A year with my sister, a lesson in survival, sanity and/or stupidity: Houston, we had no problems

The day dawned bright and sunny so we headed in the direction of Galveston. Stopped off at Hitchcock first to pay homage to the first (and probably only) Naval Blimp Base in USA. It was built during WWII and was partially destroyed in a subsequent hurricane. The bulk of the building was torn down with just these 4 pillars remaining as it was deemed unnecessary and too expensive to do so. They are huge.

What the blimp base used to look like

What we saw

Spent the rest of the day in the Historic District of Galveston. In 2008 Hurricane Ike caused a lot of damage to the area with many of the old oak trees destroyed. Several artists have turned the stumps into works of art. We decided to stroll around the streets checking out the tree sculptures and, as impressive as they were, we were more impressed with the old buildings around us. We were talking to one of the locals who told us that Galveston has the highest number of old wooden Victorian building than any other US city. After walking umpteen blocks in this lovely part of town I’m inclined to believe him.

Tin Man and Toto - I think the tree across the road frames his oil can hat quite nicely

Jean listens in on a storytelling session

Two of the many grand old houses in Galveston

Another local that we were chatting to told us about the Bishop’s Palace – a survivor of the 1900 hurricane. We didn’t need any further encouragement and once we saw the roof towering over the neighbouring edifices it was a given that we were going to investigate further. We were a bit footsore after walking 2½ hours but that didn’t daunt us and we spent another hour looking through this architectural delight. When it was built, a decent house could be erected for $1,000. Known receipts for the Bishop’s Palace came to $250,000. The church brought it in the 1920’s for around $38,000. It is slowly being restored back to original.

Bishop's Palace - many people sought refuge here following the 1900 hurricane - it was one of the few buildings in the surrounding area not destroyed

Bishop's Palace interior

Got confused at Lake Jackson on the way back to camp, finding ourselves at the junction of This Way and That Way

Took a drive out east to Beaumont and visited the small but informative Edison museum. Edison applied for 1093 patents and didn’t like to invent anything that he couldn’t make money from. One thing he didn’t apply for a patent for was a fluoroscope. That was a gift to people who could use it freely (they are the ones who can make money from it).

The Edison Museum is housed appropriately in an old substation

This replica of his first light bulb was made for the 50th anniversary - we're up to 130 years now with this kind of lighting and still going strong

We had planned on a full day in downtown Houston but, after taking the car in for a service, the rain was coming down so heavily we flagged it and relaxed back in the warm and dry RV. Sorry Houston, another time. We did however brave the wind, the rain, the cold and the traffic to meet up with Jean’s former boss Ben at the Karbach Brewery. We make exceptions for alcohol … and friends. Thanks too to Macy and Phillip who let us share their heater. It was great chatting to you.

Enjoying a brew or 4 at the Karbach Brewery

Left Houston and the rain and made our way to Austin. Tried to drive through the interestingly named town of Dime Box but got turned away 3 miles shy of the town due to flooding. Continued on to Austin through a town called Hutto. Hutto has a lot of fibreglass hippos in their town to commemorate one that got away from a circus in the early 1900’s. Drove past a number of them before touching base with a friend in Austin and coordinating a place to meet up.

Hutto Hippos

Naturally it was a place that had food and drink. So lovely to meet up with B again (Jean) and to meet B (Sue) along with her daughter and son-in-law, Charmaine and Jim. That Karbach beer is good stuff.

Here we all are in my favourite position - drinks in hand and food coming

From Austin it was a long haul to West Texas. Parts of it was very much like driving through Australia – very flat and very dry. The key difference being the oil fields – hundreds of pump jacks dotted throughout the landscape.

They're everywhere

Detoured into the Balmorhea State Park to visit the World’s Largest Swimming Pool. It’s built around a natural spring which is why there are many small fish in the pool. It is also a constant 21-22 Celsius (72-74 Fahrenheit) all year round. Despite the warm(ish) weather we didn’t brave the water – places to go, people to see and all that. We did go so far as to remove footwear and dangle our feet in the water though and were rewarded (?) by the tiny fish nibbling on our toes. Apparently there are turtles in the pool as well. Rest assured, our toes would’ve been well clear if they’d come over to investigate.

Why did we not pack our bathing suits - the water looked so inviting (even with the fish)

Made our way north into Pecos where we met up with another friend, Tammie, and her family. As in Austin, lovely to meet up again (Jean) and to meet (Sue). It was lovely to meet your husband, children and grandchildren and thank you again for letting us stay in your yard. Shame that coyote didn’t hang around – that would have made a good story back home. Yee haw!

Tammie & Gary

Continued as far west in Texas as we could go, finishing up in El Peso. Took a day trip into the city. El Paso borders Mexico and the city of Juarez. The two cities are only divided by the Rio Grande and look like one massive city from the viewpoint we had on Franklin Mountain. Saw a bit of interesting architecture on our drive through the city. First up was the University of Texas that has been built in Bhutanese style. It began back in 1917 and, since then, almost all of the university buildings have been built in this style. Next we found a restored 1919 gas station and a bit up the road from that was the Sugar House. It’s a display of religious artwork and locals likened it to columns of sugar hence the name.