SAN ANTONIO — The Battle of Flowers Parade will look a little different for 2022.
This year's route is changing due to construction in the city.
It will start near San Antonio College on Main Ave. Instead of the Pearl on Broadway. And the festivities now end on Commerce St.
The new route for the parade is no trouble for the folks at long’s kitchen
“We’ve got all these coolers full of food,” said Ralph Norman, gesturing to the coolers lining the outside of the Long’s Kitchen trailer.
“She spent two weeks getting it all ready,” he said.
This is the first year they’ve been able to work the parade since opening their Thai food truck and they’re just excited.
Their menu includes Egg rolls, Pad Thai, and a creation of Long’s own design: Thai Enchiladas.
The same can’t be said for their neighbor in the lot, Baltazar Muñoz.
“No, not Broadway, St Mary’s,” Muñoz corrected himself while telling a friend how to find him.
The Vietnam and Desert Storm veteran had been parking his 45-foot trailer in the same spot at 9th and Broadway for years.
“It was kind of hard to find this place, but we found it,” he said.
Every year, he invites his family and employees of his landscaping and maintenance company, which he named for his daughter and business partner Angelica Muñoz.
“And hopefully let everybody have fun and enjoy themselves,” Muñoz said.
But finding a new place to park was not the toughest change for Muñoz this year.
“She’s serving, she’s in the Air Force,” he said, fighting back tears. “She just got promoted,”
This will be the first Fiesta he will have to celebrate without his daughter.
She recently decided to follow in her father’s footsteps and join the military. He said that during this year’s Fiesta, she is stationed in Kuwait.
“Oh, I’m very proud,” he said.
For Muñoz, the real celebration will be when she comes home.
“She’ll be here, I hope she’ll be here by the end of the month,” he said. “And then we’re going to really celebrate and then go to uh go to Hawaii, go to Disney world.”