Witte Museum with New Friends --Thurs., Dec. 27

This morning Bob took care of a few 5th wheel chores. When we moved Sunday, we did not get the trailer level. Today he hooked up the truck and leveled us out. Now the cupboards don't whack us in the head and the refrigerator door stopped swinging its full 180s degrees every time we open it. He also refilled our propane tanks and emptied the black tank. I'm so happy he takes care of those chores.

Today I set off to meet Catherine and JoBeth of R-V Crazy Travel Journal at La Madeleine French Country Cafe near the Witte Museum in San Antonio. We fueled up with a good lunch to get us through a few hours in the museum. The dessert case had some mighty good looking cakes and tarts. We decided to return for dessert after the museum.

JoBeth and Catherine have been to the museum before, although they had never been to the South Texas Heritage Center. We started there. 

As you enter the South Texas Heritage Center, a "tejano" statue welcomes you. It looks like he's talking--mouth moves, eyes move, throat moves. Turns out they're projecting the facial expressions from an overhead camera onto his face. It's a lot of fun to watch people's expressions as they come in the door and see him "talking."

In one of the classrooms, we watched an actress portraying life in 19th century Texas. She explained how she would prepare horns (boiling, cleaning out marrow and polishing) for a famous longhorn furniture maker. His furniture was so unique he sold pieces to the rich and famous, including Queen Victoria.

The upstairs exhibits covered topics such as how to balance a load on a donkey, branding, what you would find in a general store, history of the Comanches, stories of the ranch life, how to find oil, Farm-to-Market roads, the clothes, weapons and equipment used by cowboys, Texas rangers, sheriffs, and much more.

Comanche back-skidding his horse during a hunt.

Texas longhorn.

Information about the Broken Heart Brand.

Catherine and JoBeth watching a video.

JoBeth trying out a vaquero saddle.

King Ranch (largest ranch in Texas) wagon.

Farm-to-Market Road sign.

Where is that town?

Catherine and JoBeth examining the map.

From the South Texas Heritage Center, we returned to the main museum building. In a brief recap, we saw Texas birds and wild animals, Texas Performers Under the Bigtop, Threads of South America: 2,000 Years of Textiles, and a small display on mummies (not "Mummies of the World: The Exhibition" which cost an additional $12).

One of the circus posters on display.

Colorful South American textiles.

We reached our museum tolerance level for the day and headed back to La Madeleine for dessert, talked about previous jobs and future plans. JoBeth and Catherine headed off to take care of Grace and I headed back to the 5er. 

The day was enjoyable. It's fun meeting other bloggers and getting to know them. Thanks Catherine and JoBeth for the interesting time. Let's do it again.

Bob and I hunkered down in the nice warm trailer as it's cold again tonight.