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Every kid who went to elementary school in California knows that there are nearly two dozen Spanish Missions in California. What he doesn't necessarily know is that before coming to California, the Spaniards built other missions in other states. On our travels through the south and southwest we visited missions in Texas, Arizona, and of course in Mexico.

Most of the mission remains are very limited and quite simple in construction and design. Perhaps the most ornate and the best restored was the mission of San Xavier del Bac in southern Arizona, just south of Tucson. Around San Antonio we spent a day driving to four different missions.

We started by driving across town to the main Mission Visitor Center at Mission San Jose where we watched a movie about the Mission Indians that Jan thought was a bit too PC. The mission itself was very attractive with a multi-acre walled courtyard that is mostly lawn with a few scattered trees. There are some buildings around the edges that are still extant including the Mission Church with its lovely carved front. There is also a flour mill driven by the acequia (irrigation channel) that normally functions but was out of commission for repairs. The mill, reconstructed by the WPA during the depression, is not entirely authentic but as the ranger acknowledged would never have been refurbished at all had it been discovered in the present day.

Because we wanted to take the scenic route to the other missions, we ate lunch immediately after leaving San Jose at the Pizza Hut across the street. They had an all-you-can-eat buffet for $4.99. Not great for dieters: Gerry overloaded on pizza, Jan on apple pie.

From lunch we drove down to San Juan de Capistrano, crossing a ford at the Espada dam. The missions are all laid out in the same way. San Juan was a little nicer perhaps because there were far fewer people here and even the exhibits were not manned. The third mission, San Francisco de la Espada was also very nice with a very talkative volunteer in the information office and a functioning “convento” complete with Franciscan monks (not to be seen, of course).

The last mission was back towards the city so we retraced our steps stopping to take a look at the Espada Aqueduct, a small section of the acequia system that feeds irrigation water from the San Antonio river to fields further down the valley. Nuestra Senora de la Purissima Concepcion de Acuna was much less complete than the other three but still had a pleasant church and was undergoing archaeological digs.