B and D – On the Road

When we left Waco we moved to San Antonio for a couple of weeks. We have been here several times over the years but it has been at least ten years since we were here. When I first moved to Texas one of my Mother’s brothers lived here so I used to come visit with him and his family. That is where I got my introduction to many Texas points of interest like Enchanted Rock, Balance Rock, The River Walk and many of the caverns in the area. My uncle loved Texas and wanted to share everything in the area. I will never forget climbing in the dark to the top of Enchanted Rock with him and my cousin so we could be at the top to see the sunrise.

While here we decided to visit some of the missions in the San Antonio Missions National Historic Park. Most people are familiar with the Alamo but there are 4 other missions and a ranch that are part of the Mission Trail. These missions are still active churches for Catholics but they are open for touring along with the surrounding mission lands.

The missions are not that far apart, if energetic you could ride your bike to all of them using the trail along the River Walk. I suggested that Bruce do the bike ride and I would drive to each of the missions and meet him. He was not interested.

We first visited the San Jose Mission which like the others had started in East Texas, when the mission failed there the mission was moved to this area. This mission is referred to as the Queen of Missions because of it’s size and success.

We decided to do one of the ranger led tours and the ranger that led the tour was very good. Besides the history of the mission and the area, I also now know how to fish using the Agave Plant. Apparently if you slice the root up and throw pieces in the water, it reacts with the water and releases a chemical that will paralyze the gills of fish causing them to die and float to the surface of the water. The spikes on the plant make needles, you can make thread or rope from part of the plant. The roots can be cooked and eaten and of course one variety of Agave is famous for making Tequila. You can also get a sweetener from Agave.

This mission has lots of Honey Mesquite Trees through out it, Bruce referred to them as lazy trees as many of them are laying over on the ground. We were also educated on eating the beans formed in the seed pots of the tree. Apparently not real tasty but can sustain you if needed.

 

In addition to the Agave and Honey Mesquite there were also lots of sage planted and yaupon. Also saw a few areas planted with cactus.

In the mission the indigenous people lived at one end of the mission and the soldiers and Franciscan Friars lived at the other end. The natives that joined the missions did so as they were promised a steady supply of food. San Jose operated as a mission for 104 years before it was secularized and the land was turned over to the mission Indians living there. The mission was neglected and the buildings deteriorated. The San Jose mission was reconstructed and some of the others are just in ruins except for the chapel used for church services.

The indigenous people living in the mission were given two rooms for each family group, one for sleeping and one for living space.  They had ovens for cooking the were on the outside of the rooms.

The rooms for the soldier and friars were a little bigger and nicer.  They even had sinks set up in the walls.

San Jose Mission is one of the missions that has had major reconstruction so you can see how it would have looked in the early 1700’s. Much of the design on the outside of the church has faded but they had a picture of what it would have looked like earlier.

 

The window is called Rosa’s window or Rose Window. Several stories about how it got its name with one being it was named after the woman that the artist wanted to marry. She died on her way to the mission and he named it in her honor.

There are lots of statues on the outside of the church representing various saints. The original statues were carved out of stone.

The inside of the church is very ornately decorated.

Over the years various renovations were done to the mission so there are various styles of architecture.

While at San Jose we were able to view a grist mill that was used and observe some of the aqueduct used to handle the water flow. Canals were dug from the San Antonio River to bring water to the mission.

After leaving San Jose we visited the Espada Mission. It has not been reconstructed but you can see the foundation of the old walls and buildings. The church is still open and is used but it is a very small building and was not originally intended as a church but as an area for the priest. Saw some more of those lazy mesquite trees.