17 February

I was able to sleep in a little today but still woke early (and went back to sleep for a few minutes). Then it was breakfast, packing, showering and dressing, taking the luggage to the car and setting off. I headed off to church, Christ Church Episcopal, in Belknap St. I arrived about 8:20 and called Max (who I had met on the train from Washington to New York) on the mobile, to find him standing only a few metres away from me (but at the front of the church, not the side where I was). We caught up with each other and attended the service. For me it was like a time warp, as the service was identical to a Church of England service in the 1960s, even to the form of words in the service and the hymns. After we chatted over a cup of coffee (I gave in and had one, but had to have milk – and was glad to notice I was not the only one). Then it was time to say goodbye, promise to keep in touch and head off. After a very short trip on surface streets, it was onto I-10 and off to Houston. I stopped at a rest centre along the way and found it excelled expectations – and gave me ideas as to what could be incorporated into them at home. For the drive to Houston, it was pleasant and comfortable but, as is usual now, with me in the right-hand lane and being passed by all except the elderly and infirm cars.
Once at Houston, it was through the spaghetti maze of freeways which seemed to surpass LA by at least an order of magnitude. It was made worse by roadworks (I seem to run into them everywhere) and by being the middle of a long weekend (apparently tomorrow is Presidents’ Day, a National Holiday). I still can’t believe how many drivers wait until the last minute, sitting in the left lane at high speed and then braking at the last minute and crossing up to seven freeway lanes with no regard to any other driver. That was the cause of many bottlenecks within the Houston area. Once outside the city, the road feed up a little, then slowed down again as everyone headed off into recreational areas. I went off to the Space Centre and eventually found it. After parking ($5), I decided that a yearly pass, at only $2 dearer than a one-day entry, would be good value as I was arriving at 2:20 and wouldn’t get to see everything. Once in I had to – you guessed it, QUEUE – for an audio headset. I had a very quick look around, watched the introductory show, looked through the initial display on the space program and then had a look to see what the wait would be for the tram (no, not a tram, rather an open bus with three trailers driven by youngsters who wouldn’t even have a learner’s permit at home – or so it seemed). At this stage, there wasn’t a wait so I headed out. After having my mug shot taken, I had to QUEUE to go through a metal detector.
At this stage I was seeing the funny side of things. All offending objects had to be placed in a mesh basket to the side and each person walked through the metal detector until it was clear. BUT no-one looked at what was placed in the mesh baskets – no attention was paid, even when everything was picked back up again. Talk about, as someone said, high-tech detectors being used to little effect by operators who most likely had little or no training. But enough of that.
We entered the Johnson Space Centre and were shown three separate areas – the historic Mission Control Centre (a lot smaller than portrayed), the training centre (unoccupied as it was Sunday) and the Saturn rocket with the Apollo module on top (it was huge when seen close up). By this stage it was after 6 and we had to wait for the next tram to pick us up. Back at the Houston Space Centre I traded my audio set for my driver’s licence and headed out to find my motel for the night (already booked but elusive to find because of the system of having the same numbers for east and west parts of the street, but also having alternative names for each part of the street). I found it and booked in, then looked for somewhere to have tea. I had seen a Dennys so decided to try that. My waitress (Tammy) was intrigued that I had not been to a Dennys before but had been to the Space Centre. She was also intrigued by my description of typical Australian foods including battered and deep-fried delicacies. I ended up with a menu to take home as a souvenir after a steak and vegetable meal.
Back at the motel I unpacked after lugging (is that why it’s called luggage?) everything up to the second (really first) floor and transferred today’s pictures over and wrote up today’s blog. As there is no Internet here yet (and I couldn’t piggyback onto a free network I found), nothing will be sent until tomorrow. Those of you wilting under information overload (written and pictorial) have had a reprieve for a day.