The national monument—which is best described as a national memorial—is the only one managed by the Department of Defense (in conjunction with the Airmen Heritage Foundation) and one of only two Treasured Places that are located on an active military installation (the other is Port Chicago Naval Magazine National Memorial).

While the national monument was designated as a rider in the FY2008 Defense appropriations bill, it wasn’t opened to the public until late 2013. Well, open to the members of the public that can pass a background check and obtain a visitor pass from the military base, at least. Luckily, there’s a law that allows for reasonable public access for visitors—and their dogs—to the national monument. That said, you’ll want to give yourself some extra time to wait for the required background check before you can gain access to the site.

A “daytrip” to San Antonio

As one of the most obscure national monuments in the country—and with my travel focused on completing my National Parks quest—I didn’t have it on my radar until I decided to tackle the Treasured Places list. So I really kicked myself for not having included it the last three times we were recently in the San Antonio area.

As the second-from-last Treasured Place I needed to visit to finish, and with a deadline to finish approaching, I needed to get there soon. After weighing the options of driving versus flying, it become obvious that it would be a lot cheaper, and much quicker, to fly. So I booked the cheapest ticket I could find to fly from Phoenix to San Antonio, along with the cheapest return ticket I could find for later the same day. I would be taking a “daytrip” to San Antonio, just to finish this one weird little national monument.

Visiting the National Monument

This is definitely one of the more unusual national monuments you’ll visit. While it’s less than a mile to the memorial site from the Valley Hi entrance to Lackland AFB, you’ll need to spend some time in the “Visitor Center” to receive your visitor pass. Make sure you bring your drivers license and don’t have any warrants. Once through the front gate, it’s a quick drive to the parking area and an equally short walk to the site itself. And, truth be told, it’s also a relatively quick site to visit. You’ll need just a few minutes to experience everything this national monument has to offer.

The main bronze sculptures are on a granite platform showcasing a soldier flanked by four different breeds of military dogs, which is shadowed by a large granite wall. On one side of the wall is some descriptive text, while the backside features photos of military dogs in combat action. But the highlight of the site is tucked into a corner of the 3000-square foot plaza. Named the Not Forgotten Fountain, it depicts a Vietnam soldier pouring water from his canteen into his helmet to create a water dish for his dog—a moving tribute.

While the Military Working Dog Teams National Monument isn’t likely to top anyone’s “Must Visit” list, it’s still a simple but well done memorial to an interesting subject. I hadn’t really considered the role that dogs had played in military actions. And if you love dogs, you’ll have a hard time not spending a few contemplative moments at the fountain.

A quick video tour

A few final thoughts

First, it’s a bit weird to fly to another city only to return a few hours later. I’m used to only having carry-ons for most of my trips, but it’s weird when you bring the smallest backpack you own and it’s still essentially empty. I could have literally just carried everything I brought with me in my hands.

Similarly, I was asked several times by random strangers what brought me to San Antonio. I can’t imagine what went through their heads when I answered that I had flown in specifically to see the Military Working Dog Teams National Monument. I am 100% certain that no one besides the guards at Lackland had ever heard of it before, but I got absolutely zero follow up questions. Answering that question was a total conversation killer.

I would have been pretty disappointed had this been the last site I needed to visit to complete the Treasured Places list. No offense, but yeah…it’s just a memorial. But luckily, I had saved one spot I had been wanting to visit for well over a decade—a place I’ll visit next week!

Having already visited San Antonio a number of times, and without much time to explore beyond the city, I made just a few stops. After lunch and beverages at Blue Star Brewing, I visited Menger Bar (one of the oldest bars in Texas—and where Teddy Roosevelt recruited Rough Riders). I then made a quick stop at San Pedro Springs Park, the second oldest park in the US and the origin site for the settlement that became San Antonio. From there it was back to the airport to fly home!

If you missed the short video of the National Monument above, scroll back up and check it out.

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All in all, it was a great trip. I’m glad that I won’t have to drive through Texas again (we did it last winter for our Texas roadtrip and the summer before that for our post-wedding trip through the South) – and that was enough. It was interesting to see another part of the country (you’re up next New England!), though I am yearning for some large, wilderness parks.

• Most surprising unit: Vicksburg National Military Park
• Most disappointing unit: Chalmette Battlefield (or New Orleans Jazz NHP)
• Unforgettable memory: New Years Eve in the French Quarter
• Forgettable memory: having a dead car battery on Christmas Eve at a New Mexico rest area
• Best food: Oceana, just off Bourbon Street. We ate there consecutive nights.
• Worst food: Chuy’s restaurant in Van Horn, Texas.
• If we would have had more time: we would done walking history tour of New Orleans
• Best part of the trip: spending it with Kim

National Park Service units we visited (9 new, 2 repeat visits):

• Big Thicket National Preserve (TX)
• Cane River Creole National Historic Park (LA)
• Poverty Point National Monument (LA)
• Natchez Trace Parkway (MS)
• Natchez Trace National Scenic Trail (MS)
• Vicksburg National Military Park (MS)
• Natchez National Historic Park (MS)
• New Orleans Jazz National Historic Park (LA)
• Jean Lafitte National Historic Park (LA)
• Jean Lafitte National Preserve (LA)
• Fort Bowie National Historic Site (AZ)

Blog posts on scottandkimmie.com:

• An inauspicious start
• Christmas driving, Riverwalk, and the Negotiator
• The plantations of the Cane River Lake
• Poverty Point and Vicksburg
• Driving the Natchez Trace and touring an antebellum mansion
• Ringing in the New Year in NOLA

Blog posts here on rscottjones.com:

• An inauspicious start to the roadtrip
• More thoughts on Big Thicket, Cane River Creole, Poverty Point, and Vicksburg
• Thoughts on New Years Eve in the French Quarter of NOLA
• This just in: John Madden has terrible taste

Some final random thoughts:

• Natchez Trace Parkway is full of really cool stuff and it’s a nice drive too. I definitely recommend some time along it.
• Jean Lafitte National Historic Park & Preserve is one of the more diverse units in the system. It contains several cultural centers, a prime French Quarter visitor center, the Chalmette Battlefield and the Barataria Preserve. Not bad for a relatively obscure park.
• Vicksburg National Military Park could do with a more reasonably priced auto tour drive – or at least allow visitors to borrow it for the tour (Lyndon Johnson National Historic Park did this well).

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We’ve stopped in Van Horn, Texas on a few occasions before. Each time, we managed to hear or read about the local Chuy’s restaurant, which is rather infamous. Apparently, the restaurant attracted the attention of John Madden years ago, who has said it’s his favorite place to eat. And Chuy’s has naturally exploited the hell outta it. For his part, Madden seems to have played along, at least initially.

How he ever decided to stop and eat there, we’ll never know.

Chuy’s is the name of a chain restaurant that Kim and I used to eat at nearly weekly for 2 years. We had received a set of 24 one-free-meal-a-month coupons for each of three windshields replaced in a 6-month time span. [Thanks Empire Glass!] And with all those free coupons, we made the most of it as we could. I never did really enjoy the food there. Well, ok, I guess I did like the chili – I’ve actually returned as a paying customer in the last few months to order it.

So as we were in need of dinner about the time we’d be in Van Horn, we figured we should give it a try. Besides, I was craving some of that chili. Of course, the Chuy’s isn’t the one we’re thinking of; it’s just an independent, family-owned Mexican restaurant. That’s ok, so we enter.

The menu’s pretty plain but was sure to make mention of Madden. The  food wasn’t any better, and the service was lacking. The restaurant has an area reserved for John Madden, but we were seated on the other wing of the place so we couldn’t even ogle the shrine. Besides the photo of the sign and the roadtrip memory (“Hey, remember that time we ate at that ridiculously indescript Mexican restaurant that John Madden loved?”), the stop was definitely a disappointment.

So I’m here to confirm the obvious: John Madden has terrible taste.

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Last year, we took advantage of the planning freedom afforded us by a sub-par season to hit as any of the Texas National Park units as possible. We nearly completed them all, had I not managed to get sick and delay our departure.

This year, we’ll build on what we accomplished last winter and the summer prior to that by finishing off a good chunk of the South. In particular, we’ll finish up the states of Texas, Arkansas, and Mississippi.

Not necessarily the places you’d think of, well, vacationing in, but it’ll get done an important chunk in our quest to visit all 392 units of the National Park Service. And we always enjoy our roadtrips, no matter where we end up. As we plan and get started, I’ll post additional information. For now, here’s our expected itinerary:

• Big Thicket National Preserve
• Jean Lafitte National Historical Park & Preserve
• New Orleans Jazz National Historical Park
• Gulf Islands National Seashore
• Natchez National Historical Park
• Vicksburg National Military Park
• Poverty Point National Monument
• Cane River Creole National Historical Park

We’ll also try to spend some time in the city of New Orleans, tour an old plantation, and maybe even mark Fort Bowie National Historic Site (Arizona) and/or Chickasaw National Recreation Area (Oklahoma) off the list, too.

The post Our winter National Parks roadtrip: LA, MS, AL appeared first on rscottjones.

• It’s great to get back a day early, so you have time to unpack, unwind, collect yourself, and get ready for the shock of going back to work. It feels great to arrive home early enough to unload the car, unpack our bags, get laundry started, and start to get things back to order.
• Nobody goes to Texas. It was incredible how few out of state license plates we saw on the trip. Usually at national park sites, many if not most, are out of state, plus some Canadian plates mixed in. But not in Texas – only Texans go to Texas parks. I guess that’s not too surprising, as Texas plates are always underrepresented at other national parks.
• The Alamo is worth a quick stop, but don’t arrive with high hopes and don’t waste your time standing in line. It’s small, surrounded by tourist trap attractions, and let’s face it, only Texans care about this place. It’s a cool place for a photo or two, though, to help alleviate that burning childhood desire to see an inflated icon of the West, and to mark it off the life list.
• Texas is windy as hell, and it’ll affect how much fun you’ll have at several sites – Fort Davis, Guadalupe Mountains, and Padre Island to name a few. Wind blows.
• The iPhone 3G is quite possibly the best piece of roadtrip gear ever. We used it to listen to music and audiobooks during the drive, and even streamed an NFL game from a NY radio station. We used the Maps app to calculate driving directions, find restaurants, and even used Street View to preview a site. We typed draft blog posts on its WordPress app, used the clock feature as our morning alarm clock, and updated friends and family using the Twitter and Facebook apps. The camera and a couple of camera apps allowed some quick shots when the camera wasn’t handy. I checked and replied to email, kept up to date on my Reader items, and checked wikipedia for additional information on some of the places we visited. We searched hotel listings and prices, checked photos, and reserved online hotel deals every night – and looked up rewards account numbers. I added tasks to my to do list, blog article ideas to Evernote, and checked the next day’s weather. We kept up to speed on bowl game scores and NFL stats. I even used an app to locate free wifi networks for my MacBook Pro and consulted an app on Texas speed traps. And of course, we used Safari to hit a bunch of other websites. We did all of this on a small, elegant device that fits into my pocket – wow, what a great roadtrip device.

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