12K Mission Reach Walk -- Sun., Feb. 10

60% chance of severe thunderstorms before 9:00 a.m. That was the forecast today. We slept in so as not to walk in the rain today.

I made a pancake and fried egg breakfast to fortify us for 12K (7.2 miles). Our Volksmarch started at Mission San Jose Visitor Center. We started the walk at 2:30 p.m. and finished in two hours, 15 minutes.

Even though we've visited Mission San Jose a couple of times before, we again walked around the mission grounds, back to the grist mill and finished walking around the interior of the mission walls. Then we headed out front past the Visitor Center and walked along streets until we came to an entrance of the Mission Reach Riverwalk.

Mission San Jose Convento.

One of the gates at the mission.

Close-up of the new smile.

Front door of the mission church.

National Park Visitor Center.

We walked past this large park along the river.

The grasses on the right side of the road are bamboo.

El Charro Stadium.

We passed a Rosicrucian building along our walk and I took some photos of it. Neither of us had ever learned about rosicrucianism and have no idea what their beliefs are so I looked it up when we got home. If you'd like to know who they are, you can click on this link.

This must be the Spanish-speaking chapter.

We continued on our way to the Riverwalk Mission Reach. Interpretive signs are located along the path so you can learn about Mission Reach and the history of the area. 

As usual when we do our Riverwalks, we saw lots of birds and even found a turtle on a rock in the middle of the river.

Path is well used by bicyclists, walkers, joggers, skaters and skateboarders.

Great egret in flight.

Roosevelt Ave. bridge next to our RV park.

Great egret checking me out.

Roosevelt Ave. bridge.

Double take--double-crested cormorants.

Single, double-crested cormorant. Look at those big webbed feet!

American widgeon.

American widgeon. A few of these were on the river today.

We can't believe people paddle on this river. It looks like it would be a royal pain. You'd have to keep taking out your watercraft to portage it around dams, low water and rocky rapids. But apparently some people do it.

Spiny softshell turtle.

Our walk took us away from the river to Mission Concepcion. While we were there, a number of people in period dress accompanied by a film-maker were meandering around the mission. I took some photos and wondered who they were and what they were filming.

 I went into the National Park Service office and asked the ranger. Her response, "I have no idea what they're doing. I'm waiting for law enforcement to get here to find out." Okay, then. Moral of this story: Don't go film-making on national park property without getting permission from them first. 

Mission Concepcion.

And here are the people in period dress. It seemed they didn't want their pictures taken as they kept their backs to the camera.

From Mission Concepcion we retraced our steps along the Riverwalk all the way back to Mission San Jose. It was a lovely day for a walk. The temperature was a pleasant, non-muggy, 74 degrees with a light breeze from time to time. There was cloud cover all afternoon.

Travelers Word RV Park from Riverwalk.

Non-native Egyptian geese.

I scoured the internet for another photo of this duck so I could identify it. I found one other photo, but it doesn't say what kind of duck it is. Does anyone know? It's very beautiful and had three ducklings.

Update: Karen correctly identified the above "ducks" as non-native Egyptian geese. They are very distinctive and apparently don't interfere with native species. See this article.

We finished our walk a little before 5:00 p.m. and headed to Taqueria Guadalajara for dinner. It is right across the street from our RV park, reasonably priced and has good food. Our favorite is #27, enchiladas verdes made with chicken. Mmmmm. We were hungry after 7.2 miles and cleaned our plates.

Inside the restaurant--back room.

Looking across the street from the restaurant to the RV park.

We had a great walk today and wouldn't mind doing this walk again and again. It's very pleasant.

Tonight I watched 60 Minutes and Bob went to get a haircut. We were hoping Amazing Race was going to be on, but The Grammy's were on instead. Amazing Race starts next week.

Good night. Travel Bug out.

On a Mission - Thurs., Sep. 20

Mission impossible...almost. I woke up this morning with vertigo. Not good. I did my exercises for vertigo and rested. When I resurfaced two hours later my vertigo was gone. Yay! I hung around the 5er to make sure the vertigo was gone before I ventured out. At 3:30 p.m. it seemed safe to go on my mission to the missions.

First stop, Mission Conception. We had passed by the outside on our Volkswalk in July, but couldn't go inside as it was Sunday and the church is still active. A Sunday service was in progress that day.

Today I was able to explore to my heart's content. These missions are Spanish architecture with a Moorish influence. Here's what I saw.

Back side of kitchen, refectory and library.

Mission wall art (fresco) in library

The church and convento walls of Mission Concepcion are still standing after 250 years. Mission Concepcion  is one of the oldest original stone church buildings in the United States. The frescoes are colorful murals or designs in which pigment is applied to wet limestone plaster, which absorbs the color. Limestone and goat's milk bind the paint. When the plaster dries it hardens back into limestone, and the colors soften into permanency. The art of frescoing was taught to mission Indians. A blending of Christian, Spanish and Native art elements resulted.

Convento corridor.

Looking toward storeroom, porteria and library.

Main church entrance...notice the rose window above the door.

 

The Sanctuary

Pews in nave.

Great door.

A nice couple took my photo .Good shot.

From here, I continued on my mission to see, well, missions. My next visit was to Mission Espada. This mission was established on March 5, 1731.

Mission Espada was the only San Antonio mission where bricks and tiles were made.

Remains of Indian quarters. This was a mission entrance.

Indian quarters.

More ruins of Indian quarters.

Church circa 1740; bell tower (espadana) added in the 1780's

Belltower and door are distinctive Spanish features.

Unique doorway into church.

Granary converted to church from 1773-1776.

Be sure to watch out for the fire ants!

Mission Espada is definitely not as well preserved as some of the other missions, but the church still serves as the heart of the small community nearby; mission descendants continue to worship there.

It was after 5:00 and there was one more mission I wanted to see: Mission San Juan. The gate was locked when I arrived, so I walked around it. Everything I wanted to see was outside anyway. Reconstruction work is currently underway on the church, so it is fenced off.

Acequias.

A 1/3 mile trail to hike with Bob. We'll be back!

Church undergoing restoration work.

 

 

Burial grounds.

Burial grounds.

Driving between missions, I saw a couple of other interesting things: egrets, and I'll share the other one at the end.

Great egret and a couple of snowy egrets in the San Antonio River.

About a week ago Bob drove me past the Stinson Municipal Airport in the evening. I didn't have my camera then, so I came back today to take photos of this great art deco building.

That's a wrap, or, as Bob pointed out, "Mission accomplished." LOL. Good one, Bob.

Hopefully I'll get a laugh too. Here's the other photo op I found driving between missions:

Really???   The End.