Mitchell Lake

Mitchell Lake is located on Pleasanton Road, on the South side of San Antonio. In the 1930's up until 1987, the lake would take in discharge and waste that would come from the Rolling Road Waste Water Treatment Plant that was located uphill from Mitchell Lake.
In 1987 SAWS began supplement natural flow into Mitchell Lake from the Leon Creek Water Recycling Center. By doing this the water level is easily maintained and the water is less hazardous to the wildlife.
When we got to Mitchell Lake we were a little disappointed by what we saw. The website for Mitchell Lake has all these great photos of the land with all the different kinds of birds. When we got there it did not look anything like the pictures. Everything looked so dead and there were dead trees and branches and weeds that were covering the land and even the water.


The people at the information desk located in the front when you drive up were extremely nice and willing to get us anything we needed. They even provided us with binoculars to use on our adventure.
We were given a map and a page long list of all the birds that were out there and that we would see. They gave us the choice of either driving on the paved roads and being able to park along the way and walk around freely and enjoy the scenery, or leave our car in the parking lot and start off walking. Being the girly girls that we are, we decided to take the car!
We got to the end of the paved road, which was not very far from where we started and were confused because there still seemed to be a lot on the map that we needed to explore. So we ended up taking the car back to the parking lot and take the walking trails wherever they took us.
The actual trail that we were on was well maintained and not hard to follow. But, we would not dare step a foot off of the trail because there was mush that easily went up past our ankles and there was no telling what could be laying underneath all those tree limbs and weeds. That was a real turn off to us because it seemed like they weren't taking good enough care of the land.

Since it is a bird habitat, we were expecting to see many different kinds of birds and trying to figure out which they were. Sadly we only saw 3 birds the whole time we were there. They were too far away so we could not even get a good photo of them. We were amazed because while we were walking down the trail we heard some noises that sounded like gun shots! Was there someone out there actually hunting in this bird habitat? It sounded like it was just on the other half of the land. We decided to not go back that far.
On the way back down the trail, we decided to stop onto this bridge that was to the side and take a look at the water beneath us. We ended up seeing three snakes. One was in the grass on the side, one was swimming in the water, and the biggest one was resting on a log. There were about fifteen frogs that were all lined up along the side of the lake just starring into the water, they almost looked fake!

Mitchell Lake has come a long way from where it originally started off as, it did not smell like a sewer or anything! But, it still has a ways to go if they want to really make it a safe haven for the wildlife.

My Neighborhood

I live in Pleasanton, Texas which is located about thirty miles south of San Antonio in Atascosa County. To get to Pleasanton from Palo Alto College all you have to do is head south on Highway 16 and in about thirty minutes you will end up in Poteet, you then go all the way through Poteet (which does not take very long) and in about ten minutes you will be in Pleasanton. Pleasanton is just slightly larger than Poteet so I consider the entire city to be my neighborhood!

When you leave Poteet from the four-way intersection by the school, you are on school Dr. which eventualy turns into Poteet-Pleasanton Road. When you finally hit Pleasanton there will be a three-way stop with traffic lights and you will turn to the right. You will pass the Pleasanton High School and many houses and a cemetery. When you come to the third stop light you will make a right turn onto Goodwin, you then go down about two blocks and turn to the right onto Vickers. When you turn on to Vickers and automatically notice that the first street is a dead end street, Anna. You will then turn right on Anna and my house is the third house on the right with the red door.

Along my road, or which you would consider being my neighborhood, there are many children that are always running around and playing outside, but yet it still seems to be pretty quiet, which is always nice!

On the left hand side of my house there is a new family that just moved in about two months ago. I have not had a conversation with them yet so I do not know anything about them but they are not loud or disruptive people and seem very nice because they always smile and wave when we pass each other. They have a couple of teenage boys that are probably still in high school.

To the right of my house, there is a man who is probably in his middle to late forty's. He has his own DJ Company and studio. He lives with his girlfriend. I have met and talked with these neighbors and they too are very friendly. I live with my brother and sister-in-law and whenever my brother needs help doing something then the neighbor is always there lending a helping hand, and vise versa.

There is an old lady that lives diagonally from my house who is always walking up and down the street looking at each house. Sometimes it is kind of creepy because you will be inside and walk by the front door and see this old women standing on the side walk in front of your house just looking! But when we first moved in the past owners were showing us around and they told us about that lady and how she stays home all the time and keeps a look out for all the houses and will watch you house for you when you are away.

All the houses on my street are modest but yet very well maintained, with the exception on one house in particular. This house is actually the first house on the right. I have never seen the people who live there but I know they have to live there because they have vechiles and things out in their yards.

Where I live I am surrounded by other houses. The next street up is the "main drag" and where all the main businesses are located like Wal-Mart, H-E-B, many banks and fast food restaurants. We are about to get a Walgreens across the street from Wal-Mart. They are also putting up a new traffic light right there when you pull out of the Wal-Mart parking lot. These things will benefit the community because there were many automobile accidents that involved people coming out of Wal-Mart and oncoming traffic.

I enjoy living here in Pleasanton for now because it is quiet and much safer to live than San Antonio but yet we still have grocery stores near by to go to if we need something. It takes me about 45 minutes to get from my house to Palo Alto, and about two minutes to get from my house to Bill Miller, where I work.