In and Around Houston

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!

Back on the subject of churches, even the Catholic Churches down here in Texas are huge . . . beautiful, though!  This is the one in Friendswood that we went to this weekend.

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!

Exploring Galveston

By the end of our first week in Pearland, the weather had improved greatly and we were enjoying sunny skies and temps in the high 70s.  On my Friday off, we thought we would take advantage of that great weather with a topless drive to the beach on Galveston Island.

Our neighbors at the RV Park had given us some tips on things to see on the island, and we were glad they did.  Galveston is a much bigger island than Port Aransas, and we weren’t expecting that!

We were able to take Highway 6 from Alvin, and reached Galveston in about 30 minutes – we’re closer than we thought!

After crossing the bridge to the island, we drove all the way to the northeastern tip, where the Galveston Bay and the Houston Ship Channel branch off from the Gulf of Mexico.

We watched the ships coming out of the channel, and others lined up to go up the channel.

These two cargo ships passed by each other in the channel – from our vantage point, they looked so close together!

They made it!

After watching the ships for a few minutes, we drove back towards the old downtown area.

The downtown area is the old part of Galveston, with many of the buildings on the Strand dating back to the early 1800s.  It’s now the center of nightlife in Galveston, with shops, restaurants and bars bringing new life to the old buildings.

It’s a fun little downtown area, and the shops were fun with lots of cool beach gear and cottage-style decorations for the home.

One shop we went into had Nativity Sets from all over the world – they were very cool to look at!

Then there was fudge . . .

and taffy. 

We were just in time for the taffy-pulling demonstration, so we went in to watch.

He was having a little trouble though, and the taffy kept falling apart on the pulling machine. 

He had let it get too cool, and it was too brittle to pull.  A wasted batch . . . Bummer!

It was a fun little downtown area and we enjoyed walking around,

but now we were ready for some lunch.  One of the shops had given us a couple of coupons for restaurants, and one of them was right there at the port, so we decided to give it a try.

It was Friday, and still Lent, so we were limited in our choices.  Tom is always happy with seafood, and as long as I can get a nice salad, I’m OK, too.  My salad was good with the crunchy fried onion strings, but I let Tom have the deep-fried goat cheese balls.  He said they were good.

After lunch, we went up on the balcony to get a few photos of the harbor, including the tall ship, Elissa, and some of the commercial operation on the other side of the Bay.

From the restaurant we walked along the pier, to the Ocean Star Oil & Gas Industry Museum.  The folks back at the RV Park had told us that it was a nice museum and worth checking out.

The museum is on off-shore oil rig that was moved into Galveston Bay and renovated to highlight the history and technological advances of the oil and gas drilling industry.

OK, I’ll admit it . . . I had no idea that the oil & gas drilling process was so complex!  I thought they just stuck an oil rig out in the ocean, drilled down and pumped oil out.

Now, that’s essentially what they do . . . but there is so much more that comes first, involving a huge number of scientists and engineers.  As a company receives the rights to drill in a certain off-shore area, they first have to map the entire ocean floor to determine where pockets of oil exist, and how big they are.  There’s a whole science to that alone! 

Another interesting fact—we may think it’s just the car and truck industry that depends on oil and gas, but it’s much more integral to our lives than just through our cars . . .

Once they determine that there’s oil and/or gas to be obtained, they have to determine the best kind of rig to use, depending on the depth of the ocean and the depth of the oil pocket below the ocean floor.

In the last 50 years, the technology of off-shore drilling has expanded at an amazing rate!

The Ocean Star is an example of one of the first off-shore drilling rigs, a jackup rig, capable of operating in water up to 173 ft. deep. 

The three legs rest on the ocean floor and then the platform is jacked up to the necessary height above the water.  These units are moved from one drilling location to the next, and are still the most numerous of all off-shore drilling rigs in the world.

As the need to drill in deeper depths grew, the technology grew, also.  There are tower structures, like the Bullwinkle rig, that stands in 1353 ft. of water in the Gulf of Mexico.  It’s the tallest fixed steel platform in the world.

But, we needed to get into deeper waters . . .

Most of the rigs operating in the deepest areas are not fixed structures that reach the ocean floor.  They are designed to float on the surface, with the amount of the rig structure that is below the water surface depending on the design.  The rigs are tethered in place, and the structure below the surface acts as a counter-balance to keep the rig upright and stable – even during storms!

There are also Drilling Ships, which don’t have any structure at all below the surface but can perform all the same tasks as a permanent oil rig.

And that’s all what’s going on above the surface . . . below is another whole story!  These rigs don’t just drill a single hole into the ocean floor directly below the rig.  They are drilling in multiple locations, in multiple directions, for both gas & oil at the same time – it’s really quite a complex operation!

It’s really quite amazing, and the museum was quite educational and a little overwhelming!

There were more displays inside of the tools used on the oil rig.

Numerous types of drill bits – some for exploration, and others for drilling for the oil or gas.

Diving equipment

Outside on the platform, regardless of size, all rigs have many of the same components.

The series of valves that controls the oil and gas flow from the drill up to the rig is referred to as a “Christmas Tree”, and the drill is turned by the kelly at the top of the turntable

AS they drill into the ground, long sections of pipe are fed into the hole to create a tube for the oil and gas to flow through.

Looking up into the derrick.

The cementing unit is used once the appropriate depth is reached to cement the sections of casing together and protect the drilled hole.

Of course, there’s so much more to it than that . . . but my mind was starting to go blank at that point . . . like I said, overwhelming!

The rig workers live on the platform for up to 6 months at a time, and have many of the comforts of home in this little floating city  . . . but not really.  There are lots of safety provisions in place, including hyperbaric chambers for divers who have had to go down to great depths,

and escape pods, or lifeboats.

There’s got to be a way to escape!

During normal conditions, workers come and go by ship, and and this crane operated platform is used to transfer the men from the ship to the platform or form the platform to the ship. 

That looks like a scary ride to me!

We had a nice view of Galveston Bay from up on the platform,

and a cruise ship heading out to sea.

It was a nice museum, very interesting, and if you’re ever in Galveston and want a break from the beach, it’s worth checking out.

Some pelicans were hanging out by the ramp as we made our way back off the platform.

We had a pretty full day already, but before leaving Galveston island, we took a little drive along the beach, and even a short drive on the beach.

It was late in the afternoon by then, so the beach had pretty well cleared out.

It was a very full and enjoyable day!