Installment #7

On Saturday, we took off in the car for Houston sightseeing –


As always, we hope you can click on the pictures to see a bigger picture.

the Chase Tower (the tallest composite all concrete building in the world);
a beer can house (a house clad in cut and flattened beer cans, wind chimes made of beer can tops)(picture);





an art car museum (pictures). The shell of the car comprised millions of small rectangular pieces of thin steel tack welded to each other (see second close up picture).










the Holocaust Museum (http://www.dallasholocaustmuseum.org/)

and the Galleria shopping Center (picture)
(http://www.texasoutside.com/houston/galleria.htm) (spent hours walking around, watching the ice skaters, looking at the Goddard Gallery (http://www.michaelgodard.com/biography.html) – one of his paintings shown here.



No visit to a city would be complete without a driving mistake – Sharon found herself driving down the streetcar lane – luckily no streetcar on the route at the time, but locals certainly honked a lot and finally a car drove up beside and stopped traffic so we could move over into a driving lane (that car just happened to be a police car).

Sights we saw along our travels
A buffalo ranch
Computer in rest stop, made to look like someone’s rendition of the "first computer" (see picture)









Passed through Sealy, Texas, where Sealy mattresses are made.
U-Haul self storage buildings in downtown Houston
Cotton Exchange building in downtown Houston
Talked to a fellow motorhomer from Seattle – the next morning we watched him leaving the parking lot in the motorhome. Evidently, he forgot to hitch up his towed car. He had to reverse back into the parking lot to get it. This has not happened to us……….. yet!!!!


We spent some time with Sharon Kay (a childhood friend of Sharon’s). The doll picture is of dolls she made – they were amazing. Sharon Kay volunteers at the Houston Zoo and has spent years developing a non profit organization to help Native Americans (http://www.northamericanindianministries.org/)
Sharon Kay works mainly with the orangutans – while at the zoo. She gave one of them a drink – and the orangutan spit the water at Sharon – guess she didn’t like not having Sharon Kay’s undivided attention. Some of the sights we saw at the zoo (http://www.houstonzoo.org/) – underwater diver cleaning window inside an aquarium, snakes, rats, giraffes, lizards, bears, birds, tigers (picture), white alligator, lions (picture) and elephants (some of them painting pictures). Zoo keepers put paint on a brush, put it in the elephant’s trunk (picture), put a canvas up close to the elephant, and the elephant swipes the paint onto the canvas. Then the zoo keepers dip the brush in another color and do the process over again. These canvases are sold to the public. Sharon Kay auctioned some paintings from the orangutans for $400.00 at a fund raiser.




When we were ready to head east out of Houston, Tony noticed the tow dolly had a stress fracture in one of the welds. A trip to Wal-Mart for a phone book, several phone calls, and several hours later, we were ready to hit the road again. The welder we found was only five miles from where we were – a lucky break in a city this size. Unfortunately the heat from the welder caused Tony to have to rewire the tow dolly before we could proceed East.

Our next touring point was the San Jacinto Monument
http://www.sanjacinto-museum.org/Monument_and_Museum/Story_of_the_Monument/
and the Battleship Texas (commissioned in 1914, was the most powerful weapon in the world, the only surviving U.S. naval vessel to have seen service in both World Wars) http://www.visithoustontexas.com/visitors/attractions/listing.details.php?category=12412&id=28319
We watched many barges and tug boats while we were on the "Texas". The self-guided tour allowed us to go down to the engine room and about 2/3 of the way up the different levels. This visit was recommended by Sharon’s brother Jim. A GOOD recommendation. On the way we saw Solvay Chemicals – the company Jim works for in Wyoming.


Our last stop in Texas was Beaumont at the Babe Didrikson Zaharias Museum (http://www.famoustexans.com/babedidrikson.htm) - her record for athletic versatility stands at the top for both men and women). Also in Beaumont, we visited the Texas energy museum (here we saw robots describing the finding of oil)(picture); a Victorian Queen Anne home (picture); the Edison museum (http://www.edisonmuseum.org/) ; and the Texas fire museum, with the world’s largest fire hydrant (picture) (provided by Walt Disney after the making of the "101 Dalmations" movie) www.firemuseumoftexas.org



After spending ten days driving across Texas, we arrived in Jennings, Louisiana, via Lake Charles. On the way to Jennings, we stopped at Lake Charles (picture) at the lake where they had an alligator and turtle park. Took a picture of one of the many high bridges we went over (picture). On the road trip we saw what we think is rice fields and a lot of swamp land. This is the worst road surface we have been on. We saw miles and miles where the semi trucks have lost tires – the road is covered with pieces of tread. Tony slowed down considerably and only got honked at one time by a trucker unhappy with our speed of 45 on the interstate.

Thanks again for all the phone calls, emails, and blog messages.

~~Sharon & Tony