In our travels, we typically avoid large cities, and Houston certainly qualifies as a large city that we would normally avoid! We have friends that spend their winters here in Pearland, southeast of Houston, so we broke from the norm and made plans to spend some time here. I don’t think we’ll do this again . . . Houston is a huge city, and there is a LOT to see and do . . . but it is nearly impossible to get to so many of those things, or at least incredibly inconvenient and frustrating with the traffic and road situation around the city.
Getting to Galveston Island wasn’t too bad, and the Pearland/Friendswood area is manageable, but if you need to go anywhere near Houston, or worse yet, somewhere on the other side of Houston, it’s a nightmare!
On our first weekend here, we decided to make a trip to the west side of downtown Houston – Tom wanted to check out PPL Motorhomes, and we decided to go to the “service” at Lakewood Church. My map on my phone directed us to take the outer loop around to the west side, and PPL was right there off the highway. We knew it was a toll road, but it really looked like the best route, so we stuck the EZPass up in the windshield (I wasn’t sure if it was going to work, but we thought it was worth a try) and hoped for the best. Nice road, not much traffic, and in a few short minutes we were on the west side of town – simple –we found out after talking to our friends later that the EZPass is not used in Texas, so we’ll get a bill in the mail at some point. Not sure how much that little experiment is going to cost us, but we weren’t actually on the toll road very long.
So, we arrived at PPL and looked around at the consignment motorhomes. I must say we weren’t too impressed . . . we couldn’t believe the condition that some people leave their motorhomes in . . . and they are trying to sell them! We spent a couple hours looking around, but didn’t see anything that would tempt us to make a change. We did pick up a couple tubes of roof sealant that we needed from their well-stocked parts store.
The service at Lakewood Church wasn’t until 7, so we needed to get some dinner first.
Tom searched on Yelp, and we found Barry’s Pizza and Italian Diner – it had really good reviews, and the pictures of the pizza on their website reminded us of one of our favorites from back in the Detroit area – Buddy’s.
We had a pizza and salad, and it was really good – just like Buddy’s!
We arrived at Lakewood, and after driving around the block a few times to find the correct parking garage entrance, we finally made it inside.
So, we’re both life-long Catholics, and have no trouble acclimating to the various Catholic churches we visit as we travel, so we’re not looking for anything new but we’ve seen Joel Osteen on TV, and his message always seems to make sense. Plus, it’s kind of like seeing a celebrity, so we thought it would be interesting to attend. They have people greeting you as you walk in the doors, and they’re pretty good at picking out the newbies (we must have had a lost look on our faces!), so he quickly asked if it was our first time there. Of course Tom said yes, and that he wanted to be in the front row! Can you sense me trying to hide . . .
He handed us off to a woman who took us into the auditorium, right down on the main floor level, and inside a roped-off section of seats – not quite the first row, but the 3rd! It actually wasn’t very crowded – but I guess most people go on Sunday, and that’s the televised service.
Joel and Victoria arrived at 7pm to welcome everyone, but didn’t stay on stage for much more than a minute.
Then there was music – LOTS of music! The musicians and singers were very talented, but it went on for a really long time . . . people in the audience were really getting into it.
The production was very professional – lights, video, great sound . . . just not what I’m used to in church.
That went on for almost an hour, then Joel and Victoria were back on stage, but just to introduce another guy – the producer of a new movie (it’s the one about the kid who drowned, but his mother wouldn’t believe that he was dead, and he came back to life – true story; I can’t remember the name of the movie), and they showed the movie trailer. I thought that might be the end of the service (it was after 8pm by then), but then Joel came back on stage again for his sermon.
It was a good message – I’ve come to realize that he pretty much always says the same thing – if you’re good, faithful to God, and just believe in Him, everything will work out. He pretty much steers clear of anything controversial or that might alienate some people. They do take up a collection, although looking around, it seemed like most people were using their convenient phone app to make their contributions.
It finally ended around 8:30 or so, but we were invited to a “meet & greet” photo op upstairs by the bookstore afterward. We wandered up there, but the line was long and Joel & Victoria hadn’t arrived yet, so we didn’t hang around. We had been gone quite a while, and needed to get home to Casey,
It was an interesting experience, but once was enough for me . . . I think I’ll stick to old school Catholic mass!
Another thing I noticed on our way out – they have a HUGE childcare operation . . . and there were no children in the auditorium. That seemed strange to me . . . you’d think you would want to expose your children to church at a young age, but I guess they don’t.
Anyway, it was an experience . . . and I hadn’t really planned on talking about it that much . . .
We made our way out of Houston and back to the RV Park without much trouble, but it did take longer by not going on the toll road.
The next weekend, we heard about a Germanfest going on in the little town of Tomball, on the northeast side of Houston. Once again, the map said that taking the outer loop all the way around the south and west sides of Houston was going to be the fastest route, but we decided to avoid the toll road and go straight through Houston. Ugh! What a nightmare! The traffic was horrendous, and looked even worse going in the opposite direction! We finally got through Houston, avoided a short stretch of toll road by staying on the frontage road (although we initially missed the turn and had to circle all the way back around!), and got on the Tomball Parkway which, after the first couple miles, turned into a toll road! We just can’t win!
We made it to Tomball, and enjoyed the Germanfest.
We watched some German Dancers from local high schools – they were pretty good,
walked through all the vendor booths – including this one that was selling authentic German clothes (Tom didn’t want any lederhosen!),
and Tom got his beer and bratwurst! I had a pretzel dog, and we split a soft pretzel before we headed out (not the best, we could have skipped the giant pretzel).
We also picked up some apple and cherry strudel to take home – it was really good! The festival was fun, there were some cute shops in town too, and the weather held out (no rain!), and we had a good time . . . until the drive home!
We decided not to go through Houston again (too aggravating!) and thought we should bypass the toll roads, so we stayed on the frontage road the whole way . . . and it took forever! I think there were more people on the frontage road than were on the 8-lane freeway (Go figure – it’s free!), and there are lights every mile or so. We finally got off of it and wound our way through Pearland back to the RV Park, arriving home TWO HOURS later! Yikes – we definitely do not like Houston!
I think the remainder of our adventures here will be in Pearland and Friendswood, and other areas that keep us on the south side of Houston!
We did find a little farm in nearby Alvin to pick fresh strawberries . . . YUM . . . and we will go back one more time before we leave!
Meanwhile up north, the boys have been keeping busy. Michigan State had a great run in March Madness, and knocked out Duke to get to the Final Four.
Bryce and his friends have been members of the “Izzone” the whole time they’ve been at MSU, so they were able to get student tickets to the tournament, and made their way to Minneapolis.
We watched for them in that sea of students, but didn’t find them, although Tom thought he spotted them once.
Unfortunately, that was the end of the road for the Spartans, and they didn’t make it to the National Championship game. It was a good season anyway!
In Virginia, the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower finally finished all of its maintenance, and headed out for Sea Trials.
Being pushed away from the pier,
and making their way out to sea.
It was a short trip, just 5 days, and they returned to their homeport in Norfolk after a successful sea trials.
They now are ready to begin their time period of preparing for deployment – qualifying all of the Ike’s systems and sailors. It’ll be a busy year coming up for Nicolas, but it will be exciting for him, and with the ship back in its homeport, we’ll be able to take a tour when we’re in Norfolk this spring. We’re looking forward to that!
We had enough of passing through the Dallas, Fort Worth Area. We don't plan on heading to Huston.
ReplyDeleteLike yourselves we prefer the traditional Catholic Churches.
Glad everything is working out for the boys.
Be Safe and enjoy!
It's about time.