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.