't a bad gift:  a knife and plier set.  There were a lot of bags and with all the stealing going on it took over 3 hours to finally finish up the gift exchange but it was a lot of fun.  :)

On Sunday night, we were invited to go to the annual Christmas concert at First Baptist Church in downtown San Antonio.  Nineteen of us from the campground that were attending the concert met at Luby's for dinner before going to the concert.  Our dinner was good but I ate too much pie.  :)  

After dinner, we rode a few blocks over to the concert.  This year's presentation was called "The Light Shines and the Angels Sing."  It is an annual event that includes not only the church's children's choir, youth choir and adult choir but also the San Antonio Symphony.  As we walked into the church foyer, we saw a beautiful Christmas tree in the lobby.  They were handing out apple cider and green Christmas punch to all of us waiting in line.

The church's auditorium was huge...

with beautiful stained glass windows in the parts of the ceiling.

We were ready for the concert to begin!

The concert began with the choir members filling the aisles single-file holding candles in their hands.  Their first song was performed with them standing right there in the aisles.  This was my favorite because they were so close to us and you could better hear their beautiful individual voices.   After that, they filled the front of the auditorium and all of us (audience included) sung 4 familiar Christmas carols together.  The children's choir (who were so cute) performed a song next, then the youth choir performed a song, and then the adult choir and symphony performed the rest of the concert.  The whole concert was very good!

On Monday morning, we decided to go for a walk along the Riverwalk which runs right next to the campground.  

There were several birds along and in the water including this comorant that was drying his wings.  

The sun would be out at times...

and then go back in for awhile.

But by the time we headed back, the clouds had gone away...

...and the turtles were out basking in the sun.

Later that afternoon, we decided to go to Home Depot to look for an owl to scare off the doves who are roosting (and pooping) in the tree right over the camper.  

Chuck tried it out on the blackbirds pirched in the ceiling of Home Depot but they didn't seem too scared.

We're hoping the doves will be more scared!  :)  Later that evening, we attended the soup potluck dinner at the recreation hall and then I played a couple of games Farkle with Nancy, Jocelyn, and Lynda while Chuck talked with the guys outside at Terry & Gloria's.  

I had noticed Monday afternoon that my nose was starting to drip, drip, drip and by Tuesday morning I had a low-grade fever.  My nose had been bothering me for about 10 days because it feels very swollen and dry inside.  With the drips, sore throat, and fever, we decided I should go on to the doctor.  We found another urgent care clinic in San Antonio and I got a shot of steroids and antibiotics as well as a prescription for steroids and antibiotics.  

I spent the rest of the day Tuesday resting and then got caught up on our blog Tuesday evening.  Chuck is still not up to 100% either but has the rest of his antibiotics to finish up.  We are both tired of feeling kind of yucky and are ready to GET WELL QUICK!!!!  :)