Dec 27, 2022 Day 2 San Antonio, TX

Gorgeous day, with blue skies and moderate temperatures and low humidity. Ron rode the Ebike today on the River Walk while I took care of a few things at work. After I got finished, we decided to visit one of the 5 historic missions located here.

Mission San Jose is about 2.5 miles from our campground. This is a World Heritage site and truly amazing to tour. We spent a couple hours there in awe of the structures and grounds that was built in 1720. The outside perimeter walls had rooms for living, working, and storing food. The church remained the community center long after the walls and other structures were dismantled to build the surrounding community.

Some of the native American’s entered the missions to escape drought, disease, and conflicts with other indigenous groups. They also learned new skills from the Spanish such as managing ranches. From our rough estimations, we think over 1,000 people could easily be housed on these grounds.

Although parts of the church and walls were rebuilt, many are original. It was so interesting to see the hand forged nails, latches, and other fixtures that were made over 300 years ago. The beams used in the ceilings are cedar trees of the same age and the Catholic Church still holds services there in the original church.

We plan to visit The Alamo tomorrow, another of the Historic Missions of San Antonio.