Historic Seguin Volksmarch, a Movie, and Baseball - Sat., May 4

A busy week ahead for walking and hiking! Today a Volksmarch in Seguin, tomorrow the hiker's group outing to O.P. Schnabel Park, Wednesday is International Walking Day so in the morning I'll be doing a Volksmarch in Crownridge Canyon; Wednesday evening the hiking group is doing a 5-6 mile King William and Riverwalk hike, next Saturday Bob and I will do another Volksmarch, and Mother's Day Sunday I will go with the hiking group to McAllister Park.

Before we headed out to Seguin, Bob and I did some research on the town. This little city has a big history. Juan Seguin was a key figure in local politics back in the day (1835 through about 1842). But Seguin's family history in the area went back to 1722 when his family built some of the earliest villages in Texas. In 1778, Juan's grandfather, Santiago, supplied Texas beef to the Spanish forces allied with American colonists to help them fight for independence from England. Juan Seguin helped the U.S. in their battle for independence from Britain and was one of the survivors from the Alamo. (He had been sent out to request more troops so was away from the Alamo when the major attack came.) With all of his dedication to the U.S. and his political career here, the U.S. turned their back on him. He eventually returned to Mexico.

Our walk started at the Seguin Chamber of Commerce. Once I signed in and picked up the map, we headed out along city streets to see old buildings and beautiful houses. And let's not forget the world's largest pecan!

Seguin's old central firestation.

Texas Theatre

Above the entry doors before you enter the theater.

Muscle cars and muscle man.

Craftsman-style building.

Victorian-style home.

As we walked Seguin, we came upon signs for "True Women" Book Tour. "True Women" was written by Janice Woods-Windle, a local resident. The book brings the history of Seguin to life and was made into a mini-series by CBS in 1997. The mini-series starred Dana Delaney, Annabeth Gish, Michael York, Rachel Leigh Cook, and Angelina Jolie. I have ordered it from Netflix.

Tour signs are all over town.

In addition to "True Women" tour signs, many history markers recount stories of Juan Seguin, the naming and re-naming of the town, Runaway Scrape, Santa Anna encroachments, Comanches and some of the earliest buildings made with concrete (AKA limecrete) in the country. Too much history to tell you here. We recommend you travel to Seguin and see it for yourself.

Women's  Club

History of Juan Seguin (click photo to enlarge).

County Courthouse.

Click photo to enlarge.

White Way lights honor WWI veterans.

Lady Justice on the County Courthouse.

Seguin is part of The Old Spanish Trail

History of the "River of Nuts"

Another nut visits the world's largest pecan.

Pecan orchards grow outside the city, part of the local economy.

Veteran's Memorial stands outside the courthouse.

Rain lilies.

Finally, a scissor-tailed flycatcher posed for me.

Look at the long, forked tail!

Glen Cove Estates neighborhood.

Guadalupe County Master Gardeners Landscape
Demonstration Garden.

Pardon me for disturbing your sunning session, Mr. Anole lizard.

Los Nogales at Heritage Village - a cluster of historic buildings.

Dietz-Castilla Dollhouse

Love to walk!

Catholic Church

As it happened, we stumbled into a street fair at the square called "The Fit and Fun Fiesta." There was dance entertainment or you could participate in a street Zumba dance and create entertainment for other fair-goers. Food and vendor booths lined two streets.

Beautiful dancing, vibrant colors in the fabrics.

Juan Seguin statue. The base of the statue
tells the history of the Seguin family.

These two beautiful girls were deciding if
they wanted to try Zumba. They decided not to.

Vendors.

A family sampling the fair fare.

Mural of Seguin's history.

The Old Stagecoach Road came through here.

Memorial Rose Garden in Walnut Springs Park.

Just beyond the Memorial Rose Garden arch is a history marker in granite telling the story of how the town of Walnut Springs was renamed to Seguin.

The ever-graceful Columbine.

Walnut Springs Park is a bird sculpture sanctuary. Scattered throughout the park are numerous bird sculptures.

Scissor-tailed flycatcher sculpture.

Our Volksmarch included a walk along the river.

It's interesting to note that Robert Hugman, who designed the Riverwalk in San Antonio, also designed this walk.

Patches of gorgeous wildflowers bloom in this park.

 From Walnut Park, we headed over to Juan Seguin's burial site.

Seguin burial site flags- Texas, U.S. and Mexico.

After our walk, we drove back to San Antonio. We had gorgeous weather. We ate lunch at the taqueria across the street for our RV park and then relaxed for the afternoon.

A Netflix movie, "Rock of Ages" starring Tom Cruise, arrived in the mail and we decided to watch it. What a stupid, stupid movie. Bob and I hated it. I give it one star out of five. The only thing that kept me from giving it zero stars was the soundtrack. But even that was distracting because of how bad the movie is. Avoid this movie like the plague.

Saturday evening, the San Antonio Missions were playing the Corpus Christi Hooks and we had a Groupon burning a hole in our pocket. Off we went to the game. The Missions were hot. They were up 6 to 2 when we left in the top of the 9th inning.

That was one busy day! Tomorrow looks to be just as busy.

Travel Bug out.