Over the years, in our travels we from time to time find things of truly unique value and very special people who often go with them. I have long believed that some of the best museums are those found in "out of the way" places, usually small and staffed by volunteers and often with free admission. Small towns are usually where such things are found, probably because they are less difficult to locate. Yesterday we were fortunate to discover such a treasure, hidden in an older neighborhood of the city of San Antonio! And as wonderful as this collection is, the owner shows visitors through and he is the greatest treasure of all!
This very special place is Barney Smith's Toilet Seat Art Museum. I would say Mr. Smith, but Barney would likely take offense as he is such a grand gentleman that he prefers to be your friend, and friends use first names. Barney is now 88 years old and has been doing toilet seat art for more than 40 years. As great as his work is, the best part of all is the fact that he tells a story with every single piece! He is an amazing, talented, and truly wonderful man.
San Antonio is a historic old city that we have visited many times over the years and we have seen so much 
there, but until yesterday we had missed the most wonderful thing that it has to offer! This little museum is tucked away in a community known as Alamo Heights, and the entire collection is in the garage behind the house. The building is probably no more than 30' square but it has more history and art collected into it than any other such building that I have ever seen. We often see things in our travels which words and pictures have great difficulty in describing or displaying, and this is one of those situations. While it is partly a lack of visual depth, to really appreciate the work you must also hear the story that goes with each one.And just for 
perspective, there are more than 1000 works in the collection and he is still making more.
Pam & I spent nearly three hours with this wonderful man in his very special place. Readers, if you have ever taken my advice on anything, please listen to this plea. Do not miss this collection because the artist is presently 88 years of age (now married for 71 years) and when he is gone from us this wonderful collection may soon disappear as well. But most important of all is the tour that you receive from the artist himself. Someone may preserve the collection when he is gone, but the loss of the artist and his tales of each piece can not be replaced. With every seat and each question there is a story about why the work was made and where the artifacts came from and who gave them to him. The artist is the greatest treasure of all! (I will be adding a page just about this collection as soon as I have time to edit the more than 70 pictures that I took there.)
"Toilet Seat Art Museum" 239 Abiso, Alamo Heights, Texas, 782009
Please call first for a free tour (any size group from 1 up) 210/824-7791
After about five years of high quality service, my Panasonic camera was beginning to give less than ideal quality pictures. The one that I had came with a 12X zoom, seven mega-pixels and most all of the bells and whistles. But after nearly five years of service and literally thousands of pictures, it was starting to over expose many pictures and at times would have difficulty focusing. I use the auto mode for the majority of my shots but even so, I do like to do some things on manual settings.
I spent perhaps a month in research and concluded that the best for my budget was the new Canon, Power Shot, SX20-IS. It has a 20X optical zoom, four way immage stabilization, 12 mega-pixels, and a host of things that I am still learning to use. At this point I have been using it for just under a week and the results have been really great. Pam has had good service from her small Canon as well so that played a part in the choice. It is fascinating to look at the price history of digital cameras and particularly the mega-zoom models. My first Olympus, bought in 2000 had 10X optical zoom, 5 mega-pixels and no immage stabilization at a cost of $600. The Panasonic was a big step up and it cost $390 with some image stabilization and this Canon, which is an even bigger step up was purchased at Best Buy for $360. Not everything in our world is increasing in price.
One of the nice parts of life here in the volunteer village is that we often gather around a campfire to visit, share the day's experiences and just generally enjoy the company. Often such evenings also include liquid refreshments, ranging from coffee to beer to hot chocolate or even wine. Sometimes the wine is even home made! There are also evenings for making smores, deserts with a pie-iron or just abut anything else made over or consumed by a campfire. Wood is plentiful here as we have access to the removed trees and brush from around the natural area and the saws to cut it up with and even a splitter to make it burn well. Social gatherings are an important part of life in any volunteer village!
While we have had our share of rain this winter, the weather does seem to be slowly improving and so is becoming more appropriate for such gatherings. Usually one couple starts a fire and then the others soon join them for the evening.
On Thursday the six of us who volunteer here made a trip to Shiner to visit the Spoetzl Brewery, maker of Shiner beers. It was a beautiful day and the two hour drive proved to be well worth the effort. T
he weather was sunny with just a few puffy clouds and temperatures in the low 70's. We arrived at the brewery in time for a sample of the product before we took the tour. They give an interesting tour and also tell a pretty good history of the area. The brewery was begun by a group of citizens who missed the beers of their homeland.
As part of the tour each visitor is allowed four, four ouncel samples of the products made by the company. Most of us tried two different beers before and one or two after the tour. In addition they have an good video that tells the history of the company. They are an excellent small beer maker and have long been one of my favorites. They make five different beers, a bock, a black lager, a wheat beer, a blond and a light beer. They also make one more that is seasonal and which is only available for the particular season, ie as summer beer, a winter beer and a holiday beer.
After the tour we went to the restored downtown section of Shiner for lunch in one of several excellent 
restaurants there. After lunch we visited three of the area's museums. The Wolters museum was particularly good and none of the stops charge any admission. Another interesting thing about this 
community is the obvious pride shown by the people that we met and how friendly they all were to us. Most people that we had contact with would ask what we had seen so far and would offer suggestions of other places that we might enjoy visiting. I would strongly recommend that anyone in that area take the time to spend a day here.
with us! I seem to be among the most fortunate people in the world when it comes to friends. I believe that since the first of this year we have made face to face contact with 9 couples & a single that we have had internet contact with and we have also gotten to spend time with about a dozen more who we have known for some time but had not seen in a year or longer. With all of those who have come to visit us, we sometimes feel that we have somehow gained celebrity status, for no apparent reason that we can imagine. To any of you who may read this, we extend our most heartfelt thinks as it has been a really wonderful experience. We must be some of the most fortunate people on this earth!
On Saturday I did my first day of interpretive work on the trails. It was a really nice day and the park was very busy. My job was to hike the Bluff Spurs Overlook Trail, make 
contact with visitors, answer questions and just keep an eye on things. It was a great day for a hike and the trip was great fun. The route is quite steep in places and like many of the trails here, very rocky in much of the trip. I spent about three hours and covered about 5 miles. I probably made contact with 25 or so visitors. Of course I also spent a little time just enjoying the view and the day, as this is never all work.
After dark it was also our day to check the outlying restroom facility and then close the park for the night. We had several hours off then returned to close up. It was the kind of day that is the reason for us being here.
On Thursday we were off all day so chose to run into San Antonio. We spent most of our day visiting San Antonio Missions National Park. 
Three years ago we were there at this time and we wanted to visit some of the rangers that we worked with when there. We just caught the ranger in charge at Mission San Juan, Dava who Pam worked very 
closely with. At San Jose we got to visit with both Danny and Barbara who I worked with and at Conception we saw Robert who I also worked with. It was really great getting to visit some of the great staff there.
Today was our long work day here at the Canyon. We share duty at the fee booth, and it is Pam who is primary there. We collect the money, check annual passes and greet other volunteers and visitors. Working on Friday at this time of year can be really tough as you can see Pam was really working hard today! Fortunately for her, I was there to pitch in and help her out when things got too difficult!
Since the two couples that we are volunteering with are nearing their time to leave and the weather has been so shaky, we decided to do a cook-out for the park rangers at lunch on Thursday. The weather was clear and sunny, although a little on the cool side with temperature near 60. Pam prepared a pot of beans, Tuttles brought and cooked hot-dogs and hamburgers, Reeds brought potato salad & fixings. Tom cooked burgers & dogs, Peggy & I cooked fried pies with pie-irons for desert along with the usual assortment of chips and such.
The lunch went well and seemed to be enjoyed by all, although only about half 
of the staff were able to attend. Even so we had a great time and good food. We have had so much rainy weather of late that timing was everything and we hit it right! The group gathered at the middle host site which made it handy to all three RV sites and on Wednesdays the park is closed so that all could take a little extra time. Turned out to be quite a social event and those who missed it will no doubt hear that it was a good one. It was kind of nice to give back to the staff that treats the volunteers so well.