The Ray Adventures: January 2015

Monday, January 26, 2015

Houston, Broussard and Mandeville, La

We have been so busy this last week, I long for our lazy times in Rockport.

Monday,January 19^th, A beautiful day is expected with highs in the low 70’s, we took Luci to Pet Smart for doggie day care to give us some “alone” time and best of all will run some of the “stuff” out of her. We drove up to Bayou Bend Gardens, the land purchased in 1925 by Miss Ima Hogg and her two brothers. Poor thing I wonder if she was teased unmercifully by her classmates. The 14 acres of natural woodland, ravines and bayou were perfect for their home and gardens. We didn’t take the house tour, it is a museum of fine arts, sounds like it was beautifully decorated with period pieces as well as some that were 300 years old. Ima, a rich philanthropist, began planning the gardens before the house was completed. She wanted each section of the landscape to be a “room” from very formal to the secluded wooded areas. We were surprised to see pines as we drove in, in the areas we have been we haven’t seen any. I would love to see the gardens in the spring, she had so many azaleas and Camilla plants throughout. On our way back to pick up Luci we stopped at Fountains Pub in Sugarland, named for the fountains out front, there were other restaurants on the pond. They have a special every day, Monday’s was a $3.00 burger, well you can’t beat that. It was delish! We decided to walk the boardwalk along the pond, big mistake. There must have been 100 dead fish floating on top of the water. Yuk. Gary has been looking for a new camera case so after we picked up Luci we went to a nearby camera store, he had certain prerequisites, well if you couldn’t find it in that store I don’t think it exists, he came home empty handed. Needless to say we skipped dinner.

Tuesday, January 20^th,We’ve decided a fun thing we could do in our travels is visit as many NFL stadiums as we can. The NRG Stadium, home of the Houston Texans have certain days that tours are available. In the scheme of things it wasn’t too far from the Elks, it only took us about a half an hour to get there. Construction started in 2000 and completed in 2002, costing 352 million and it is owned by Harris County. The Astrodome right next door is in bad shape, it will cost too much money to ever be used again, the locals do not want to tear it down so it is used for storage. It was cool, we were the only ones on the tour. Our tour guide Paulette, relocated to Houston after Hurricane Katrina, was proud of the fact that the Texans have sold out every game since being franchised into the league. The stadium is used for the rodeo, Monster Jam, ice shows, college basketball and college and NFL football. In 2017 they will host the Super Bowl. Like AT&T stadium they host many events. We couldn’t go down to the field, the Monster Jam finished up on Sunday, they were still taking the dirt out. The first stop was the visitors locker room and offices for the coaching staff. We didn’t get to see the Texans locker room. The two TV screens in the end zones are the biggest in the league, measuring 55 feet tall and 277 feet wide. The stadium has a retractable roof that they open when the temperature outside is between 50 degrees and 80 degrees, it takes 10 minutes to open, due to damage after Hurricane Ike in 2008 the roof had to stay open all season. The club level suites cost $300-400 per ticket per game and the private suites are $40,000 per game, with seating for 75 plus food and beverage costs. The field is natural grass, squares of 8X8 are stacked onto palates, taken to the field by a fork lift then are placed on the field which takes 8-10 hours. Then the NFL and team logos are painted with latex paint. After the game the paint is sprayed with water, letting the water run through the floor then are removed and taken back outside where they are stored. College teams use polyurethane turf. One thing I’ve always been curious about was how do they clean the stadium after an event, first they pick up the trash then power wash the seats and floor. Now I know, the cleaning crews were busy cleaning up after the Monster Jam.

Wednesday, January 21, We woke up to a very foggy day but sunshine was scheduled to arrive by 12. We wanted to get an early start we had about a 250 mile drive. And we did, then Gary had a Boo Boo with the car parked next to us, another repair to be taken care of Indiana. We finally hit the road about 10, traffic was still pretty heavy which made for a stressful ride, especially after what just happened. We stopped at the rest area/visitor information exit just after the Louisiana border, wow, it was just like a park, a lake, nice picnic areas and a boardwalk through the swamp out to a fishing platform. The area with so big (how big was it?) that we were able to find 3 caches which have to be at least 1/10 of a mile apart. The signs bothered me, “Caution snakes” and “No swimming, Alligators”, I was very careful where I walked. We had been warned about the roads in Louisiana, well they were right. Cement slap that shook the whole coach. Every time I opened a cupboard something would come flying out at me. We arrived at Maxie’s campground in Broussard about 3:30, not the best of campgrounds but at least they didn’t try to pass themselves off as a “resort”. Nice and cheap for $14.00 a night we can put up with heavy traffic noise and no satellite due to tree cover. I had made turkey, barley and vegetable soup the night before so all I had to do was warm it up.

Thursday, January 22^nd, Robert and Diana, who we met in Rockport, came by, they are staying at Abbeville just about 15 miles away. The heavy rain that was forecast arrived right on time, just before we went to lunch at Bon Teche, the menu was interesting, we had to keep asking what certain things were. Robert got a crawfish pot pie that was about as big as a dinner plate. I had honey chili chicken, Gary had meatloaf and Diana had something I can’t pronounce. It was good to see them again. We made plans for Sunday to go on a swamp tour. The rain was really getting heavy, 3” had been forecast, and it rained all afternoon and night. Luci was not keen on the idea of going outside to do her business, she made it real quick. We can just get a few channels with our antenna, ABC is the only network.

Friday, Jan. 23^rd. It rained and rained and rained, 2-3 inches of rain, since we can’t get the news I don’t know what the final total was. Today is very cold and windy but no rain. After lunch we drove to St. Martinville, about 10 miles from Broussard, founded in 1765 the 6^th oldest town in the US. We stopped at Evangeline Oak Promenade along the shore of Bayou Teche. I always thought a bayou was a swamp, no a bayou is a slow moving stream of water, a swamp is trees in water. Now I know. Teche means snake. The lady in the visitor center said the snakes in the summer hang off the eaves of her house. I’m not going to move to Louisiana! According to local history, Judge Edward Simon studied at Harvard at the same time as Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Simons’ accounts of the history and geography of Acadia influenced Longfellow’s poem Evangeline. The Accadians of Nova Scotia in 1755 were issued an ultimatum to swear allegiance to the British Crown and the Catholic Church or leave. They refused and ended up in southern Louisiana, hence the area is called Acadia. I had to look up the poem Evangeline to understand the correlation. In the poem the day before the wedding of Evangeline and Gabriel, he was exiled to Louisiana. On Evangelines arrival in Louisiana to search for Gabriel she discovered he was so grief stricken he left the area. She searched for Gabriel and found him on his death bed, she died a short time later. It may be fictional but people in the area believe it to be based on a true story. We drove around town looking at historic places including the St. Martin de Tour Church which was established in 1765. A beautiful church and the restoration is amazing. We went to see Taken 3 after dinner, we enjoyed it but a little suspenseful just before bed.

Saturday, Jan. 24^th, Robert and Diana told us about Avery Island, where Edmund McIlhenny invented Tabasco Sauce on 1868. He started making it in his kitchen for family and friends, it evolved into a factory bottling 700,000 bottles a day selling to 50 countries worldwide. The sauce starts with a seed, grown in a greenhouse on the property, then planted, handpicked and processed with only vinegar and salt. Once the mash is made it is placed in an oak whiskey barrel. (purchased from Jack Daniels in Kentucky) The lid is covered with salt which seals it, fermentation bubbles up but the salt keeps dirt from getting in the mash. After aging for 3 years (the private reserve label is aged for 5 years) it is processed and manufactured. You walk by the manufacturing, bottling and labeling area behind a glass wall. Adjacent to the factory property is Jungle Gardens, one of McIllhenys sons developed 250 landscaped acres and filled with exotic plants from all over the world. Located beside a bayou, there are ponds with alligators (we didn’t see any) stands of bamboo, one of the largest display of Camellia’s, statues etc. Avery Island is the largest of 5 salt domes in Louisiana. One area of the salt is 28,000 feet deep. Needless to say the salt from the ground covers the barrels. The weather is improving, the sun is out and a little warmer.

Sunday, Jan. 25^th,Robert and Diana picked us up about noon for our Swamp Tour on St. Martin lake. The shallow bottom boat seated 30, our driver (he never told us his name) was quite adept going through the tight spots in the swamp. The swamp was just as I’d imagined, the Bald Cypress trees dripping with moss, turtles sitting on logs, shallow water, birds and lots of green “stuff” floating which our guide said was duck weed. Of course I had to ask about snakes, he said they hang from trees, I don’t know if he was pulling my leg or not but I did keep an eye out. He took us through the Rookery, the bird sanctuary which is closed Feb. 15-April 15 for egg laying and hatching. Places were so tight the unnamed guide had to use the cypress trees to turn the boat and so shallow he had to rev up the engine to get through. He showed us an alligator nest, it looks like a big mound of dirt. We did get to see an alligator, 65 years old, 13 feet long. They are just starting to “wake” up after winter. The tour lasted about 2 hours, quite interesting. On our way back to Lafayette we stopped to pick up a couple of geo caches. We decided to get a bite to eat before heading home, we had a hard time finding a place to eat, most of the restaurants were closed on Sunday. We found what turned out to be a sports bar but the food had a local flavor, our server Brooklyn was patient with us, first explaining how to pronounce the dish then what it was. We all had dishes we’d never tried before.

Monday, Jan. 26^th, We left Broussard about 10:00 for Mandeville only about 2 ½ hour drive. Mandeville is on the north shore of Lake Pontchartrain, we’ll be here for 2 weeks. That is Gary will be, unless the storm in the northeast disrupts my flight I’m leaving Wednesday for Oregon to celebrate Charlotte’s 70^th birthday. We’ve been friends since the early 80’s, I can’t believe we’re so old. We’re staying at Fontaine State Park right on the lake. It’s a beautiful park, Gary will have lots of bike trails to ride while I’m gone. We made a quick stop at the visitor center to get the “skinny’ on the area.

That’s it for this week, I probably won’t publish my next blog until after I get home from Oregon on the 3^rd.

TTFn

Gary and Pam

Raging bulls outside NRG Stadium

Our guide Paulette

The showers in visitor locker room

Hall to Texans locker room

Tunnel to field

Men working to remove dirt from field after Monster Jam

300 year Oak at Evangeline Promenade

Bayou Teche

St. Martin de Tour Catholic Church

How cold is it?

Church alter

Pews

500 year old church at Evanaline Nat'l Historic Park

Tabasco Factory

Pepper mash in oak barrel

Everything Tabasco

Jungle Garden, where is the alligator

Cleveland Oak named after Pres. Cleveland who visited

Stand of bamboo trees

Fake alligator at swamp tour

Great blue heron in rookery

Ball Cypress with knees grow out of water for oxygen

Alligator nest

Great white egret

A real alligator

Monday, January 19, 2015

Galveston & Houston

It has been quite a busy week. The weather has been just miserable, no sunshine for a week and a half, thunder and lightning, heavy rain and cold wind. Whine whine whine. We enjoyed Galveston Island, we want to come back when the weather is warm.

Saturday, Jan. 10, We took advantage the break from the rain to pick up a couple of geo caches in the park, we had to take short walks on trails through the marsh. We saw several snowy egrets and ducks but no spoonbills. The third was at a crazy house we’d seen from the road. We have no idea what it is or was, check out the picture. Then it started to rain. We headed back down to the historic district to see an attraction Pirates, Legends of the Gulf Coast. If you ever go to Galveston-don’t go to Pirates. Just down the street was the Railroad Museum at the former Santa Fe Union Station. Inside you see artifacts from trains such as china and silver. Hmm, last time I was on a train it was paper and plastic. In the depot there were ghosts of travelers past while they wait for the train. Outside Gary took a self-guided tour of trains and engines. Some of the cars were real fancy private cars, mail cars and the caboose. It was just too cold, wet and windy for me I stayed inside and “talked” with the ghosts. Hurricane Ike did a number on the museum. Many artifacts were removed but the “ghosts” had muck all over them, the water level in some places in the city were too far for me to reach. Volunteers spent many hours removing the gunk from the building and “ghosts”. Thoroughly cold, we went to Tony Nonno’s, an Italian restaurant on Pier 21, for an early dinner. Yum. I drank several cups of hot water and finally got warm. We watched the Seahawks beat the Panthers handily to advance to the NFC Championship; they play Green Bay for the right to play in the Super Bowl. Last September before we left Salem we went to the first Seahawk game of the year, Seattle/Green Bay. Seattle won. Let’s hope for a repete. (Pete Carroll)

Sunday, Jan. 11, We woke up to a thunder and lightning storm with heavy rain. I have never heard thunder roll on and on and on before. Gary wanted to go to Seawolf Park and Lone Star Flight Museum, another cold Saturday, Jan. 10, We woke up to 38 degree weather. Brrr. It wasn’t raining so we took the opportunity to pick up some geo caches. Two were and windy day so I opted out to stay and watch football. Seawolf Park is home to the USS Cavalla and USS Stewart, it’s located on Pelican Island right on Galveston Bay. The USS Stewart is a Destroyer Escort and is a National Historic Landmark. Built in Houston, her most famous mission was to escort President Roosevelt’s presidential yacht down the Potomac River to rendezvous with USS Iowa in the Chesapeake Bay for his mission to Casablanca and Tehran. During WWII she made 30 North Atlantic convoy missions, sometimes encountering enemy submarine fire. The USS Cavalla is berthed as a memorial for the 52 submarines lost in WWII. Her claim to fame is she sank the 30,000 ton aircraft carrier Shokaku, a veteran of Pearl Harbor and battle of the Coral Sea. He picked up 3 geo caches on the way home.

Monday, Jan. 12, Galveston has many, many historic homes which are on the National Landmark Registry, two are the Bishop’s Palace and Moody Mansion, we’d tried to see them last week but were closed until today. The Bishops Palace was designed and built for a local attorney, Walter Gresham, in 1887, it took 7 years to build. The exterior is sandstone, limestone and rough granite, designed to be hurricane proof. After the horrendous hurricane of 1900 many homeless were invited to stay with them. The inside is furnished in period, features a hand-carved staircase and jeweled glass windows. One of the many fireplaces is lined with silver. It cost $250,000 to build and is now worth over 5 million dollars. He lived there with his wife and 9 kids until 1923 when he sold it to the Catholic Diocese. It is located across the street from Sacred Heart Catholic Church, another beautiful historic building. We took a self-guided audio tour of the first floor but on the second floor they were refurbishing the floors so we had to walk on paper paths to peek into the rooms. Above the landing of the staircase was a beautiful stained glass window. When the diocese moved to Houston the diocese opened the house to the public in 1963. Just a few blocks from the Palace is the Moody Mansion, a 32 room home build in 1892 by Narcissa Wells, who was in her 80’s. She was married to a tightwad husband who wanted to keep his assets liquid. As soon as he died she started building the mansion, to the dismay of her 10 children. The house had to be bigger and better than any place in Galveston. Can you imagine $100,000 in the late 1800’s to build a home? Narcissa only lived in the house 2 years before her death. Her daughter put the house up for bid just before the 1900 hurricane. William Moody had placed a bid of only $20,000 just before the hurricane, all the other bids were withdrawn so he got the house for a pittance of it’s worth. The Moody family lived there until 1986 when they gave the mansion and all the furnishings to the Historical Society in 1986. The interior features stained glass, carved wood, tile work, fancy plaster work and stenciling. Way ahead of its time, it had electricity, central heat, elevator, a ballroom, library, dining table that was 20 feet long, servants quarters and beautiful furnishings. We came home to watch our Ducks lose to Ohio State. Bummer.

Tuesday, Jan. 13^th, The weather is still lousy. We decided to drive around the island to see the sights. We drove as far north as possible, the mouth of Galveston Bay, it’s a very busy port, tugs pushing ships coming and going. From there we drove down to the beach then on the way back hiked to a bird observation tower to pick up a geo cache, got wet feet along the way. What a great spot for Luci to run since there weren’t any birds in the area. I was curious about the ferry to Port Bolivar, it crosses the Houston ship channel. I’d heard the ferry was able to carry motorhomes, I don’t think we’d want to try it but did see a smaller motorhome in line. Gary and Luci took a birding trail to pick up a couple of geo caches in the area, I whimped out, the sign said “caution snakes”. When Hurricane Ike hit in 2008 most of Galveston Island was covered by a tidal surge, between the wind and waves thousands of trees were destroyed. Various area artists carved tree sculptures from the fallen trees to replace the beautiful oaks. The Tree Sculpture Tour, a self-guided tour, you can walk, drive or take a commercial tour past the 20 residences that have the sculptures in their yard. The sculptures were placed in the beautiful historic homes district but sculptures have been placed in other parts of town. The Galveston Island Tree Conservatory has been instrumental in re-greening the island with the planting more than 8,000 trees since the hurricane. The Tree Conservatory and 100’s of volunteers are working to ensure 100% of the “Ike” trees are recycled, not wanting any trees to end up in the landfill.

Wed. January 14, Weather is still cruddy, besides the wind we had a little rain, just enough to get the vehicles filthy. Moving day, we left for Houston about 10am for the 67 mile trip to Stafford, south east of the city. We are staying at an Elks Club, Gary joined the Elks last summer to give us another option for low cost parking. I was a little disappointed, the Elks RV Camping book said the nightly rate was $15, only to find out it was $25.00, not such a good deal. Good news, all you have to do is walk across parking lot for a little “drinkie”. The only way to get here (that we knew about) was a toll road, twice we had to pay $5.75 along the way, we were getting worried, how much was this going to cost. Houston, which was founded in 1836 is the 4^th largest city in the US. Houston was the first and last word spoken from the moon and the first to have a domed stadium.

Thursday, Jan. 15, We headed into downtown Houston, about a 15 minute drive, to the Visitor Center at the Historic City Hall. We parked in the garage below, only to get temporarily displaced (lost) both coming and going. The gal was very helpful, spending a lot of time with us. We walked across the street to Tranquility Park commemorating the Apollo 11 1969 moon landing. At one time it was a nice park but now it’s a little long in the tooth with dry water features. We walked several blocks to the Energy Center building to take elevator up to the 60^th floor observatory. The gal at the visitor center told us about the tunnels throughout the downtown area. My first thought was “icky” imagining homeless and all that go with them. They are so cool, we were able to walk back to City Hall underground keeping warm and dry, passing stores, restaurants and businesses along the way.

Friday, Jan. 16, We dropped Luci off at PetSmart Doggie Day Care on our way to Johnson Space Center southeast of Houston about 30 miles. We had to get back on the toll road but this time it was only $1.75 each time. We waited for a relatively decent day, the sun is out for the first time in 10 days, still breezy and cool though. They just got the Independence, a retired space shuttle, it is out front on top of a 747. Wow! The museum tells the story about manned space flights through artifacts, interactive exhibits and a tram tour through NASA. The tram is open air, I can’t imagine how cold it would have been the days before. The first stop was Christopher Kraft building, he was the first Flight Operations Director. We had to climb 87 steps up to Mission Control (not me, I took the elevator) It is the room you saw on TV during all of the Apollo flights. Our tour guide was very informative. A red telephone was on one of the control stations, it was used to call the Dept. of Defense to give the coordinates to the Navy so they could pick up the astronauts in the middle of the ocean. The main frame was in another room, it filled the entire area but still only had 2 megabytes that ran the whole operation. In the 60’s 10% of the nations’ budget went to NASA. It just gave me the chills to look at the room I’d seen so many times on TV. The next building was the Space Vehicle Mock Up, used for training the astronauts and also to develop new equipment including the Space Station and the newest project Orion which will take astronauts to Mars. The last building was the Saturn V, you could see all stages of the rocket. The first falls into the ocean when out of fuel, the second burns completely up. Back inside the museum I got to touch a moon rock, it was very smooth, I wonder if that is because so many people have touched it. There are several videos you can watch and even an I-Max theater. We picked up a tired Luci and headed back to the Elks. I told Gary he could buy me a drink, I stretched that to a chicken dinner too. Not as good as Chef Betty but I didn’t have to cook. Always a good thing.

Saturday, Jan. 17. We took Luci and headed out to see the USS Texas and San Jacinto Battlefield on the shipping channel and Houston Bay. The USS Texas, a battleship, was built in Houston, commissioned in 1914. It is the only ship to participate in two wars, WW1 and WW11, it was retired to Houston in 1948. I didn’t go aboard because of Luci but Gary said that being a Navy guy it was enlightening to see how the sailors from 1914 lived in such Spartan accommodations. We had a Subway picnic then went to the San Jacinto Battlefield & Monument. The bottom floor of the monument houses a museum with artifacts from the Texas battle for independence from Mexico. The park is 1,200 acres which includes the monument, USS Texas and hiking paths through the bayou. We took the elevator up 489 feet to the observation floor, you got quite a view of the shipping channel, Galveston Bay, the bayous and the ship. The weather is getting better every day.

Sunday, Jan. 18. Whew, almost done. A beautiful day with temps in the mid 70’s. I tackled my car, cleaning it inside and out. At 2:00 we turned on the Seahawks/Packers game. It looked very bleak for Seattle, so Gary and I did our part, we took a long walk. They were still behind when we got back we tried not to watch. Gary took Luci out to the field to let her play with another lab when things turned around. When he came in I told him the game was going into overtime. Holy smokes!!! The Seahawks are going to the Super Bowl. Wah hooI

I had to wade through several hundred pictures, I hope you enjoy.

TTFN,

Gary and Pam