We had lunch at the Village Buttery, said good-bye to the Cheevers and began the drive to El Paso. Along the way we stopped at a fascinating mission church, St. Joseph's, in the heart of an Apache Indian Reservation.
The Church was built by a Franciscan priest, Father Albert, and his friends and volunteers. All material is native to the area. The stone came from a quarry four miles away. The Church was completed in 1939 and is being restored today. Bats live in the rafters of the Church. Volunteers come in each day to scoop up the guana. It is used for fertilizer at nearby gardens.
Father Albert served as a Chaplain in WW II and survived three and a half years as a prisoner of war in the Philippines. When he died at 93 his remains were returned to the Mission and are buried in the sanctuary.
The Apache painting and the Apache Christ are on the altar. The Apache Christ icon celebrates the beauty of the Apache culture, specifically the culture of the Mescalero Apaches of New Mexico. He stands on their sacred mountain. The inscription at the bottom is Apache for "Giver of Life," one of their names for God.
We are at the doors of the Church. One of the "church cleaners" took our picture.
John stopped to take a picture of the mountains. We loved the scenic drive and even found a terrific winery and ranch in the middle of nowhere where we bought a bottle of wine for our friends at the next stop.
We arrived at the home of Joseph and Bettye Simonelli on Fort Bliss. It is one of the biggest Army posts in the U.S. and the facilities for the troops are first class in every way.Joseph is the Garrison Commander of Fort Bliss and Bettye and I played tennis together in Virginia. Bettye and her friend, Denise, gave us the grand tour of Fort Bliss and El Paso. It was eye-opening. El Paso is surrounded by mountains and many, many homes have gorgeous views. We loved it!
We are at a look-out point in the mountains.
Here you see downtown El Paso in the distance. On our drive we, also, saw Juarez, Mexico, and the border fence. No one from the base is allowed to go to Juarez. We returned to Fort Bliss and picked up Joseph and went to Freedom Center on base for a concert. Gathered were 3 thousand troops and their families. Everyone was having fun.
Joseph is introducing the concert. He has a Facebook page called "Colonel Joe wants to know." People ask questions and give him suggestions about EVERYTHING! He has 4,500 friends on Facebook.
Here I am with the Eli Young Band before the performance. I said to them, "I have no idea who you guys are but you must be good because there are a lot of people here excited to see you."
They WERE good!
We left the Simonellis and headed for the airport and a short flight to San Antonio.
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