Camping was very good.  Maybe I’m getting the hang of it.

The wind was intense again!! Mostly a crosswind.  Tiring driving.

The Johnson Space Center was as I thought it would be, though more tilted towards children than I’d expect.  A lot more.  But they had plenty of adult related stuff too.  Four external tram rides are offered; I took the one to the original Command Center, made famous by the Apollo missions.  We all sat in the original visitors’ seats.  (“Queen Elizabeth sat there.”) It was a great feeling to recall history from the place where history was made.

They have a Saturn V rocket display which was amazing.  They’d spent considerable funds to clean it up and put it inside for preservation.  They also have the Apollo 17 capsule.  Lots of history.  But as I said it’s got a tremendous amount of kids activities.  Almost like an amusement park atmosphere.  Disney-like.

From there I had to rush east with very few stops.  Getting out of Texas was an event.  I didn’t see a “Welcome to the United States of America” sign at the border, but it wouldn’t have surprised me if one was there.  Texas has a certain feel to it, though in a sense the “feel” was more, not less, American.  I missed a lot, but that’s what return trips are made for.

I happened upon the Babe Didrikson Zaharias Museum near the border (closed on Sundays).  There was a cricket match behind it, which gave my last experience in Texas a definite international quality.

My first realization that there was serious flooding was the Texas Tourism Center at the border.  Underwater.  Many exits from I10 were closed for obvious reasons.

Louisiana is different.  Billboards are everywhere.  Pro-life, casinos, ambulance chasers, doctors, “Rent This Sign” signs, etc.  Not a pretty sight.  Roads are much worse.  Thump, thump, thump.  Getting to the State Park involved more local navigation than I’d imagine.  It doesn’t seem that the roads or towns were laid out in straight lines.  The Park was also largely underwater.  This is the first time I’ve camped two nights in a row.

This flag was planted on the moon, then returned to Earth.

The stairs to mission control. Just regular stairs.

Cricket

Ten feet from my tent.

A little bit of flooding.