Traders Village

We spent last week at Traders Village in Houston.  There's a huge flea market every Saturday and Sunday.  We had been to one of those in Yuma, Arizona last year and loved it.  They had all those neat things you never find in stores at home.  We were really dissapointed in this one, it was huge but the same stuff over and over, cell phones, socks, bras, jewelry, toys.

In a way, that was a good thing cause on Friday Don lost his footing getting out of the coach and sprained his foot.  I had to get an adult stroller and push him around.  He was REALLY dissapointed it didn't have a motor, so I just went "brrrummm, brrruuuumm, bbrrrum" while I pushed him, he felt alot better about the absence of a motor.

The one thing that was really interesting about the flea market was that they were having a chilli cook off.  They must have had a couple dozen set ups, some were very interesting.

We talked with a few of them, these cook offs is really a sport.  Some of these set ups were really neat.

Unfortunately, the chilli and BBQ'd ribs and chicken was not for sale, it was strictly for judging.

We did spend some time exploring, and we found mostly condos.....

condos......

and more condos.  Never seen anything like it.  In all our travels, I've never seen so many condos.



Houston, Texas

I'm always amazed when we go on some of these highways, they're 4 and 5 high,

and remind me of a roller coaster.



It was soooo nice to see these flowers.

This is one I didn't go looking for, saw it and stopped, awesome quilt shop.

NASA

We visited NASA today, this was on one side of the gate.

And this was on the other.

We took a tram (forgot to take a picture of it) through the grounds and one of the building we visited housed the mission control rooms.  We had to climb quite a ways to get to the one that's open to the public.  There was an elevator available but we decided we didn't need it like some of the others did.

This is the control room they used in the early days, as a matter of fact, they used it for the movie "Apollo 13"

Right down to the red phone.

The next building housed the training center.

They have mock ups of all the equipment.

 This is the huge arm they work with in outer space.  I'm sure that requires alot of training, especially because of the weightlessness.  They said they learn by moving balloons.

Every time an astronaut dies in space, a tree is planted in his name in this orchard.

We then visited Saturn V.

It was huge, we started in the back.

This kind of gives you an idea as to how long it is.

This was closer to the front, showing where another piece falls off.

And of course the very front.

We then went into a museum which included moon rocks.


I finally got to see some Texas Long Horns.  NASA was the last place we expected to see them.


The tour guide on the tram went into a story of why they were there, they are being fed special hormones so they can be trained to "jump over the moon".

Galveston, Texas

It was a foggy, crappy day, so we decided to go to Galveston to check out a railroad museum, one with real trains.  This was crossing the bridge, no view, all consumed by fog.

 When we got to the front door, there was a sign sending us to the back door, because of construction.


This was on the back door.  I guess we should have checked their web site.

 We were able to get this picture through the fence.

This bird was in the parking lot, it was a beautiful navy blue.  I wanted to do a web link but couldn't find it on line.  If anyone can figure out what this bird is, let me know.



Dickinson, Texas

We visited the Historic Railroad Center in Dickinson, it was very nicely restored and contained alot of history.

There's my honey!!!!

I really loved the building.

This was a display of the office and telegraphic equipment they had in those days.

I thought this was neat, it was an old coin counter.

This picture caught my eye, I wonder why?????

The raialroad track was still there.



Getting to Texas

Look at the green fields.  The grass out here is like it is at home, brown.  But every now & then we went by green fields, has to be some kind of crop but I don't know what.  (and that bugs me)

Here we are, crossing the Mississippi in Baton Rouge, Louisianna.



 This is the Mississippi River.  Some of these bridges are a little frightening to cross when you're sitting in the passenger seat of a big motor home, especially when a big truck passes you.  I'm just glad the driver is an experienced tractor trailer driver.

Here we are, the great state of Texas.

 

This is a bridge in Houston, it looks like we're about to get onto a roller coaster ride, you can just imagine what the drop off will be like.  Actually as we got closer the less steep it looked.



Louisianna

We stayed at a campground in Livingston, LA for a week.  It was really cold so we just veged, did some quilting, etc.  They had a pond, down here they call them lakes, with this beautiful swan.

And a black one, I had never seen a black swan before.

They were majestic.

This was a good day, it rained a few days and was cold and windy the rest, so we didn't see them much.  Glad Don got these pictures when he did.