The weather finally cooperated today and we took off early for a spin into San Antonio. Normally we would have gone to the River Walk or the Alamo but this time we started out by going to a restaurant called LuLu’s where they are famous for offering a 3 pound cinnamon roll for a mere $10.
I actually wanted to go because LuLu’s is also famous for their chicken fried steak, which has been the point of my food quest for the last 28 months. Although LuLu’s chicken fried steak has a savory coating and their gravy was tasty, the actual steak was a bit boot-like. Their fries were also very good but their corn side recently came out of a can. Prices were reasonable.
I still have not found chicken fried steak that can match Dean’s or Jake’s, both in Oregon.
After lunch, we took a spin through San Antonio and some spooky ghetto sections until we arrived at an early 18th Century mission called Mission San Jose. Mission San Jose is about halfway down a line of missions with the Alamo being the north end and Mission Espada at the south end. San Jose is built sort of like a western stockade; a continuous wall in a big rectangle enclosing a church, a granary where they stored sufficient food for a year, 4 water wells, a grist mill, workshops, a convento which was used to house visitors and clergy and a sophisticated aqueduct system for irrigation of crops. There are also some 85 residences inside the mission compound, all with common back walls that make up the exterior walls of the stockade. The structures are pretty impressive considering they were built more than 250 years ago. This mission is remarkably well preserved and is worth a visit. It is a National Park but it is free.
We bailed out of San Antonio before rush hour turned the drive into a nightmare. We prepped the Barbarian Invader for travel tomorrow because we are headed for Leander, near Austin.
We got some photos on the way and in San Antonio which you can see if you click here