Friday, March 20, 2015

Spanish Missions in Texas


There has been a lot of interest, over the years, in my California Missions website.  The missions gave birth to the modern state of California.

I recently started learning about Spanish missions in other parts of the US, and I was inspired to create a new site, the Texas Mission Guide

The Texas missions are different from the California missions in several ways.  They were built much earlier (the LAST Texas mission was built just a few years after the FIRST California mission).  They were often built in groups, just a  few miles from one another, instead of forming a long trail of individual missions as they do in California.  There is also less known about the Texas missions, because many were abandoned and fell into ruins, with few records being kept. 

But just as in California, the missions laid the groundwork for today's culture.  The famed Texas cattle drives were started by Spanish missionaries moving herds to supply the missions!

The new site is a work in progress, but I am looking forward to learning more and visiting the Texas missions soon!

Sunday, March 01, 2015

How Far We've Come

This is a screen snapshot of a very early version of the Amazon.com website.

Given the appearance of the site, it's amazing that large numbers of people (including me) trusted them with credit card information.

I recall getting a free traveling coffee mug with the Amazon logo at Christmas the first year...  a gift to reward their early customers.