On The Mission Trail

The past couple of days have been a blur. So please bear with me as I try to reduce this blog entry down to just the key points. We started off in Southern Arizona visiting the lovely mission ruin at Tumacacori.  The next morning was even colder than the day before, if that is possible. However, we were determined to visit the beautiful San Xavier Mission in Tucson and were very well repaid for the effort. The mission is stunningly beautiful. The interior art work was all done by indigenous hands and is a testament to their complete devotion to their Christian beliefs. Here I think that photos speak better than I can, so I will present here a selection of visuals from the San Xavier Mission...

Mission San Xavier

Mission San Xavier

Mission San Xavier

Mission San Xavier

Mission San Xavier

We then proceeded through mid Arizona to the Colorado River and followed the route north to Lake Havasu where we stopped the next night. It was still bitterly cold, but we made an effort to go see the London bridge. Talk about a cultural disjunction!!  Never mind. The townspeople are very proud of their main tourist attraction...

London Bridge, Lake Havasu City, AZ

The next day was our crossing of California to Bakersfield. Still ruddy cold!  We turned off the main highway 58 at Mojave to go see the Red Rock Canyon State Park and were impressed by the stunning array of rock. In warmer weather, it would have been something we would like to explore more.

Red Rock Canyon State Park

Red Rock Canyon State Park

After a night in Bakersfield, we cut across the Imperial Valley to highway 101 and followed that north to Soledad California. On the way we stopped at three different Missions. The first one was Mission San Miguel Archangel, in San Miguel California. This mission oddly enough, lacked a certain warmth and hospitality even though it was still inhabited and used by the Friars. But we both felt a lack of something here. Maybe all the signs saying "private, keep out" and that sort of thing. In any case, we walked through it and moved on....

Garden at Mission San Miguel

Interior of Mission San Miguel

The next Mission was San Antonio de Padua on a military reserve in Jolon, California well off the beaten path. Again, it was set in a river valley in a sheltered locale and very suitable for grazing cattle and sheep.  This mission had a much happier feel to it, and Rick immediately recognized that several decades ago we had actually visited it. I didn't remember it but he said that he had had vague memories of this place bothering him for years...he remembered the military reserve and the buildings themselves. We spent a good while at this particular mission. It is fairly apparent that the California Missions were built on a different style and of a simpler structure than the more elaborate Arizona missions. Their simplicity however, is just part of their individual charm....

Mission San Antoni de Padua

Mission San Antoni de Padua

Mission San Antoni de Padua

Mission San Antoni de Padua Garden

The last mission was Nuestra Senora de la Soledad was a sweet, small, completely reconstructed mission, rebuilt from the ruins about 60 years ago. They did an excellent job of recreating it on its exact footprint. This is the smallest of the three California missions we visited and to me, the most intimate.

Mission Nuestra Senora de la Soledad

Mission Nuestra Senora de la Soledad

Finally we arrived at Soledad. The next morning we aimed ourselves at Walnut Creek where Rick was to meet his first cousin Sue for the first time. We spent the rest of the day in her fine company, trading family stories and getting acquainted with each other. It was a very exciting day, and we enjoyed the entire time with her. Sadly it was all too short, and we had to get on with the journey as we had other family commitments for the next day. But now that the connection is made, we know we will be seeing a lot more of our Wilkins relatives!!

Today we found ourselves amazed as the weather became increasingly warmer and pleasant as we moved north. The Northern California coast and into Oregon was the warmest of any place, and felt very spring like.  We zigged an zagged through the Redwoods....

 and arrived at Grants Pass Oregon just as the sun set and the Scottish Terror needed her puddle walk. We are now so close to home and I must say, that like Kermit the Frog, I do so love the colour green. Green fir trees, green pastures, green grass....all of it seems lovely to me after the beige desert of the southwest. As Rick likes to kid me, I am a webfoot now, and proud of it!!!