Tuesday, 10/4: 185 miles, parked at Lake Charles RV Resort in Iowa, Louisiana
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| US 61 to I-10 |
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| Lake Charles RV Resort, site 61 |
We had a 4 hour drive today, starting on US 61 and finishing on I-10. This park is quite new, and apparently started as a KOA. It was nearly empty except for a group of construction workers who left every morning at 5:00 and arrived back at their campers about 6:00 in the evening. The park is right next to I-10, so there is a lot of road noise, but that never bothers us. It is a nice park for a short stay, but to call it a resort is a bit of a stretch.
Wednesday, 10/5: 156 miles, parked at Eastlake RV Resort, Houston, Texas
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| Interstate 10 to Beaumont, Texas, and then US 90 to Houston |
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| Eastlake RV Resort, site 82 |
It was a short 3 hour drive today, starting on I-10 to Beaumont and finishing on US 90 from there. We arrived about 1:00 and it was warm and sunny with temps in the high 80's. Eastlake is a large and very immaculate park surrounding a manmade lake. The sites have wide concrete pads and are landscaped with perfectly manicured turf. The trees are few and young. It appears that the majority of residents are long term. Many appear to have families and are employed in the area. I got to visit with the young couple next to us. They have three young children, and he is employed by the Exxon Mobile Refinery. They bought the camper because he thought they would be moving around quite a bit for work, but he found this job at Exon and has been here for some time.
Pamela arrived about 3:00. She drove us to meet her husband Clyde for dinner at 6:00 at the Wild Oat. The restaurant is part of the huge Houston Farmers Market complex. The Tex-Mex menu was filled with spicy items. I ended up up having shrimp and grits, Tex-Mex style with spicy (borderline for my tender mouth) shrimp on grits mixed with sweet corn. Judy had a spicy Gulf Snapper dish and she liked it very much.
Thursday, 10/6:
Today we got to experience Houston freeway traffic. What fun! We drove into Houston proper, and of course hit a traffic jam because of an accident. So the 20 mile drive took nearly an hour. But after getting out of freeway traffic, we found Pamela and Clyde's home in a very quiet and pleasant neighborhood. Clyde took me on an auto tour of the neighborhood and we stopped at Central Market to pick up a few grocery items. Later the 4 of us went out to lunch at Flora. The Mexican style menu was excellent and the chandelier decor was elegant. Smart casual was the dress code. Judy and I had the catch of the day, halibut and it was very very good. Take a look at the amazing menu here. We capped the meal off with desserts that were rich and filling. No need for dinner tonight!!
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| Two short New Yorkers and two tall Texans. 😀 |
The drive back to the camper was an experience too. Not only rush hour, but we got caught in the wrong lane (out of 5) and missed an exit on the freeway. No problem. You never get lost with a GPS. You just take a different path and add 15, 20 or 30 minutes. All part of the adventure. 😀
On a side note, I read an article on CNN this evening about a Viking Cruise ship that was supposed to be sailing the Mississippi from New Orleans to St. Paul, Minnesota. Well, apparently the river is so low this year that the ship cannot make it all the way to St. Paul. I wonder if it is the same ship we saw docked in Natchez, and was heading up river. The CNN article didn't mention how far the vessel had made it. A second article discussed how almost all shipping between Vicksburg and Memphis has been delayed because of the unusually low water.
Friday, 10/7:
Pamela and Clyde picked us up this morning and took us to the Houston Space Center. We got there about 11:00 and it wasn't too crowded yet. We had tickets to the tram tour at 1:00. In the meantime, we investigated all the displays in the visitor center. They were really interesting and informative. The space program, from the beginnings with the Mercury fights all the way to the International Space Station and projected Mars projects were shown.
One of the high points for me was the mock up of the space shuttle and modified 747 that transported the shuttle from the landing sites back to the launch facilities in Florida. To be able to walk through the 747 and shuttle was fascinating.
The Independence shuttle never flew. It is a full scale mock up created for display only. It was originally named Explorer and was at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Now it is located atop the actual 747 that was modified and used to transport the shuttles back to Florida after their missions. The linked caption above takes you to the website for Independence Plaza, and includes a very good 45 second NASA video of the shuttle and 747. Of the 6 space shuttles that flew space missions, 4 survived. Columbia and Challenger were destroyed, one on launch and the other on reentry, resulting in loss of crews both times.
The Houston Space Center is HUGE, and although the tram tour showed how large the Space Center complex is, it was very poorly narrated!!! We barely understood a word because she talked too fast and read from a boring script instead of being informed and enthusiastic about explaining things. On top of all that, the poor acoustics on the tram didn't help either.
A stop on the tram tour included a visit to the research facility and a second stop to see the huge, 363 foot tall Saturn 5 Rocket that launched the moon missions.
By the time we returned from the tram tour, the visitor center was crowded. We couldn't get a tour of Mission Control because they were all sold out. Maybe next visit. I'm really glad we visited the Space Center. Ever since my youth, I've been a bit of a space junky. I vividly remember watching the first moon landing live on black and white TV. The phrases, "Houston, the Eagle has landed" from Apollo 11, and "Houston, we have a problem" from the Apollo 13 mission are etched in my memory. A visit to Mission Control would have been the icing on the cake.
We left the Space Center and went for an early dinner at nearby Landry's. Judy and I had redfish, rice and mixed vegetables, and it was excellent.
We were back "Home" by 6:00 at the camper. It was another full and fun day in Houston!
Saturday, 10/8:
Judy and I drove to Pamela and Clyde's house about 1:00.
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| Houston skyline with Minute Maid Stadium, Home of Houston Astros, on the left. |
They took us on a mini roadtrip, first stopping at the Houston Farmers Market. The market is near where we had dinner Wednesday. This time, being the weekend, the market was filled with shoppers and goods featuring almost every Southwestern spice and fruit you could think of. We ended up purchasing mango, starfruit, Mexican cheese, as well as trying various samples. The sights and smells of all the spices was a sensory overload. It was a wonderful experience.
After the Farmers Market, we stopped at the Central Market grocery store, a grocery store unlike anything we have back home. The choices in produce and seafood were amazing. We picked up some salmon and a few other items. On the way back to Pamela and Clydes, we got some takeout BBQ from Pinkerton that Clyde had preordered online. Check them out @
The BBQ was cooked and waiting for us when we arrived, thus avoiding the long line. Back at the house we enjoyed a filling dinner of ribs, pulled pork and brisket along with baked beans and black bean quinoa. Of course, Clyde brought out a chocolate cake he had purchased for dessert at a bakery around the corner. As usual, we ended the evening way too full.
We got back to the camper by 6:00 to feed and walk the dogs. It had been a very busy day, and we were exhausted. But it was a good tired. Fun, fun day!!
Sunday 10/9:
Pamela and Clyde came to camper about noon. Clyde took me on a "road trip" to show me the all the refineries along the shipping canal between Houston and Galveston Bay while the girls went through old photo scrapbooks.
Clyde also took me to the monument commemorating the Battle of San Jacinto, where Sam Houston in a surprise attack, with cries of "Remember the Alamo" overpowered the Mexican Army and captured Santa Anna. Thus the free state of Texas was born. At 567 feet, the monument is the tallest masonry column in the world and is taller than the Washington Monument by about 20 feet. Learn more about the monument and the battle of San Jacinto at:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Jacinto_Monument
Back at the camper, we found the girls still looking through photos.
For dinner, Judy and I prepared grilled salmon, peppers, onions and mushrooms, served over black bean rice. Unfortunately we are leaving tomorrow to start our journey home, so we did our goodbyes and hugs, promising to visit again in April of 2023.
To finish off the evening, I caught a photo of the full moon and Jupiter rising over the campsite. It was the culmination of a beautiful day and 5 wonderful days visiting Pamela and Clyde in Houston.
Tomorrow we are off to Lafayette, Louisiana.
