Victoria, Houston and Galveston, Texas

Hi 'ya all. We've been in Texas long enough to have picked up a new accent. (Gotta get out of here.) We were really glad to escape from Rockport with its caterpillar infestation. It took Jerry nearly three hours on Wednesday to completely scrub down the RV to get rid of them. He said that he washed hundreds of them from the undercarriage of the RV. Yuck!

From there, we headed out to Victoria, Texas, with a very clean coach, and stayed at the Lazy Longhorn RV Park. What a nice park!

The Lazy Longhorn RV Park in Victoria, Texas

We actually went 20 miles out of our way just to go to a restaurant in Victoria recommended by our friend, Marijean. The restaurant was called The Pumpstation, a converted water pump station located on the Guadelupe River. The food was excellent. Jerry had the pecan-honey-crusted chicken as Marijean had recommended and he loved it.

Pecan-Honey-Crusted Chicken at The Pumpstation

We sat outside along the river. This was our table.

Traveling these back roads of Texas does present us with a few hazards. 

Try coming up on this when you are going 60 miles an hour 

in a 16 ton RV towing another 6,500 pound vehicle.

And lots of beauty!

On Thursday, we headed for Houston. Actually, we are staying right outside of Houston in a small town called League City. The RV park is close to the Space Center, and guess what, it is called the Space Center RV Park. With paved sites, it is really not bad. 

On Friday, we took in the Space Center. Had a fun time learning about our amazing space program. We (the USA) are now participating in the International Space Station located 250 miles above the earth. 

Here are some of the things we saw at the Space Center in Houston.

The Moon Land Rover

The Space Capsule 

Inside of the Space Shuttle on the Training Simulator

Shuttle Controls of the Training Simulator

Training Simulator (Adventure) and a Shuttle Engine

There was so much to see and experience. We watched an IMAX film about the space program, touched an actual rock from the moon, stood in a multi-image presentation of a launch (including smoke vapors entering the room mirroring the image on the screen) and took a simulator experience of a blast-off, docking at the Space Station and returning to earth. We also both tried to land the shuttle in a simulator and, sadly, both of us crashed our shuttles. We learned a lot of interesting facts, such as, that the astronaut's spine increases two inches within 48 hours after blast off.  It was well worth the visit. By the way, there were lots of kids there.

Today, we took a trip to Galveston. Who knew Galveston is an island? Guess that's why we are taking this time in our lives to learn a bit more about this wonderful USA. And, we were lucky to stumble across a Raggae Festival going on in Galveston. Being on an island, there was lots of water around.

An 1887 tall ship with a modern cruise ship in the background. 

Lots of cruise ships come in and out of Galveston.

We spent quite a bit of time driving around the island. The weather was 81 degrees, overcast and muggy. (A large storm is about to hit the area and both Galveston and Houston are expecting heavy rains for the next two days.)

 This is an actual restaurant set up out in the ocean. 

I wouldn't want to be in that place when the storm hits.

We were suppose leave here tomorrow, but with the storm coming, we decided to stay for a couple of more days. Besides, after we leave Texas, we will be going to Oklahoma, Kansas and Nebraska. With all of the tornadoes happening in those states, we feel it is better to slow up our trip a bit.

Also, Jerry has an appointment tomorrow morning to have the in-dash driver's air conditioner checked on the RV. We had it fixed (or so we thought) before we left the California, but it has gone out again. Bummer! We can't drive with this uncomfortable weather unless it gets fixed again.

Have a great week everyone!