SAN ANTONIO – Brian Anderson isn’t anything like the conquistadores and the padres who traveled from mission to mission and fort to fort on what came to be known as the Old Spanish Trail.
“I played principal trumpet in six symphony orchestras up and down California,” Anderson said.
Now retired, Anderson is making the 3,000-mile journey from California to Florida on a Honda Valkyrie motorcycle retracing the nation’s shortest intercontinental highway named after the Old Spanish Trail.
Built in the 1920′s, the OST highway was created to promote travel and tourism after the advent of the automobile. Until then, Anderson said, America’s roads at the time were often impassable.
“Mud, mud, mud, every winter, you couldn’t drive your car anywhere,” Anderson said.
San Antonio was among the communities back then that championed the creation of the Old Spanish Trail Highway. So much so that its headquarters was based in the Gunter Hotel during its construction.
San Antonio is now home to the National OST100 Association, which has been commemorating the centennial of the highway’s completion in 1929 with a decade-long celebration. It will culminate in 2029 with a cross-country motorcade going back the other way, from Florida to California.
San Antonio is also considered the OST’s halfway point between where the highway began in San Diego, Calif., and where it ended in St. Augustine, Fla.
Marking the spot is a large boulder with a plaque that has been in front of San Antonio City Hall for nearly a century. A similar monument awaits Anderson in Florida.
“It’ll be a good day when I hit that,” he said.
To get there, Anderson said he’s tried to avoid U.S. Highway 90 and Interstate 10 that swallowed up much of the OST Highway. Instead, he’s taking the scenic route on the patches of OST road that remain, trying to retrace the original route as much as possible.
Old Highway 80, just east of San Diego, is a good example.
“The county has kept it upgraded and useable, so it makes a very pleasant trip,” Anderson said.
Anderson has found country roads are far better than highways.
“A lot of these roads have a charm and a quaintness that’s unequaled,” Anderson said. “I took the Boerne Stage Road coming into town. That was excellent.”
Once in San Antonio, Anderson visited its historic missions with Charlotte Kahl, co-founder of OST100.
The missions are examples of places that “you can’t just drive by.”
“Because history is alive,” Anderson said. “History can be visited, and history can be experienced. It has lots of romantic and historical appeal.”
Anderson considers those who first took the Old Spanish Road Highway as “early road pioneers.” They wanted to see and learn about America.
In addition to those he’s already visited along the way, Anderson said, “There are more museums coming.”
He said he wants to visit the Houston Museum of Natural Science, the National World War II Museum in New Orleans, the USS Alabama Battleship Memorial Park in Mobile, Ala., and then pull up on his Honda Valkyrie motorcycle to the Antique Car Museum in Tallahassee, Fla.
Anderson said he is documenting his entire trip on his Facebook page.
He said his latest journey and others he’s taken have taught him, “Don’t let life pass you by, and don’t let history be lost.”