Coming Home

November 1, 2012
This is our last day before turning north to come home.  It is with mixed emotions that we leave.  While we are both anxious to get home, the weather is great here, today in the low 80s and about 65 last night.  Best of all it's been sunny.  As it is about 1100 miles back, we figure on taking 3 days to do it.  Tomorrow night we plan to stop near Birmingham, AL, then Elizabethtown, KY before the final push.

This differs a bit from our original plan, but after the Space Center, we question if Huntsville will be of any value to us. Unfortunately, at Kentucky Horse Park, the museum and additional activities are closed on Monday/Tuesday after November 4th.

Our day was spent visiting one of the plantations along the Mississippi.  We chose the Evergreen Plantation because it is the most intact plantation in the area.  Since the early 1800s, it has withstood hurricanes, floods, and the Civil War.  For us, these plantations differ from the ones we have seen in Virginia, South Carolina, and Georgia.  They are impressive but not huge like the mansions we have seen before. In New Orleans the crop was sugar cane.  Harvesting sugar cane is very hard and dangerous work.  It is harvested bent over using a machete to cut the stalks.  Think about doing this for 14 hours per day in very humid, 90+ degrees, and subtropical conditions.  In addition you are  standing but a few feet from others doing the same thing.  We wonder how many hands and feet got chopped off. This work was performed by slaves.  There were 54 slaves on this plantation for about 800 acres of sugar cane.

Sugar cane is a perennial grass, but a declining yield forces replanting every 2 to ten years,  A stalk of cane is planted, today it is done by machine, then by hand.  The field is initially burned to get rid of dry leaves and to expose the stalk.  The stalks are cut to length, chipped or ground, then pressed to extract the juice.  The juice is boiled to invert the sugar.  Then the liquid in the syrup is boiled away. The result is an unrefined sugar.

A couple of interesting tidbits we learned.  The ceiling of the front porch of the main house is painted a sky blue.  The superstition is that the blue will ward off evil spirits, keeping them outside the house.  Second, did you know a Creole was anyone of first generation born in Louisiana?  They can be German, French, or American.  We thought they were at least part French.

Some pictures follow. 

Evergreen Plantation Main House

Evergreen Mansion Slave Quarter

This will be the last post until we get home.  We will do a conclusion post at that time.  Hope you have enjoyed riding along with us.

The Big Easy

October 31, 2012
After a lengthy drive we arrived in the New Orleans area at a KOA campground yesterday.  Wow, what a difference.  This campground, as with most KOAs, is very nice and clean, but costs about 2 1/2 times what we paid in League City.  The drive included a 25 mile long "swamp bridge" over Atchafalaya National Wildlife Refuge.  There was a shorter bridge over the Maurepas Swamp WMA.  Building these things must have been a huge feat.  The Atchafalaya is the location for Swamp People, shown on the History Channel.

Today we went to the French Quarter in New Orleans.  This place is normally a little strange, but today being Halloween many people were in costume adding to the aura.  We now understand that Halloween rivals the Mardi Gras as the most popular "holiday", however, we left before things got too crazy.  Dan's favorite things there include beignet, gumbo, and pralines; all of which were sampled during our visit today.  Besides great food, the place is known for jazz and its buildings which pretty much all date back to the early 1800s. 

St Louis Cathedral, Andrew Jackson Statue in foreground

This guy remained statue-like and motionless

Halloween decorations

Another oddity, since N.O. is below sea level, bodies are placed in above ground crypts.  The St. Louis Cemetery can be visited.  There were several people hanging out to gather a group and offer a tour.  We thought this was a bit sacrilegious, but it is New Orleans.  Following are some pictures.

Crypts in St Louis Cemetery

October 29, 2012
Today was an extra day, as Dan made a mistake in the trip planner. So we decided to head toward Galveston Island.  Originally we thought the Island was only a resort for the rich.  We were wrong. Yes, it was inhabited by wealthy people, but it was a significant Texas city and port.  We visited one of the mansions, the Moody Mansion.  This place was built in the 1890s and had indoor plumbing and electricity.  Photography was restricted so only outside shots are provided. 

We also went to the Ocean Star off shore oil rig museum.  This museum tells the story of off shore oil drilling and the transfer of oil to the shore stations.  It explains the process well and was very interesting.  Working on one of these things appears to be very dangerous.

October 28, 2012
We spent the day visiting some friends in the Houston area.  Actually two stops.  The first was with Bob, a work associate of Dan's, who lives amongst several golf clubs.  What better way to see the sights than by cruising around in Bob's hopped up golf cart, very cool!  Our second stop was to visit Lynn's friends, Debbie and Hugh, topped off with a tasty Texas BBQ dinner.  Another great day!

Houston

October 27, 2012

We are in League City at the Safari MH and RV Park.  We arrived late yesterday and the office was closed, but since I called and reserved a spot, they had our assigned campsite posted on the office door.  The park is dumpy compared to others we have stayed at, but our Passport America pass got it for $16 per night, which makes it bearable.  It is downright cold here this morning.  Geez, Houston at 50 degrees, who would have thought?

We bundled up and headed for the Port of Houston to take a boat tour, M/V Sam Houston, at 10AM.  Brrr!  Some of those heavy clothes we haven’t used all trip got used today.  Yeh, I know what you’re thinking, another Dan stop to see freighters, oil refineries, and commercial ship stuff.  Well you’re right, but it was neat, and best of all it was free!

We then went back down to the Space Center.  Our second day was free, as you do not have much time to see the place on tour day.  We took in several interesting movies and presentations.  Overall the visit to JSC was good, but we have a couple of beefs.  First they charge extra for a bunch of the stuff we think should be included in the $22 regular admission fee, like $6 for parking, $3 to let your kid blow off some energy in their play pen, and $6 for the audio tour.  Second, the Tram Tour, an essential part of the visit, is first come first serve basis.  When they get busy it is easy to blow 1 hour waiting for the dumb thing.  Our Level 9 Tour allowed us to by-pass that hassle.  They should assign tram times when you buy your ticket as the tram only runs every 45 minutes or so.

If you decide to visit and take the Level 9 Tour, and we recommend it by the way, even at $90, you will stop at the employee cafeteria for lunch.  Save time for your souvenir shopping at the employee gift store within the cafeteria.  It is a bit limited in selection, but prices are much cheaper than at the space center gift shop.   

October 26, 2012

We left Montgomery early this morning to travel to the Johnston Space Center in Houston.  Our Level 9 Tour at NASA was at 11:30, but we had concerns of heavy traffic traversing Houston during rush hour, although it wasn’t that bad. We arrived early.  The tour was pretty cool.  We saw the Neutral Buoyancy Lab, actually a 40 ft deep pool they use for training astronauts in zero gravity.  Under water is a full mockup of the International Space Station.  Unfortunately no activity was going on there as it was “Safety Day” where the safety equipment was being checked. 

Other stops included Mission Control and the Astronaut Training Facility. The tour took over 5 hours to complete.  Some pictures are included below.

Apollo Mision Control

 This historical room heard "One small step for man, one giant step for mankind", and "Houston, we have a problem"

International Space Station (ISS) Current Mission Control

Neutral Buoyancy Lab with ISS Mock-up

Gemini Space Walk Simulation

 

October 25, 2012

We went up to Huntsville today to visit the Sam Houston Museum.  Huntsville was Houston’s homestead, where he resided during much of his political career, raised 4 of his 8 children, and is buried there.  Sam Houston was a very significant figure in Texas history and their fight for independence from Mexico.  He would have likely been a candidate for the Presidency had he not taken an unpopular stand to not join the Confederacy in the Civil War.  Also in Huntsville is a very impressive 65 ft tall statue of Houston that is right alongside I-45. 

October 24, 2012

Today we visited the George Bush Museum and Library located on campus of Texas A&M in College Station.  The museum provided an in depth look into Bush’s life before he entered the public arena.  He was a naval aviator in WWII, and crashed twice, nearly being captured by the Japanese after one of those crashes.  He graduated with a business degree from Yale and started an oil drilling business near Midland and later in the Gulf.  He must have made a ton of money, because we saw no record of a “real” job after he began his political pursuit.  He and Barbara suffered the loss of their daughter Robin to Leukemia when she was only 3 years old.  Today they work with cancer patients and research, driven by Robin’s death.

Berlin Wall Freedom Sculpture

This sculpture was originally at the Berlin Wall site.  After destruction of the Wall this sculpture was given to the Bush Library.  The horses are shown going over the broken down wall.

October 23, 2012

Most of today was a travel day to Montgomery, a distance of slightly less than 300 miles.  We were amazed to see the extent of development which extended from Sugarland, through Houston, and all the way up to Montgomery.  Our campground is a KOA here in Montgomery, very nice.  The objective of our visit is to see some dear friends Dan used to work with that currently live on Lake Conroe.

October 22, 2012

We went to Padre Island National Seashore today to play a little in the ocean and walk the beach. It was very windy today with fairly big surf, so it was fun walking along the water’s edge, something we enjoy doing.  Along the way we searched for shells, but were disappointed not to find many, just small ones.  There were quite a number of Man-of-War jellyfish washed on shore, their possible presence in the surf kept us more on shore.  There was camping right on the beach if you wanted to do it and there were several campers there.  Hearing the surf all night would be cool.  Following are some pictures.

Mission for the Day

October 21, 2012

We arrived in Corpus Christi today following a relatively short drive from San Antonio.  Wow, in the 90s and humidity we have not experienced for several weeks.  Although late in the day, we decided to visit the USS Lexington Museum.  The USS Lexington is an aircraft carrier from WWII, however it is actually a replacement, as the original CV-2 was sunk in a battle in Coral Bay in 1942.  This carrier, CV-6, replaced it in 1943.  After a refit in 1955 it was used primarily for training until decommissioned in 1990. 

We have not been on an aircraft carrier, so there was an interest to learn how airplanes were launched, landed, and handled.  Unfortunately, we did not learn that here.  At $24 for the two of us, it was overpriced for what you learn.  The price seems to be justified, in their opinion, for the 3-D movie and hands on simulators.  In all fairness however, our late arrival only gave us time to see about ½ of the self guided tour, but our admission permits a revisit tomorrow, which we may do.  A couple of pictures are provided.

October 20, 2012

Today we went into downtown San Antonio to visit the Alamo and wander around the Riverwalk. The campground was perfectly situated at a bus stop that took us down for $1.10 each / each way.  It worked out well.  Although Dan has been to the Alamo several times, something new is learned with each visit.  The Docents there are very knowledgeable and helpful, and it was Founder’s Day, so there were folks dressed in character.  We had a chance to speak to William Travis. 

 The young man playing the part fit the character to a tee and we had quite the discussion about his decision to fight.  With some confidence, he thought Houston was going to send reinforcements.  A new fact for us, did you know that Alamo heroes Bowie, Crocket, Travis, Bonham and Dickenson we Masons? 

We had quite a conversation about Santa Anna and how he got to power with another Docent.  Hmmm… talk about history repeating itself.  This guy was elected, overwhelmingly, by the new Mexican republic for his support of a Federalist style of government; then changed his mind after he got into office.  Not only to a Centralist government, but a Dictatorship!  So it was no surprise that many decided to rebel rather than live under a Dictator.  San Antonio de Valero was considered a strategic location for the northern Mexican state of Tejas to fight for their independence. 

Upon recommendation, we also visited the San Jose’ and Concepción Missions.  There are several missions in the San Antonio area, including the Alamo, that were built in the 1700s by the Spanish in their efforts to “civilize” the Indians.  What sets this area apart from others we’ve visited on this trip is that the Indians saw benefits by joining and did so voluntarily.  While San Jose’ is fully restored there are several others not restored.  Considering they are over 300 years old and still being used for weekly services they are in remarkably good condition. 

Mission San Jose

Mission Concepcion

We finished off the day with a great dinner, with friends, at a local restaurant.

October 19, 2012

We got an early start today, as we had a long drive ahead, 450 miles. The scenery in southern New Mexico and northern Texas was dotted with oil derricks and pumps.  Only about 1 in 8 pumps were operating.  What gives?  We suspected they were idled awaiting the oil price to rise…. really?  Probably hoping for $200/barrel.  

I-10 had a fair number of decent hills. We were also bucking somewhat of a headwind, so mileage this segment was pretty dismal at 8-9 mpg and gas running $3.80, made for an expensive day.

October 18, 2012

We went back to Carlsbad Caverns today to go on the lantern tour and enter via the Natural Entrance.  I also took a tripod to get some better pictures.  If you go to the Caverns, we highly recommend it, a good itinerary would be to get there at 8AM, buy the King’s Palace tour tickets for 10AM, hike in using the Natural Entrance, take the King’s Palace tour, which meets at the end of the NE hike, then tour the Big Room.  For a second day, if you want the lantern tour, called Left Hand Cave, buy tickets when you buy the King’s Palace tickets.  These may be hard to get as only 15 are permitted on the tour.

UFOs and Stalactites

October 17, 2012
We visited Carlsbad Cavern National Park today.  Wow!  For those that have seen it, you know why it's a WOW.  This is not your run of the mill cave.  The Big Room can hold 14 football fields and is a mile and 1/2 around.  There are stalactite, stalagmite, popcorn, and drapery formations of all shapes, sizes, and colors. The photos included don't come close to displaying the beauty.  A big surprise to us was that it's underground by 750 feet and you ride up and down in an elevator, although there is a walk in entrance we are taking tomorrow.  Once down there, you'll find bathrooms, real ones not porta-potties; a lunch/snack bar; and a gift store.  Its like a city down there.  The paths are paved and in most areas of the Big Room, wheelchair accessible.

The cave was discovered in the 1890s by James Larkin White ( a 16 year old), and became a National Park in 1930. It is named after the city of Carlsbad, NM.  Carlsbad was named for its mineral springs after the German town of Karlsbad.  The Caverns became of commercial importance for the collection of Guano, bat poop, which is supposedly an excellent fertilizer.   They extracted 100,000 tons of the stuff, until the Park Service shut it down.  Now folks, that's a forty foot deep pile; 100s of yards across.  So, as you might surmize they have lots of bats here, but they tend to follow the bugs and have gone elsewhere for the winter. 

The lighting in the cave is spectacular.  It was setup by theatrical lighting experts in the 70s, to accentuate the formations.  It does an awesome job and setting this up had to have been a really big deal.  They are preparing to redo it using LEDs which are more energy efficient and does not promote additional heat and algae.  They figure 3-5 years to complete.

We're going back tomorrow to take a lantern hike and to hike in from the Natural Entrance, no elevator.  We are also going back to the Big Room with a tripod to get better pixs.

October 16, 2012
What would a stop in New Mexico be without visiting Roswell?  This little town got it's notoriety from an incident in 1947, where allegedly a Flying Saucer with Aliens crashed during a big thunderstorm.  In town is the International UFO Museum and Research Center where they give you the true story.  It describes the government's coverup in detail.  It will make you a believer.  Now it is time to point out that this balances the PIMA Air Museum, as this was Lynn's stop, as shown in the picture.  However Dan found it interesting also.

From Cowboys to White Sand

October 15, 2012

This area is known for its white sand dunes, present in the White Sands National Monument.  This park encompasses about 80% of the white sands area.  The sand is pure white and powdery as sugar.  You maybe accustomed to the silica type sand and dunes that are off white, and found along shorelines.  This stuff is different.  It is gypsum, yep the same stuff that's in drywall.  Chemically its hydrous calcium sulfate, formed from dissolution of the surrounding mountains from rain and snow.  This runoff collects in the Tularosa Basin and forms lakes that dry up.  Everywhere else this runoff would go into the sea, but here it is trapped and evaporates.

Crystals of selenite form, which are very fragile and breakdown into very fine particles by the strong winds present during the summer monsoon.  This wind movement also creates the dunes, which are said to be moving southwest to northeast at a rate of up to 35 feet per year in some areas.  The true story though is how plants and animals have adapted to live here, from fast growing soaptree yucca, to the white earless lizards.  More than once though for us northerners, we caught ourselves expecting it to be cold when we jumped out of the truck.  It looks just like snow and the plow they use on the park road to keep it open creates the same plow furloughs.  Check out the views.

Gypsum crystals

October 14, 2012

This was a travel day as we made our way toward Alamogordo, Spanish for Big Cottonwood, due to three huge cottonwood trees that lived by the local spring.  Strange to us, we have now encountered two Border Patrol checkpoints, asking our citizenship in our travels.  You pass through several cameras upon entering these checkpoints.  The scenery is quite pretty, but there are the climbs as you make your way over some of the mountains.  The truck handled these with little problem, maintaining 45-50 mph, but at 8 to 9 mpg.  We have been experimenting with the gas, since regular is 86 octane.  It seems to work fine no knocking and fuel economy is the same as with 88 octane mid-grade.

October 13, 2012

Today we visited Tombstone, AZ, about an 1 ½ hour drive from Tucson.  The town is actually an Old West museum.  Of course it is most known for the shootout at the OK Corral between the Earp brothers, the McLowerys, and the Clantons, which we’ll get to momentarily.  Tombstone however  really began as a mining town after Ed Schieffelin discovered silver in 1877.  All the gunfights and typical old west type stuff were actually pretty common in mining towns.  Setting Tombstone apart were a band of cowboys that rustled cattle, robbed stagecoaches, and generally caused problems with the residents of Tombstone.

In the 1880s Tombstone was in its heyday, 15,000 residents and a booming economy.  They bounced back from two fires that destroyed the town, but when the pumps failed and the mines flooded that was pretty much the end of it.  We toured one of Schieffelin’s mines, down to 400 feet or so, as the rest is still underwater.  This is an underground hard rock mine.  They drilled the holes for dynamite by hand using hammer and star bits, by candlelight!  We can only imagine how many hands were broken in this process.  When he finally sold the mine, Schieffelin had earned $300,000 in 1890’s dollars.  Yield ran as high as 1400 ounces of silver per ton.  Schieffelin staked his claim, calling it Tombstone, since he was told he would have a tombstone before he found any silver.  Thus the town became known by that name.

 

Drilling holes for dynamite

Now onto the big gunfight, which lasted all of 30 seconds, however the build up was going on for weeks. Mainly it was between the Clantons and Doc Holiday.  Holiday started the thing going when he shot Billy Clanton.  Ironically, the McLowery’s were leaving town and were at the OK Corral to settle a debt.  They were armed which was against the law at the time in Tombstone.  As you know, Frank and Tom McLowery and Billy Clanton were killed. Virgil and Morgan were wounded.  Ike Clanton, Holiday’s nemesis got away as he was unarmed. Did you know that Doc was a dentist, but he was better known as a gambler and drunk? 

There was an inquest but without a decision. Virgil was later badly wounded and lost use of his left arm.  Morgan was killed.  After that,Wyatt went off the deep end and led a vendetta to kill all the cowboys; high on the list were the men that killed Morgan.  The town does a good job of preserving this history, although few of the buildings are original.  The OK Corral re-enactment was a bit of a disappointment.  There was no gun smoke and the guns sounded like toys.  Visiting Tombstone was really like a day back in time.

Tombstone Residents

Allen St, the main street of Tombstone

October 12, 2012

Today’s adventure took us to the Pima County Air & Space Museum.  Looking at a bunch of old airplanes is not Lynn’s idea of a day in paradise, but she did find parts of it interesting.  Dan took the tour to the “Boneyard”, actually the Davis Monthon A.F.B. (Aerospace Maintenance And Regeneration Group) where military aircraft removed from service are brought for storage or scrap.  There were 4,400 aircraft on site.  Many planes date back to the Korean War.  The U.S. has sold many surplus aircraft to other countries. When a part is needed that cannot be made, they place an order and the part is cannibalized from one of these planes.

Between the two locations is an amazing collection of old, and not so old, aircraft.  Pima has done a remarkable job in restoring the aircraft they have on display.  Dan is somewhat an aircraft aficionado, as the design and size of these machines is a fascination.  The following are pictures of a few.

Planes being parted out

F14A "Top Gun"

The Old West and Cactus

October 11, 2012

We arrived in Tucson today after a short drive from Mesa and spent the afternoon visiting the Sonoran Desert Museum and Saguaro National Park. Our campground, Desert Trails is mostly deserted, which is a welcome relief from the hustle and bustle of campgrounds from previous nights.  The Desert Museum is actually a combination of botanical garden and zoo, although the garden is not as well maintained as the one we went to yesterday in Phoenix.  It is a more "natural" setting and the specimens exhibited are just those that have grown up in the park.  The zoo portion has animals native to the area. There were some unique animals that we haven't seen before, like a coati, that is related to the racoon. It had a long tale and  a much longer nose than a racoon.  I could not get a picture as it stayed back in some brush.

The hummingbird aviary was pretty neat.  We were surprised to see so many varieties of hummingbirds.  We were a bit disappointed that more animals were not visible, but that is typical for a zoo. Nearing dusk we headed into Saguaro NP.  Saguaro cactus are quite unusual.  The arms you see form after the plant is 50-75 years old.  Many Saguaros in the Park are 125 to 150 years old.  Every spring when they reach an age of about 25 they bear a fruit that is harvested by the Tohyonr O'odham Indians for making jams, syrups and wine.  Birds peck holes in the outer skin to build nests.  As we learned yesterday, the inner wooden core is often used by Indians for building materials.

Saguaro National Park needs some love from the NPS.  Trails are a bit rough and unimproved,  There is a 5 mile dirt and bumpy loop road that takes you though stands of Saguaro,  To us, the park is a forest, except instead of trees it's Saguaro cacti. 
   

October 10, 2011

Today we visited the Desert Botanical Garden near Phoenix  This place is awesome.  We had no idea there were so many different species of cactus.  The cactus is an amazing plant.  They all have a wood-like inner structure for support, and a large, shallow root system for collecting minute volumes of water.  A falicy is that in the desert, one can slice a cactus and get water. The water is stored in a pulpy material that holds the moisture, but it really is not edible.  The pleat pattern you see is to allow for expansion to store water and contract as the water is consumed.   Most bloom then form a fruit often used in jams and syrups.  The needles on a cactus are for protection, and I would say after closer examination, are effective.

Within the Garden was a Monarch Butterfly garden, kinda of an aviary for butterflies.  This area is on the migratory route.

October 9, 2012

We spent the day with our friend, by going to the Goldfield Ghost Town and Museum near Superstition Mountain.  This area of Arizona experienced a gold rush in 1880s with this mine producing several thousand pounds of gold.  The mine in this location was abandoned in the 1890s, and as typical they just left, leaving all their junk behind.  There are original buildings and equipment, and also some buildings from Apache Land, a movie set used up until the 1990s for Hollywood and TV westerns.  Overall, an interesting place.

October 7-8, 2012

Its Sunday, what better day to visit Las Vegas.  Afterall no one should be in the City of Sin on the Sabboth, right?  Wrong!  This place was booming with people everwhere.  We hit the Pawn Stars shop first thing before the Strip got too choked with cars.  Its just like the show, but no Rick Chumlee, or the Old Man.  History films there every weekday for 1/2 hour between 9 and 3PM.

We then parked in the MGM Grand garage and walked part of the Strip up to Bellagio.  All we can say is wow.  This is excess to the max!  The shops, like those at Ceasar's, called the Shops at the Forum.  Stores like Tiffanies, Gucci, Rolex, and Coach; and people were buying stuff.  Maybe their gambling experience was profitable.  Fountains and manmade lakes were everywhere, water shortage?  These guys did not get the memo. This sure was not the Las Vegas we remembered from the 70s.  We walked, about 4 miles up, then back to MGM before heading home.  We decided we have now had our Las Vegas experience.

It's Monday and we are on our way to Mesa, AZ, to visit a friend and take in some sights there.  We are staying at Valle de Oro.  A resort park so big you need a map to avoid getting lost.  Plan on staying here a couple of days.