USA road trip, Post 1: Houston, the Byrds have landed

We got into Galveston Port early on Sunday morning. Anna and I got our call to depart at 7:05am and were all through by 7:25am - no immigration (we did this in Miami), no customs checks, no cavity searches, nothing! Just one more reason why cruising was a MUCH better way of getting to the States than flying!

Not too long after, we were picked up by some lovely friends from Houston, Marvin and Carolyn, who had invited us to stay for the next couple of nights. We headed straight off to Sunday meeting from the port. After meeting and then lunch at a Thai restaurant, we had a great visit with Marvin and Carolyn's daughter and her family. This was made even cooler by the fact that their daughter Andrea's husband John currently had the loan of a Segway scooter. So John and Anna and I had some great fun whizzing around the driveway, and up and down the street! Those things are SO cool!!





We went to a gospel meeting Sunday afternoon, and got to meet a lot more friendly locals.

Our next tourist spot will appeal to all the nerdy types out there (like me). On Monday Marvin took us over to the Johnson Space Centre, NASA's base in Houston. This is the place where Mission Control for the most famous space missions is. Including the moon landing, Apollo 13 and the Space Shuttle Program. As part of our entry we got to do a tour (in freezing wind) of the NASA facility, including seeing the Mission Control Room (now a national historic monument) used for all of the Apollo missions (amongst many others). The current, somewhat updated Mission Control Room (currently used for the Shuttle Program and International Space Station), is still housed in the same building.



After Mission Control, we got to see one of the current astronaut training facilities. Housed in a rather large building, it contains a complete mock-up of the International Space Station, three different partial mock-ups of the Space Shuttle, a Soyuz capsule and a whole bunch of new gear being designed and tested for the mooting back-to-the-Moon and then-to-Mars projects. This included an new Moon buggy and Robonaut, a robotic astronaut.



Further on in the tour, we also go to see one of the last remaining Saturn V rockets. These were the rockets that took man to the moon, and are still the largest and most powerful rockets ever created in the United States - and they are HUGE! After moldering away for a number of years after the Apollo program was canceled, this rocket was brought to Houston, restored and displayed in its own custom painted (and enormous) shed.



Back at the visitor centre (and back out of the cold), which somewhat ironically was designed by Disney, were loads of other cool exhibits. This included mock-ups of all kinds of space related things, training capsules and vehicles from a number of space programs, as well as a number of actual vehicles returned from space. It was awesome to see one of the actual Gemini capsules on display, complete with burnt-out, crispy looking heat shields on the bottom.



After our NASA visit, Marvin dropped us off to pick up our hire car for the trip up to New York. We got to pick from a few options, but ended up with a very cool Ford Focus - with Bluetooth connectivity for our phones, USB connectivity for my little Samsung MP3 player and satellite radio - lots of fun toys for the trip!

We had a great time in Houston, made SO much better (and easier) by Marvin and Carolyn's wonderful hospitality. Thanks so much guys!