Tuesday, 30 March 2010 Fine day, sunny, breezy.
Link to pictures..
Long day, divided into two segments – touring in the morning, traveling in the afternoon.
We took the morning to visit Presidio La Bahia. The Mission we toured yesterday was the religious center of the region, and the Presido a mile away was the military center. Here the soldiers for the region were barracked and the huts of those wanting to be near military protection would be built around it.
The garrison here that interests us most was commanded during the Texas revolution by Col. Fannin. His help was sought by the Alamo, and they even started to relieve the Alamo, but never got there by reason of confusion and mis-direction. Eventually, they returned to La Bahia. Then Sam Houston ordered them to retreat. They got about 10 miles before being surrounded by Santa Ana's forces.
Col. Fannin surrendered with the understanding they were to be prisoners of war, not pirates as the Mexican forces had deemed all who entered the district. They were marched to the Presidio La Bahia. Santa Ana ordered his forces to kill all the prisoners.
They were separated into three or four groups and marched a few hundred yards from the Presidio, then fired upon. A very few ran for their lives and escaped. A few more were rescued early that morning by influential Mexican friends. Three hundred and forty-two were killed. Their bodies were stripped and thrown into a trench and burned. The fatalities were far more here than at the Alamo.
There is a nice monument here to them and their Col. Fannin, who was executed last, after all his men.
The presidio was reconstructed in the 1950's from drawings made about the time it was abandoned after the Texas Civil War. It's well staffed and tours are available. Very nicely done. Still owned by the local Catholic diocese, and services are held weekly in the presidio's chapel.
Now for part two.
We returned to the park and hooked up to the little house. We took off to the north on US-77 and made it a few miles. The engine temperature gage pegged and I started smelling anti-freeze. I limped to the junction of TX-119 and found a shoulder to park on.
I opened the hood and found anti-freeze all over the place. Dolores started calling our road-service contractor and having help sent in.
I found the serpentine belt in shreds, and removed the rest of it. I had no idea how much coolant had gone away, or if the lower radiator hose had been clobbered by the parts of the belt flapping around. I took off the lower radiator hose and a lot of coolant drained, so it hadn't all gone away.
Then I found the pulley on the water pump flopping all over the place. Dolores had reached the road-care people and they had already dispatched a person by this time, and he drove up as we were calling the road-care people to report what we'd found.
Willie and Deb (D&W Trucking, Victoria, TX) have a business without a building. He has this 3500 pickup towing a shed on wheels with all sorts of tools, plus air compressor, drill press, and most everything else he needs.
He agreed on the problem and what happened – the water pump shaft separated, the pulley flopped all over, destroying the belt, and the water got hot and blew off through the radiator cap.
He attacked the thing, and removed the alternator, then the water pump. He took the water pump to town to match it with Dodge or NAPA.
We talked with Deb as we sat in chairs in the shade of the trailer. She's quite a gal. They were over-the-road truckers for a number of years until Willies health started having problems, then started doing other things. She has an embroidery machine and sells her work on E-Bay. He fixes trucks, cars, and so forth.
We chatted about Live Steam scale-model railroads, all sorts of places we have in common (she was born in eastern Michigan). He was a Marine brat, lots of common items.
He returned with the new NAPA pump, and installed it and the rest of the stuff he had to remove to get at it. We added coolant, then ran the engine for a bit to push the air out of the system. About this time, the county sheriff stopped to check on us; we thanked him for doing that and explained that were were almost back on the road. He wished us well.
We paid D&W by credit card over their phone rig, thanked them immensely and resumed travelling.
Ten miles later, the “Check Engine” light came on, and the engine temperature gage was acting funny again (it's been doing that for two days, off-and-on). We stopped and looked, couldn't find anything wrong, and kept going. We traveled the 100 miles after the problem with no real problem.
We checked into the Hill Country RV resort here, then I cleaned up. We went to dinner at Applebee's (didn't feel like anything fancy), returned to the little house and started computer tasks, etc., etc.
What a day … 109 miles in 8 hours for $450.00 this afternoon.
But Deb & Willy were great people to help us this way – he charges $60/hr labor where everyone else in the region is over $125 if they have to leave their building. Of course, he takes his building with him. Betcha he gets a lot of word-of-mouth recommendations.
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