When we left the Space Center, we stopped for the night not too far west of Houston.  We’d been in touch with our Belize neighbors Todd and Tatiana, who were leaving Albuquerque in their camper van and heading east on I-10 on their way to Florida.  We decided that we would meet up near San Antonio, probably on Sunday, so when we got on the road in the morning we headed towards Palmetto State Park, which is just east of San Antonio, and wait for them there.

I had called Palmetto State Park in the morning and booked a campsite, so the rangers at the park office were waiting for us when we got there.  When I called, they had asked for our license plate number, so they knew we were driving a Belize vehicle.  The ranger checking us in told us that his fellow ranger Jeremy had visited Belize and had shown him photos, and wanted to know where we lived and what we did.  We started telling him about Moonracer when Jeremy came out from the back and joined in the conversation.  Jeremy told us that he’d spent a school project term in Belize with one of the archeology groups.  We asked him who his professor was, and he said Dr. Brett Houck, and we told him that Dr. Houck had brought student groups to stay with us.  Jeremy started to laugh and asked if we remembered the group when there was a torrential rainstorm, and everybody sleeping in tents ended up sleeping on tables in the dining palapa.  We did, of course, and Jeremy got his phone out and showed us a photo of *his* bed that night, which was on our picnic table in our dining palapa.  

After talking to the rangers about Belize and the smallness of the world, we drove to our campsite.  The Palmetto State Park campground is very small, but is surrounded by trails that wind through the woods.  The rain was almost stopped by the time we were parked and settled, so we took the dogs for a nice walk on the trails.

In the morning, Tom got in touch with Todd and Tatiana, and decided that we would meet near where we already were, east of San Antonio.  We couldn’t get reservations for both of us at Palmetto State Park, so we found another campground outside of Gonzales, TX, that had room for both of us for a couple of nights, and had full hookups since neither of us was getting enough sun to keep our batteries charged.  Plus, cold weather was predicted, so we wanted to be able to plug in our electric heater, which puts a strain on our system even when the sun shines.  We left Palmetto State Park and headed into Gonzales, where we went shopping and had lunch at Pizza Hut, which Tom has been wanting to do ever since we drove into the US.  The pizza was as good and greasy as we remembered, and miraculously didn’t upset either of our stomachs.  Pizza Hut pizza definitely isn’t the best pizza, but it’s one of those nostalgic things that we’d been meaning to do for a while.

After lunch, we headed for the Gone Fishin’ RV Park, where we did what we always do - got settled and took the dogs for a walk.  The park is filled mostly with long term renters, but everybody from Mark, the owner, to the camp hosts, to the other campers was super friendly and welcoming.  The park is sort of a sad story, because it was created as a fishing camp, but in August 2021 the dam downstream broke, and now the river is dry.  The boat launch, the docs, and all the formerly riverside homes now line a dry gully.  Residents are trying to get the government to fix the dam, but apparently that project isn’t high on Texas’s list of priorities.

Todd and Tatiana pulled in shortly after dark, and we had a grand reunion as we crammed into our camper for dinner.  We hadn’t seen Todd since May of last year when he left for their Albuquerque home shortly before we left Belize, and we hadn’t seen Tatiana for close to a year before that.  We all stayed up way past our bedtime, especially because Tatiana was scheduled to work online in the morning.  

Our original plan had been to visit with Todd the next day, Monday, and have another dinner before we all departed Tuesday morning.  While Tatiana worked, we got out for another walk in a nearby neighborhood, and tried to walk to the broken dam.  We found that the dam is gated and deemed a hazardous area, but it gave us a good excuse to get us and the dogs out to get some exercise.  Overnight, the weather had turned cold, so we were bundled up and Kismet got to wear her jacket gifted to her by our friend Amanda for the first time on this trip.  We’ve tried hard to stay ahead of the cold, and have mostly done it, until now.  While we’ve seen temperatures around freezing at night and in the morning, this is the first time temperatures have stayed that cold all day.

Overnight on Monday, the weather took a major turn for the worse.  When we got up Tuesday morning, we heard the news reports of all the icing in Texas.  We were just about to head out and go to San Antonio before heading south to Laredo to try to get ahead of it, when Tom took our garbage to the dumpster and talked to Christine, the camp host.  She had just talked to one of her kids in San Antonio, and she told Tom that ice was starting there and driving was dangerous.  Tom and I talked about whether we should try anyway, or skip San Antonio and head directly to Laredo, or stay put for another day or two.  Caution won, and we decided to stay put until the storm passes.  Todd and Tatiana decided the same, so we all settled in for another night or two.  Last night we had dinner in their camper, and as of right now Tom and I have decided to stay until tomorrow, and Todd and Tatiana are watching the weather to see if they’ll have a chance to safely head east before the end of the day.  At the moment it’s sleeting, so we may be planning another neighborhood dinner - which is a good thing!

We survived the night of storms, and might have slept through it had we not had the tornado warnings blaring from our phones. In case you haven’t heard it, the severe weather warning on a cell phone sounds like the prison klaxons that warn of a jailbreak; there’s no sleeping through that.  Because we couldn’t even hear ourselves talk between the wind and the rain on the camper’s metal shell, we just watched on our phones as the tornado warnings passed us, and when we were out of the red zone and no longer at risk of being jarred awake again, we went back to sleep.

In the morning, when it looked like we were clear to travel, we decided to head towards Texas.  We didn’t really have a route planned as we headed west, but since the storm front had brought cooler temperatures, we decided to head basically south.  Our next planned stop was Space Center Houston, which we knew we couldn’t do in a day, so we stopped for a hike at the Acadiana Nature Station Park in Lafayette, LA.  Due to the rains the night before we couldn’t take the hike we’d planned from the trail map, but the park had plenty of boardwalks and canal paths so we got a good 4-mile walk in before heading for a Walmart in Jennings, LA, which is about mid way between Lafayette and Lake Charles.  We heard the same I-10 traffic at the Walmart as we’d heard at the brewery, although the brewery was still better since Walmart doesn’t have crawfish poutine.

We left the Walmart fairly early and headed for the Space Center.  I’d found a city park with hiking very near the Space Center on All Trails, so that was our goal.  We did a drive by of the Space Center before heading to the park, which was a really nice cement trail loop around a series of small lakes in the middle of the city neighborhood.  Since Houston had suffered even more from the storm than Louisiana, the cement trail was a very nice thing, and it was also very nice to see all the people out walking, with and without dogs, on a pleasant evening.  We finished our walk and headed for a Cabela’s about six miles away, where we spent a quiet night before heading for the Space Center in the morning after another morning walk around the park.

Tom and I were both really happy we decided to visit the Space Center.  We were there shortly after it opened, and stayed all day.  Everyone we had talked to had given it rave reviews, but having been to Kennedy Space Center in Florida where the rockets are launched, we weren’t sure how interesting a space center in the middle of a city would be.  As it turned out, it was very interesting.  It may have helped that we were there on the anniversary of the Apollo I tragedy, and one day before the anniversary  of the Challenger tragedy, and just a week or so before the Columbia tragedy, so the theme of the day among the tour guides was how much actual sacrifice is part of this program, and the scope of the program to minimize that risk.

We walked into the main building, which has a bunch of changing exhibits.  We decided to immediately sign up for one of the two tram tours being offered that day, which take you to the real Johnson Space Center on the other side of the road.  The tram tour didn’t leave for a half hour or so, so we wandered the main building and looked at the exhibits about the Artemis project of going to Mars, and an evolution of space suits.  The half hour passed very quickly, and we got on the tram tour which took us to the place where the astronauts are training, which besides real astronauts also has mock ups of all of the space vehicles and equipment used to train the astronauts.  After that, we went to the museum where real rockets are on display, including a real Saturn V which was recovered and reconstructed to be displayed at Space Center Houston.

That tour was so interesting that we signed up for the other tram tour as soon as we returned to the Visitor Center.  The other tour didn’t leave for a couple of hours, so we had time to tour constant exhibits, which include a realistic mock-up of a space shuttle, as well as the actual 747 used to transport it.  One of the real SpaceX rockets is also on display, and while you can’t go inside that like you can the space shuttle and the 747, it’s pretty impressive to see a rocket that still has scorch marks on it from its many trips into space.  The exhibits inside the building include a full-size Skylab model with artifacts from the real Skylab, as well as artifacts and historical exhibits about the International Space Station, the Apollo project, and all of the other NASA projects since the very beginning of space exploration.

We had just enough time to finish that part of the museum before our second tram tour, which was a trip to the Mission Control Center which was in use for the Apollo XI moon landing.  The Mission Control Center has been painstakingly preserved to be exactly as it was when the first moon landing was made, and the Space Center does a wonderful program where all the screens light up and change and you can hear the audio between the astronauts and Mission Control as the moon landing was made and man first set foot on the moon.  I remember, as a kid, watching what was televised from that room, and while it looks like what I remember, it seemed like it should have been bigger.

All of the tours and exhibits were very thought provoking for us.  We’re an age where we remember most of the events that are explained as the history of the space program, and while we were vague on a lot of the details, we decided it was because this isn’t history that we learned in school, but is history that we lived and perceived as whatever age we were when it happened, and those perceptions changed as we grew up.  When one of the tour guides was talking about the Apollo I tragedy where three astronauts were killed in a fire, I didn’t remember any details of what happened, but I suddenly remembered my space obsessed engineer father crying as he watched the news.   I also remembered sitting on my father’s lap in the easy chair in front of the TV to watch the moon landing, as my father explained that this was history that would change mankind, which my 7-year old self didn’t really get.  Of course when Challenger exploded, and then again when Columbia exploded, Tom and I both remember exactly where we were and what we were doing.  I think because we have lived most of the era of space exploration, we never really thought about the continuous forward progress of the overall program, which is brought sharply into focus by the displays and experiences at the Space Center.  Right now, the focus is on re-establishing moon exploration in preparation for a trip to Mars, which could, if everything goes as planned, possibly happen in about 20 years.  It’s conceivable that Tom and I could live to 80, which is how old we’ll be when it happens, and the thought that our lives will span the first man on the moon to the first man on Mars really puts the scope of the program in perspective - both for how quickly progress is made, and for how many generations must pursue the continued effort to achieve these major milestones.

Our Mission Control tram tour was the last tour of the day, so that was the end of our Space Center Houston day.  Our tentative plan had been to head to Galveston to go to the beach, but because the weather was chilly and it was getting late, we decided to instead head towards San Antonio.

We left Baton Rouge for the very straightforward drive to New Orleans.  We’d researched places to stay, and decided to stay at a Harvest Hosts site, the Faubourg Brewery.  From what we could see, almost any place anywhere near the city had questionable security, and there were reports of people’s bikes being stolen off the back of their vehicles, and harassment by local people, and all sorts of stuff we don’t want to do.  Faubourg boasts a completely enclosed property, which has a gate locked to vehicles AND pedestrians from 8PM to 6AM every day.  And, because we’re Harvest Host members, the first night is free, subsequent nights are only $20, and we get a 10% discount in the brewery for food and beer.  So, we booked three nights and pulled up late in the afternoon on Sunday, in time for brews and dinner.

Faubourg Brewery has a huge parking lot, and room for a pretty much limitless number of RVs.  We picked a spot, parked, and, because we were starving, went inside to forage.  The staff was immediately super friendly and started offering us little cups of beer to sample, and when we decided on what we wanted, we got our pints and headed for the kitchen area, where we ordered food.  Tom had a crab cake sandwich, which he said was okay, and I had crawfish poutine, which was out-of-this-world delicious.  I ate past the point where I knew I should stop, to the point where I woke up at 4AM with an upset stomach.  But, it was oh so worth it.  The funny thing was that when I ordered, the cashier said they were out of it.  After my totally crestfallen look, she told me to wait a minute and went in the back to talk to the chef.  She came back and asked if I was okay if the chef made me a substitute dish, and when I pointed out that it was fine because I didn’t know what the real thing was supposed to be anyway, I got my order.  After eating it, I have difficulty believing that whatever it was supposed to be could possibly be any better.

The next day, when I was sure my stomach was recovered, we Lyfted into the French Quarter to meet my college friend Emma at Cafe Du Mond for coffee and beignets.  The coffee and beignets totally lived up to their reputation, although it wouldn’t have really mattered if they didn’t since we had so much fun catching up on what we figured was 40 years.  Emma, like us, has lived and worked all over the place, so after a lot of animated conversation about life, she took us shopping in the public market, where she was looking for a hat for a Mardi Gras party.  She didn’t find a whole hat, but found some hat components, and Tom found a wallet, so after a successful shopping expedition we went back to Jackson Square to say goodbye, with assurances that we would keep in touch, at least through Facebook.

Tom and I spent the rest of the afternoon wandering through the French Quarter, taking photos in Jackson Park, Bourbon Street, the historical Jazz Bars, and of the rest of the architecture, which reminded us a lot of parts of Guatemala.  We thought that was weird, until Emma told us that the French and the Spanish traditionally handed New Orleans back and forth, when it made more sense that we could see the Spanish influence.  

We had traditional New Orleans food in one of the French Quarter restaurants before heading back to the camper with plans to return the next day, today, to go to the World War II museum, take a walking tour, and possibly meet up with some friends who were coincidentally in the city.  However, we woke up this morning to dire weather reports predicting high winds, torrential rains, and possible tornadoes.  We still toyed with the idea of calling for. Lyft into the city, but finally decided that we’d feel really terrible if something happened and we were stuck in the city while the dogs, cat, and camper were over the canal at the brewery, so we decided to stay put for the day, wait for the bad weather to pass, and catch up on a bunch of stuff like blogging for me and a few work projects for Tom.  As it turned out, the weather was pretty wretched and we probably wouldn’t have been very happy wandering around the city, so we were content with our decision. 

In the middle of the afternoon, the Faubourg employee who manages the Harvest Hosts effort came knocking on our door, as well as the doors of the RVs parked near us.  She wanted to make sure we were aware of the weather watches and warnings, and to tell us that we could do whatever we felt we needed to do to stay safe.  We were aware and had in fact been following the weather all day, but apparently a number of our fellow campers had not and had no idea what was going on.  I don’t think any of the RVs decided to leave, which was an option, although I have no idea where anybody would have gone since west and north would be running into the bad weather, south is the Gulf of Mexico so not an option, and east would be maybe, barely, staying ahead.  A few of the RVs decided to just stay where they’ve been parked, but we and a number of others decided to cozy up to the building.  Most of them stayed on the front side, which is nice right now because they are completely shielded from the wind.  However, there is a long zinc roof over a loading dock on that side, which makes the Belizean in us very nervous since we know what zinc roofs do in high winds.  So, we are all by ourselves on the south side of the building (the others are on the west), snuggled up to a cement wall with no zinc roofs in sight.

We spent the evening in the brewery drinking beer and eating wings with the other campers, all of whom are in good spirits.  We are, as we do, making friends with the employees, and I even gave the dregs of my bottle of Marie Sharp’s Smokin’ Marie’s hot sauce to the chef, who was shocked that I was scarfing down his honey habanero wings without breaking a sweat.  He understood my nonchalance about the wing sauce after tasting the Smokin’ Marie’s, and we had a good laugh when he brought a sample out to one of his cooks, who wanted to know why in the hell the chef was trying to kill him.  We’re hoping the chef will visit us in Belize, where we will drag him around to all of our favorite places to eat, as well as getting him all the ingredients and giving him free rein in my kitchen.

Tomorrow, provided the storms pass without too much destruction, we are heading west.  We want to visit the Houston Space Center and revisit San Antonio and the missions on the way to Big Bend National Park, where we will be looking up the camp hosts we just met here tonight.  Life on the road is not good - it is GREAT!

We drove south out of Mississippi in the continuing hard rain.  The rangers at Melrose had advised us against taking the mansion tour so we could get on the road and get to a good stopping place in Louisiana before dark, especially with the bad weather which made for slow going.  We had again turned to iOverlander for a parking spot for the night, and this time the iOverlander advice was spot on with the recommendation for the old ferry landing in Saint Francisville.  The town of Saint Francisville is quite charming, with lots of little shops and old houses which have been beautifully restored.  All of the old buildings and historical points of interest are marked with informational plaques, as is the old ferry landing where we parked.  The ferry landing is at the end of the road and runs into the river, and the wide open gravel parking lot is lined with “Public Parking” signs.  The rain took a break just as we pulled in about an hour before dark, so we put on our walking shoes and took the dogs for a walk through the town.  The night was quiet and we weren’t bothered, although for some reason through the night a lot of cars drove to the end of the road, did a loop through the parking lot, and then headed back down the road.  We had expected cars in and out with people fishing, but not the cars just driving around for no apparent reason.  We probably would have slept better if we had spent a second night there, but for just one night, both of us were awake off and on trying to figure out what was going on outside.  

In the morning, we took another walk through the town before heading for Baton Rouge, the capital of Louisiana.  After being disappointed in both Alabama and Mississippi, we were ready for more disappointment, but we were pleasantly surprised.  While some parts of Baton Rouge are definitely better off than others, we didn’t feel the hopelessness we felt in Mississippi, and it looked like people actually tried to make whatever they had nice.  And, the capitol itself is not only the tallest capitol building in the country, built in the Art Deco style, but it is also surrounded by well tended grounds, with a lake on one side, a garden where an assassinated governor is buried on another, the original Louisiana State University grounds on the third, and another park with an ammunition magazine museum and an ancient Indian mound on the fourth side.  Even on a chilly Sunday morning, people were around, walking dogs, looking at the gardens, and generally enjoying the grounds.  

We left Baton Rouge in the sunshine, heading for a few days in New Orleans.

We stayed at Rocky Springs Campground until Friday morning, when Tom received a text from the guy at the motorcycle shop telling us that the scooter battery was in and charged and could be picked up any time.  We backtracked up to Jackson and picked up the battery.  We then decided that it would be worth the drive west to Vicksburg to see the Vicksburg National Military Park.  Our only problem was that we weren’t finding any listings for anywhere to stay in that area, other than overly expensive RV parks like KOA.  But, I kept digging, and found one listing for a small RV campground right next to the park.    We called and they had availability and said it was only $25 for the night, so we headed for Vicksburg.  

The RV campground is less than a 1/2 mile from the park, so we decided to check in before going to the park.  We quickly figured out why it’s not very popular; it’s old and run down with lots of garbage around, and inconsistently staffed.  When Tom went to check in, the price had gone up to $35, plus taxes and fees that pushed it up to $40, which still isn’t ridiculous, but it was annoying.  But, we had full hookups, so we made good use of the $40 and ran our heater even through it wasn’t freezing, and we did a couple of loads of laundry, and left the next day with full water tanks.  And, after we toured the park, we were set up and making dinner in 15 minutes after leaving the park.

We were really glad we decided to visit Vicksburg.  It was a great comparison to Gettysburg, and it was interesting how they’ve laid out the park.  The park wraps around the city of Vicksburg, and includes battle monuments, one old house, the national cemetery, and the USS Cairo.  The only way to see the whole park is to drive around the loop road, which we did.

We ended our Vicksburg tour by walking the smaller southern loop with the dogs before heading back to the campground.  Despite being run down, the campground was quiet and peaceful, and we had a quiet night before heading south towards Louisiana in the morning.  Our original plan had been to stop at the Natchez Historical National Park and then go to the National Forest, but it was pouring rain so we did a quick outside tour of the Melrose Farm before heading towards Louisiana.