We went for breakfast, then headed down to Johnson Space Center.

It was just 35 minutes down I-45, but the directions were for the employee entrance. Apparently this happens a lot, the guard simply gave us directions and we U-turned.

As we drove up, we could see the 747 that carried the shuttles back to Florida, and it had a shuttle mock-up, the Independence, built in Apopka. The shuttle is a “fake”, but was built to the NASA blueprints and is now owned by NASA, so I suppose it is “real” now. They only built 6 shuttles and 2 are now gone, so a mock-up is as close as we can expect.

I was amazed how small it really is, a good hallway length, but only as wide as the 747 it rides. The boosters and external tank make up the bulk of the assembly.

The black tiles at the nose all have dot-matrix numbers on them. I presume these are tracking numbers, if a tile is lost, then a new one can be made that will fit precisely. Most of the black tiles are not rectangular.

After browsing a bit, we took a tram around the complex and to Rocket Park. The park a little bit disappointing as it only had 3 rockets, but one was the Saturn V, just about the largest thing ever flown. It is over 360 feet long, more than a football field, including the end zones. My car could have easily fit inside one of the rocket cones, while the Command Module had less room than a Smart Fortwo car.

We walked above the training lab, where we could see some of the robots they are developing.

They also have a local school’s Ag class’ cattle, Texas long horns, of course. They have horns about 4 feet long. Long indeed.

Another tram took us to the original Control Center, showing original mission footage of the first moon landing. One screen showed a chart with a X and Y lines and circles indicating distance, with a paper Command Module in the center. A hand then pushes another cut out indicating the field of view of the camera, then as the astronauts exit the ship, cut outs of them are placed on the chart and later moved around manually. Ah, the high tech of the late 60’s.

It began raining lightly prior to the second tram, so when we hear they were closing soon, we were not as disappointed as we could have been.

After returning to town, it was too late to go anywhere else, especially in the rain. No zoo or parks for us.

We went out for dinner and to bed early, Mom had a 9am flight and I had a 15 hour drive home.

After dropping Mom off at the airport, I drove to the Houston Museum of Natural Sciences.

I did not expect too many people at 9am on a Tuesday, but there were several school buses and a lot of kids inside. With Houston being the 4th largest city in the US, I suppose they have field trips just about every weekday, during the school year.

They had a 3-story, 2-ton pendulum swinging, showing the precession that occurs through the 24-hour rotation of the planet, every 10 minutes a small block on each side would be knocked over, making the whole thing a half-daily clock.

I decided it would be easier to take the elevator up to the 4th floor and work down, letting gravity work for me and avoiding most of the kids.

The 4th floor was all about oil drilling and fracking, it is an oil state after all. They had a “ride” where you were shrunk down to Hot Wheels size and flew down a drilled hole, experiencing what went on during the fracking process. The 360 view was not bad and the whole thing was a little interesting. Fortunately, they did return us to our original size. It would’ve been real hard to drive home otherwise.

There was an Egyptian exhibit, but after seeing the real King Tut, at Highclere Castle, it didn’t appeal to me.

I browsed a mollusk shell collection, but it was a bit repetitive, pretty but not enough variation. I passed the obligatory dinosaur bones and fossils.

There was a mineral collection. So many colors and shapes of crystals. They were so vibrant, but I couldn’t capture their beauty on camera. Near the entrance is the Aurora Butterfly of Peace, a butterfly shape with 240 naturally colored diamonds, which fluoresced . I didn’t take a photo initially, so I returned as was leaving. A lady and girl were looking at it, she lifted the girl to see better and the girl noticed right away that the center diamond was shaped like a heart. Good eyes.

The collection also included Fabergé eggs and jewelry from the Russian Imperial household of Tsar Nicholas II.

I had always presumed Fabergé was a Frenchman, but was from St. Petersburg, Russia. According to the film playing, Fabergé only made a few of the objects, most were designed and created by his employees. Much like Steve Jobs taking credit for the design of the early Apple computers, when he had no electronics knowledge or training.

If our visas come in, perhaps we will be able to see more Fabergé in St. Petersburg. Update: I did.

They had preserved animals from Africa, including what I consider to be the cutest deer, a dik-dik. It stands 12-15 inches tall. I think these would sell well in the US, but hard to raise as they need about 6 acres each.

The Art of The Brick was on display. An artist created pieces wholly out of Lego, including some recreated famous paintings and a T-rex skeleton.

When I was about 10, we drove around the southeast states in my dad’s schoolbus yellow pick-up truck with camper-top. One morning we stopped at the battleship USS Alabama in Mobile bay. What boy doesn’t want to check out a battleship?

I don’t know why, but we didn’t tour the ship. Too early? Too expensive? I the past decade, I have passed it 6 times, without being able to stop and tour. It is always too late.

I determined that if I left Houston before 11:30am, I might get there before closing at 6.

I left the museum just after 10, but I didn’t get to Mobile until 7pm. AHHHH, will I ever get to see it? At about 7 hours from here, I really don’t see it coming to be.

After leaving, I drove home. Both directions, I was able to cross Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana without stopping. Prius, Whooo!

I wasn’t sleepy until after I went through Perry, FL, on US19. I had just finished all my podcasts and an audiobook, so nothing but music to keep me alert. It was only a few more hours to get home, so I pushed on. There is a riverside park in Fanning Springs, so I did decide to stop there and crash out for a few, but as I pulled up, they now have a gate across the parking lot. No luck there either.

I really didn’t want to park on the side of the road, there isn’t much room between asphalt and ditch. So I had to continue. Only a little more than an hour away and almost no one on the highway.

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Coincidences: Tuesday night, I went to YouTube and in my subscribed list, there was a video about Russia’s/Belarus’ name and another with the Hiho kids trying “astronaut food”.

After getting home, I had several podcasts or TV shows talk about or mention Johnson Center, the Saturn V rocket, the Lego exhibit, or the 747 shuttle plane.

I had 3 different Uber passengers who had taken a cruise to St. Petersburg. I had mentioned my trip many times before this week.

Saturday was the anniversary of the Columbia breaking up over Texas.

I’m sure these are just a case of overly noticing, like when you get a new car and suddenly that same model is everywhere.

Not a coincidence, but I have noticed more Texas tags in Orlando than Georgian, but I’m sure that’s due to population differences, than to closeness. I also see more NY tags, snow birds.