17 Apr 2023 - Arrived at Fort Sam Houston Campground in San Antonio TX + Stats

 

We pulled chocks this morning at the Dallas-Arlington KOA campground at 0830 hrs and headed south on I-35 towards San Antonio Texas.  Traffic was not too bad until we approached Austin and San Antonio.  We made one stop at a rest area on the way down and enjoyed seeing the bluebonnets in the fields along the way.  They are in bloom right now and were even in the rest area!  We learned the bluebonnets were adopted as the Texas state flower on March 7, 1901.  Here are a few pictures:

We rolled into Fort Sam Houston about 1349 hrs after driving 276 miles.  We camped here in 2019 so it all looked familiar.  We got checked in quickly and headed to our site and as we did we passed another Alliance coach but this one was not a surprise!  We had exchanged messages with Randy and Norma Myers who we met at last year's Alliance Rally.  Randy is retired Air Force and Norma works remotely in HR for Pabst Brewing Company, the company that owns Lone Star beer!  She gave me a Lone Star koozie last year!  Norma was leaving the base about the same time we were entering the base today, and she exchanged texts with Doreen that we would connect up later.

We got set up in our site without issues.  These sites are pull through full hookup and they are paved and level, which is nice.  

There is quite a bit of room in between sites and each one has a paved patio with picnic table.  The weather has been great but it is a bit breezy.  I put up the flag when we first arrived like I always do, but I took it down later due to the winds.  

We met with Randy and Norma this evening and enjoyed a walk around the campground as we talked with them.  Norma knows my affinity for Lone Star beer and thought I might like these Lone Star and Rainier decals!

We only will be here for four nights but we are looking forward to spending some more time with Randy and Norma. We will revisit the Mexican Market downtown with a special request from our daughter Jennifer.   We also look forward to reconnecting with a great friend and comrade from my deployment to Iraq, Command Sergeant Major (ret) Frank Leota and his friend Vanessa.  We have a couple other Alliance friends here in town and Norma is trying to arrange a get together with them.  

Stats:  

This is campground #6 of 42 

# States Traveled Through So Far This Trip: 5 (IA, MO, KS, OK, TX)  

# States left to visit on this trip:  20

Baseball Parks Visited So Far This Trip:  1 (Globe Life Field - Texas Rangers)

Lighthouses visited:  0 (__)

Lighthouses climbed:  0

Point to point travel miles:  1167 miles 

  - Avg point to point travel miles between campgrounds:  167 miles

Vicinity miles:  475 miles 

  - Avg vicinity miles:  79 miles

Total miles driven:  1642 miles 

Total point to point driving time:  17 hrs 24 minutes

Total diesel fuel purchased: 139.589 gals 

Total diesel fuel cost:  $498.31 

Average diesel fuel cost/gal:  $3.678

Max diesel fuel cost:  $3.799 (Ankeny IA) 

Min diesel fuel cost:  $3.559 (Wichita KS) 

Avg MPG:  11.80 miles/gal

Cost/mi of operation:  $0.31

# Nights at end of this stay:  37 (Includes Griff's start)

Total lodging cost:  $1319.66  (includes Griff's start)

Average cost/night:  $35.67