I started the day by attending Mass at St Mary Magdalene Church this morning. I must read the time wrong last night because when I got to Church, Mass was well underway, having started at 8 am! I am not sure what went on in the 45 minutes before I arrived because the Creed was being said as I took my place in one of the back pews.
I chose to attend this Mass that was in Spanish because the next Mass in English at 10.30 would clash with the service at Miriam’s church.
At the end of Mass, the birthday of a parishioner was announced and she went up for a blessing and everyone sang ‘Happy birthday’ after the blessing. As I was leaving and wished the lady ‘happy birthday’ she asked if I was a newcomer and I told her I was visiting from the UK. Likewise at the entrance, Fr James Ikeatuegwu, was very happy to have a visitor from the UK. I guess Brackettville is not a destination that gets too many foreign tourists.
Mass ended at 9.30 and Miriam was due to come pick me up at 10, so I decided to walk the 1.3 miles back. I was stopped at the security gate to the estate and had to call Miriam to vouch for me. As I was about to call her, she called me instead to ask where I was as she was waiting at Church for me! Anyway, she came and found me and we drove home together.
We had a couple of slices of Peach bread with coffee on the back patio. It is nice bread. Then we got ready to leave for First Baptist Church, which is about a quarter of a mile on from St Mary Magdalene Church. The service involved a lot of singing and was very different indeed. But the people were very friendly and like at the Catholic Church, do not see too many tourists outside USA attending their church service. When we got home, Miriam prepared a light lunch. Then we went to the Fort Clark museum.
Miriam’s house is on the Fort Clark Springs site. Fort Clark is steeped in some amazing g history and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. It was a US Military fort, established on the banks of the Las Moras Springs Creek for almost a century from 1852 to shortly after WWII.
The little museum is full of interesting military items and information. Sadly it is maintained only by a few elderly volunteers.
Before becoming a general, Col George Patton served at Fort Clark as regimental commander of the Fifth Cavalry.
Brackettville started out being called Las Moras (Spanish for mulberries) because of the springs named by the early travelers here. The swimming pool contains water from the Las Moras Springs.
There is also a trail one could walk on and see some wildlife. We spotted a mother deer whose 2 babies had just run across the road to the other side.
It really was a fascinating place with so much history. By this time it was getting quite hot and we thought we’d go and swim in the Las Moras Springs Swimming pool built for the men all those years ago.
www.fortclark....
It was refreshing and relaxing and the water cooled us down quite a bit. We then spent a relaxing evening watching reruns of childhood sitcoms like ‘Dennis the Menace’, ‘That Girl’ starring Marlo Thomas and a couple more. Just 2 gals chilling out together.
Негізгі бет Relaxing day in Brackettville 29 September 2024
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