October, 17, 2008

Friday 17~~~~We left Houston early today and the calico kitty was over visiting Pepsi early this morning. Sharon fed her a good breakfast and we had to carry her away so we could leave. Our drive was about 150 miles, it is a beautiful day in sunny Texas. We arrived at our campground early afternoon and after we got set up, we took off sight seeing. We drove to one of the old missions here, the "San Jose" built in 1720. They gave us a tour and it was so interesting. Early missions were unwalled communities built of wood or adobe. later, because of tensions between northern tribes and mission occupants, the structures were encircled by stone walls. The mission was built as a defense from the Indians to protect 250 or more people inside a 27 acre fort. It had 87 two room dwellings for families, (picture) they grew crops and raised livestock outside of the fort. They cooked in brick ovens outside of the home, several families would cook together in one oven. (picture) They had a grist mill inside the fort which is still working grinding flour, we watched it grinding wheat flour when we were there. (picture) There were a number of these missions built farely close together The size if this complex bears witness to San Jose's reputation as "Queen of the Missions." The massive stone walls were so thick, they put port holes in them and the mission residents learned to use firearms and cannons to defend themselves from enemy attacks. The success of a good mission fort is having a good water supply and the San Jose mission is still using the water from the well preserved system completed in 1745.