Houston

I bought a new battery Friday morning, and we headed south on I-45 towards Houston. The scenery was wooded, unlike the high plains in the panhandle region. The traffic in Houston was intense, and the drivers are aggressive, so a challenge with a large vehicle. We found our campground, the Highway 6 RV park, which was quite nice. We paid a bit extra to get a site on the lake.

After we got settled, we headed the Brazos Bookstore, a local institution, and bought a few books. Then we drove to Ryan's bar, Darwin's Pub. We ordered food and beer, and waited for Ryan to arrive; it was good to see him. Ryan describes the pub as a five star dive bar, and explained how he runs the place, with many activities and events. They don't open until 4 PM; many of the clientele are waiters and servers, who want to relax with their friends after work, so it is a late night crowd.

On Saturday, we headed to the Johnson Space Center, which has many artifacts, the most impressive of which was a 747 jetliner with a shuttle on top. The jetliner was used to return the shuttle to Florida after it landed in the California desert. The visit to the restored Apollo mission control room was memorable, with a simulation of the first moon landing. The mission had to change landing sites on the fly, and had only 17 seconds of fuel left by touchdown. Of course, we remember the 1969 moon landing, so this was very meaningful to us.

We then visited the San Jacinto Battlefield and Memorial, which is slightly higher than the Washington Monument in DC. We did not elect to take an elevator to the top. The monument commemorates the victory of the Texans over Santa Anna, who was taken captive, in 1836. This battle gave the Texans their independence, and led indirectly to the Mexican-American war of 1846. This was an important part of US history, since that war resulted in Mexico seceding California and most of the west to the US. The battleship Texas is located nearby.

We had dinner on the picnic table next to our camper, as it was not too cold with jackets on. We did not need a jacket during the day, which was quite pleasant.

On Sunday, we went to church at St Catherine of Sienna in Houston. The priest was a very funny Irishman. The gospel was the Three Wise Men, but he reminded us that the scripture does not say if there were three wise men or some other number, or even if they were men or women. We were drafted to bring up the gifts, and he joked that maybe there were two wise men (us).

After mass, we went to Goode Company Barbecue to take out lunch. The décor was 100% Texas, down to the stuffed bison with a saddle. ;-) We headed to Ryan's house, where Sandi met Cindy, and we both met Orren, about three months old. They have a cute house that they bought a couple of years ago. We had a nice visit, and then headed back to the campground.