The Urban Woods of San Antonio

We went from the end September to April 21st with no camping trips.

We decided to stick around the house during the winter and work on healthy routines, and I really made some great progress because I wasn’t running off here and there. But it was time to defrag my brain and spend a long weekend in the “woods”. I was really, really, really ready for this one. So, Friday around noon, we headed to the wilderness of the downtown San Antionio KOA.

I was very very very happy that we were in the city, as when we set up the camper, the toilet started spraying water. It wasn’t the greatest start to a long weekend. After eating the usual camping kick off hot dogs for lunch, we had to make two hour long round trips to Lowes to get things to fix it, instead of the bike ride we wanted that afternoon. Then, since we were out and about alrady, we decided that we were going to treat ourselves to the purportedly best al pastor tacos in San Antonio at Al Pastor es mi Senor. The meat is roasted on a spit like Doner meat and served sliced thin with really fresh, sweet pineapple and spicy sauce. Definitely the best al pastor tacos I’ve had in recent memory. High enjoy!

The next morning, we took it nice and slow, and started… The Chickening. When we planned the menu, to keep things easy and lower calorie, we got a giant package of chicken and resolved to cook it many different ways. We started with chicken, half a giant loaded potato, and salad to fuel the day’s impending bike ride.

We wanted to wait for the best weather, so we dawdled playing Space Marines until mid-afternoon and then went to play bikes for about two hours. We did the entire loop that afternoon and found a really nice vista we missed last time we took a wrong turn. We cooled down in the pool because it finally hit 80 degrees, and it’s the last time it would be sunny and warm this trip.

We refueled with some of the best Teriyaki Chicken of my life and had a nice chill evening listening to a really crazy downpour.

The next day, everything was flooded and the roads were wet, so we decided to skip the bike ride and do a two hour hike instead. We had a beautiful time outside watching so so so many butterflies play on the multitude of wildflowers.

This worked up an appetite for tandoori chicken for dinner. During the evening, we chilled out and enjoyed the three-day camping effect, I’m pretty sure this was the day my brain started to unspool a bit. I finished reading the version I cut of my book at the time, and it was crap – which is okay, it motivated me to push through and finish the draft so I could start revising.

Day four was a glorious repeat of the previous, just with sunshine. The roads were still kinda wet, so we hiked, we ate chicken multiple ways, we read, and had a nice relaxing last day of camping. I was up early the next day taking meetings and working while Joel drove home, but I thoroughly enjoyed my four days in the urban woods.