Saturday, March 19, 2011

Texas

We are enjoying Texas with its wide open spaces and lots of things to see and do. We went to Space Center Houston and saw Johnson Space Center as part of the tram tour. After seeing the Discovery launch in Florida, this was a good look at the background behind the launch. We even got to see Gene Krantz who was the flight director for all of Apollo and some shuttle missions. He was filming a documentary and we were on the other side of the glass! The Saturn missle was immense and complex.
We stayed at a park along the Colorado River (in Texas - not to be confused with the Colorado River on the California/Arizona border!) and saw deer, three wild boars and a frisky armadillo! Of course we didn't have the camera with us when we saw the boars and armadillo so our memory will have to be enough!

From Houston, we drove to San Antonio and spent the day viewing the Alamo and the River Walk.

The weather here is a lot like S. California in June - what we call June gloom. Cool and overcast in the morning and hot and sunny in the afternoon. Temperatures are in the 80's in the afternoon so we try to do physical labor stuff in the morning and then relax in the afternoon. We drove north to Fredericksburg yesterday. It was settled by Germans in the 1800s and they have preserved some of the old buildings. We enjoyed tasting salsas, jams, barbecue sauces and dips provided by the different gift shops along Main Street. It was a nice day trip.

Our next stop is Carlsbad Caverns.

Tuesday, March 8, 2011

Four States in One Day

After 3 months in Florida, we are on the road again, heading west. Monday we left Milton, FL (east of Pensecola) and drove through Alabama, Mississippi, and stopped outside of New Orleans, LA. We spent eight hours touring around New Orleans on Monday (Lune Gras) and avoided New Orleans all together on Mardi Gras. Bourbon Street was crowded
and the parades were long but we had fun catching beads as the float riders tossed them to the crowd.
We saw the beginning of the Mississippi River in Minnesota when we were there in August and now we've seen the end at New Orleans! Some day we will have to travel its entire length!
Tomorrow we will continue across Louisiana and into Texas on Friday.

We posted the shuttle launch on YouTube. E-mail me and I will send you the link!!!