Houston/Johnson Space Center

The primary training center for our astronauts is the Space Center. It houses full-scale mockups of all key space vehicles and facilities. The little space man (pictured with Anita) was part of the visitor center staff.

A Center staff member and a young boy volunteer from the audience demonstrate the challenges of living in a weightless environ- ment. The picture shows the living quarters of the Inter- national Space Station. There were lots of interesting details. Probably the most interesting was how the toilets work!

The shuttle model in the third picture shows the massive cargo door. The hydraulic arm, called the Canada arm (because of where it was made), can maneuver satellites and space hardware like the Hubble Telescope, which may actually weigh tons, in and out of the cargo bay in space because of weightlessness. In the Space Center, astronauts train to use the Canada arm on a massive, complex hydraulic arm which is also capable of lifting these same vehicles in a weightless environment.

The final picture shows a spider-like rover developed for exploration on the moon and possibly other locations in space.

Galveston, TX

We visited Galveston, TX, a barrier island 50 miles southeast of Houston. Galveston has an elevation just above sea level. The island is 3 miles wide at its widest point. It is bordered by the Gulf of Mexico on the east and south.

In 1900 a hurricane struck Galveston, causing the greatest natural disaster to ever strike the U.S. At least 6000 people were killed in this one storm. Beginning in 1902, Galveston built a sea wall which now extends 17 miles around the Gulf side of the island. The sea wall is 17 feet high and 16 feet thick. The sea wall is now a Gulf-side street called Seawall Boulevard. The elevation on the eastern side of the island has been raised by pumping sand from the mouth of the Houston shipping channel.

Islanders refer to themselves as BOI (born on island) and IBC (islander by choice).

In 2008 Galveston was hit by Hurricane Ike at 2:20 a.m. Although the city had ordered evacuation, an estimated 40 percent of the 57,000 residents chose to stay. At one time before the storm hit Texas, Ike had been rated as a Category 4 (145 mph) hurricane. When it hit Texas, it had downgraded to a Cat 2 (110 mph). Storm total rainfalls from Ike were as much as 19 inches in southeast Texas.

Judging from the mansions along Broadway, Galveston was once the home of some very well-to-do Texans. Today some of the mansions have been beautifully restored, others are waiting their turn. Hurricane damage is still visible in the residential areas of the island.

Galveston/Houston is obviously a busy seaport judging from the dozens of ships lined up in the Gulf waiting to dock.

The King Ranch in Texas

The King Ranch is the largest ranch in the U. S., covering 825,000 acres. If you do the math, that's 1289 sections or 35.8 townships! Think about an area 36 miles square... The Ranch is a privately held corporation that operates through four divisions, ranging in size from just 50,000 acres to 260,000 acres. The first picture shows the King Mansion in the distance. The mansion is still very much a private home for the extended King family.

The King Ranch was started by an Irish orphan who made his way to the Gulf Coast at age 11, was a riverboat pilot by age 19, and began ranching in what was known as the Wild Horse Desert. He received a land grant of about 16,000 acres from Mexico (when the area was part of Mexico), and several years later purchased 50,000 acres from the Republic of Texas.

The third picture shows a fifth generation ranch hand, a descendant of a group of Mexicans brought to Texas by the ranch founder in about 1850. King went to Mexico to purchase cattle and persuaded most of the members of a small community to come to the ranch as well.

About 450,000 acres of the ranch's acreage today is devoted to private lease hunting, the ranch's largest source of income. Hunting on the ranch includes white tail deer, wild turkey, quail, javelina, wild hogs, and a non-native antelope, Nilgai, which can weigh up to 600 pounds. The King Ranch were pioneers in wild life conservation in Texas and still have their own game management operation.

King Ranch operations today are highly diversified. They developed the Santa Gertrudis cattle breed and still raise them. Picture 2 shows a group of cows, which are involved in an effort to further improve the breed.

The Ranch was an early developer of the American Quarter Horse. Wimpy, the number 1 horse in quarter horse registry, was owned by the Ranch. The final picture is of a stable. Note the architecture which is common in the era and resembles the famed Alamo facade.

King Ranch also has large farming operations where they raise cotton and milo. They are now the largest producer of pecans in the U. S. If you buy pecans at Walmart, look for the running W (the ranch brand) on the package. They have large citrus production operations in Florida. They own a John Deere dealership in a nearby town.

We recommend a visit to the King Ranch Museum in Kingsville prior to visiting the ranch.

The Goose Island Oak

While live oak trees are common in this part of Texas, the Goose Island Live Oak is the KING! This tree is over a thousand years old. Its circumfer- ence is over 35 feet. While the trunk is not perfectly round, the average diameter is over 11 feet. The crown spreads 89 feet. The tree is only 45 feet tall. This configuration is common in oak trees: they have a larger spread than their height.

The second picture shows the extent of lateral spread of oaks in this area. As you can see from many of the pictures, the trunks and limbs do not grow straight. If you were looking for saw timber, you would find none here.

The final picture shows our friends Irish and Joe with Anita.

Fulton Mansion, Rockport, Texas

The Fulton Mansion is one of the few surviving examples of a grand Victorian villa. It looks out onto the bay. Architectur-

ally, it was ahead of its time.

As the third picture explains, it had all of the modern conveniences. The unique feature that impressed us was its construction: 20-inch thick shellcrete footings and all exterior walls were cribbed construction such as you'd find in a wooden grain elevator. Cribbing involves stacking--in this case, 2 x 6's--one on top of another and spiking them together to create a 6-inch thick, solid wooden wall. (Shellcrete is concrete in which clam shells have been used for aggregate.) The floors are also cribbed and

supported by steel beams. It is said that the house contains enough wood to build 20 conventional houses. It's no wonder it has withstood multiple hurricanes!

The house was purchased by the Texas Historical Commission and restored beginning in the 70s. Because Mrs. Fulton had given the Commission a huge quantity of paper, they were able to find details about colors and textures and furnishings thus were able to restore the interior of the house to virtually original condition.

The last picture shows a 12 foot windmill wheel which was blown into a tree by a hurricane in 1919. The tree about one block behind the mansion. We have no idea why the windmill was never removed from the tree! The same hurricane was said to have blown hundreds of cattle onto shore from a ranch on an island four miles offshore.

North Padre Island

Rockport is just a short distance from the Gulf of Mexico. However, at this point, in the Gulf of Mexico there is a long barrier island between the Texas coast and the Gulf. Padre Island runs for miles along the coast. We are across a narrow channel from North Padre Island. We decided to explore the area. The only way to get to the island is to take an auto ferry. There are actually a number of small ferries that shuttle traffic across a narrow channel. It's a shipping channel as well. As we were returning, we had to wait for the barge you see in the picture to cross in front of us. As auto ferries go, these are quite small. When we were returning, we were the fifth vehicle to load on the right side of the center/pilot house. The barge canted noticeably to our side. The next vehicle to load was a semi. The ferry came back to level very quickly! The picture that shows the name of a ferry was taken from the window of our pickup as we approached the shore on the land side.

North Padre Island is quickly being developed as a retirement/resort area. There are new retirement housing units that range from very expensive ($275,000 for a LOT on a canal) to high rise condos to RV parks not unlike the one we're in. The picture of the tree was taken along a street in a neighborhood with million dollar-plus homes.

Rockport, Texas

After four long days on the road, we arrived at Lagoons RV Resort in Rockport, Texas, on Friday, January 14. It's been raining since we got here, but the sun is supposed to come out today.

Last Friday, as we were driving in, we stopped for fuel about 160 miles north of Rockport. The snow was still visible on top of the camper. However, it was melting off. That gives you a pretty good summary of the kind of weather we drove through on the way down--1200 miles south of Bismarck, it was still pretty cool!

The resort we're in is one of many in this area. There are also a variety of housing developments in the area that cater to snowbirds. There are two other couples from North Dakota in this resort in addition to our traveling companions, Joe and Irish Linnertz, whose camper is pictured next to ours. Since it was raining, we spent the first few days finding out what is available in the resort and the immediate area.