"Escape From Life," Tuesday, January 16, 2007. I made a stop off at Mission San Anotnio de Padua. I almost didn't come here because I had read that it was about 45 minutes off of the highway. But then I thought, "I'm on vacation! All I have is time!" So I decided to pay San Antonio a visit, and I'm glad I did.
To be fair, it was not even close to 45 minutes out of the way. 30 minutes, maybe, but no more than that. Something I didn't realize until I got to the gate was that Mission San Antonio is on a military base. I felt a little awkward driving up to the military gate and asking if I was on the right road to the Mission. I thought I would get laughed at, but instead the guard asked for my driver license and registration. Not a problem... or so I thought. I whipped out the license and then reached into my glove compartment and pulled out the registration. I handed both over and sat waiting patiently for my guest pass. But it was not to be. The guard returned to my window and said, "this isn't your current registration, do you have your current registration?" He was right, the registration I had given him was from the prior year. Not a problem, I figured, I'll just rummage around... and, oh yes, there it is... oh, no, that's two years ago. OK, so I had a problem. I couldn't find the current registration. "Pull over to the side please, sir," the guard said, motioning off to the right.
This probably wasn't good. It wasn't until I was pulled off to the side that I remembered what was in my trunk... a very real looking, yet fake, Glock (yah, the gun). It had been used in the TV show "Criminal Minds," and was given to me by my friend Tami in LA. It was boxed up nicely in a glass case, but it lacked the orange tip, thereby making it (very likely) illegal, and here I was trying to get it onto a US Military Base. "Please don't ask to look in the trunk," I was thinking to myself. He didn't. Instead, he offered to write me a warning for not carrying my registration in the vehicle and to let me pass on to the Mission. I agreed. While he was in his guard shack writing the warning, I remembered where the registration was... in the driver's door well! I jumped out of the car and told him I had located it. He reviewed it, wrote me a guest pass and sent me on my way.
The Mission itself is set a few miles onto the base. The Mission was founded in 1771, obviously before California even became a State (that was in 1850), so naturally before it was a US Military Base; however, even before California became a State, the land was seized under "Secularization." It was only returned to the Catholic Church by Abraham Lincoln in 1862. During the secularization period, and particularly following the death of the last resident priest in 1882, the Mission fell into significant disrepair, and finally into ruins, aided by the earthquake in 1906. Additional reconstruction and restoration work was not started until 1948.
One of the advantages of being in a remote location and on a base is that there is a lot of space at the Mission. Wide open spaces abound here. Still visible are parts of the original aqueduct that was built in the late 1700s. The aqueduct was filled with water diverted from a river 2 miles away and is considered to be one of the greatest engineering feats of the 18th century. This Mission, at one point in its history, produced wine. Part of the museum tour took me into a room where they would press the grapes. The press was above a room full of barrels. As the grapes were pressed, the juices would seep down into the barrels below the press, and it would be allowed to ferment there. I spent some time exploring the museum (a common feature to all of the 8 Missions that I visited on the trip) and then some additional time just wandering the grounds. Extant on the grounds is an Indian Cemetery that was laid out in 1804. In the distance, Junipero Serra Peak is visible. At 5,862 feet, this is the tallest peak in Monterey County. Not really very high, but, hey, we won't tell that to the peak. The peak was named after Fr. Junipero Serra, founder of this and many of the other California Missions.
After I had toured the Mission and wandered the grounds, I got back into the car and hit the road for the next stop on my tour: Mission Soledad.
In a recent entry I made mention of the fact that I was being stalked by a female ninja. I have not elaborated on this for several days now, mainly for fear that my internet-savvy ninja stalker might see my comments and become more hostile than she already is. But the truth simply can't be resrtained any longer - I must tell you the tale of my female ninja.
