Houston, we have a problem

The rain in Spain falls mainly on the plain.  The rain in Texas falls mainly on the highway.  This is not driving rain. This was you-should-not-be-driving-under-any-circumstances rain.  We had a number of episodes of this kind of rain between Lafayette and Houston.  Visibility was down to one meter and we were struggling along with our hazard lights on, the windshield wipers at full speed, and our faces pressed to the windshield hoping the thing vaguely visible in front of us was the road.  To make matters worse semi-trailer trucks whose drivers were driving by memory kept passing us on the left raising tsunamis onto our wringing wet Prius.  When that happens visibility goes from abysmal to nil. It is very scary when the only separation between you and an invisible semi-trailer truck is your attitude.  I think cars down here should be equipped with sonar. 

Houston Texas is the 4^th largest city in the US.   This is something I wish I had known before we drove here.  Telen mentioned this to me as we were approaching the city and all I could see from horizon to horizon was oil refineries and cars. With ten times the population of Canada the roads are filled with ten times the number of cars. 

They were all in Houston.

Not a sign we would see in Canada

We came to Houston because of the Nasa Space Centre.  I know, I know…this screams GEEK!  I never claimed to be anything else, so there!  The Johnson Space Center is where they control the manned space missions as compared to the unmanned space missions such as Curiosity (on Mars) that is controlled in Pasadena California.  Currently their focus is the International Space Station.

Not Quite what we expected to do at the Space Center

The US is good at two things: entertainment and space.  The entertainment bit we can see when we get to the west coast.  The space exploration bit we could see in Houston.  We had seen the gantry at Cape Canaveral where the shuttle was launched and now we could see where it was developed and controlled.  To someone like me – this is groovy.

Mission Control

Telen and the Saturn Launcher

The shuttle program is over and the shuttles are all retired.  The International Space Station is manned by astronauts and cosmonauts from all over the world and is supplied by the Russian Soyuz spacecraft so really the US manned space program is kind of on hold at the moment.   They are apparently working on a new spacecraft called Orion that should be able to take people to Mars.  When I was eight years old I thought we were already there so this is a bit anti-climactic for me.

I really enjoyed the Space Centre.  Telen seemed to as well.  It was very cool to see the control center where they were monitoring the International Space Station, the training center where the astronauts were trained, and the Saturn Rocket that took the astronauts to the Moon.  There were quite a few films and displays chronicling the development of the American Space Program.  Telen kept asking if they were sending up any unmanned rockets while we were there and how much I wanted to ride on one. Don’t worry about the re-entry thingy. She asked a lot of people, and almost convinced them, but they were underwhelmed by the equipment available.

The general population of Texas is broader than it is long.  We went to a Chinese food buffet for dinner.  Can you say, “Deep-fried”?  Deep-fried Chinese food? Really?  I think they deep-fry everything here with the exception of crawfish.  Crawfish is also known as crayfish or crawdads are a tiny fresh-water lobster.   They brought out buckets and buckets of these and they were extremely popular.  I watched one very large lady load her plate with these and she kept adding more and more as they kept falling off her plate.  Amazingly she managed to do this while eating a piece of pizza (in a Chinese restaurant?).  To top off the meal a gentleman at the next table carried on a very animated and hilarious conversation with his table companion who was very spiritual or maybe just invisible.  At least the Americans have managed to entertain us as well as feed and inform us. 

Space AND entertainment!

Telen writes:

Buffets seem to be very popular and CHEAP here.  The Chinese/sushi bar buffet we had was only $10.50 per person.  I was ecstatic to see a huge spread of sashimi and sushi rolls (and these were not deep fried!).  The Chinese selection was huge too and yes, lots of fried stuff.  Looking around the restaurant, the word “portion control” is unknown.

I enjoyed visiting the Johnson Space Center.  It was strange though to see a Space Shuttle parked just outside in the back yard.  This particular Space Shuttle is not the real Challenger but is built to the exact measurements.  The International Space Station (ISS) is a prime example of how effective international cooperation can be if human beings put their minds to it.  I was moved to see the CanadArm playing a pivotal role on board the ISS.

The Space Shuttle in the Back Yard

Houston is the home of the Texas Medical Center – the largest medical center in the world.  According to Wikipedia, the center contains 50 medicine-related institutions, 3 medical schools, 4 nursing schools, and schools of dentistry, public health, pharmacy and other health-related practices.  Perhaps this explains the odd sighting of freestanding MRI clinics in various strip malls.  I saw at least 2 MRI clinics within a radius of 2 miles.  One clinic is right next door to a 7-Eleven!  Here, you can go to 7-Eleven, buy junk food and then go next door to have a total body MRI.  This idea seems so surreal since in Victoria, there is an average 7-8 months wait for a non-urgent MRI scan…  Looking at the numerous advertising billboards here, the competition for sick patients here is fierce.   I saw, in various strip malls, vascular clinics, kidney clinics, and heart clinics.  The best billboard I saw was advertising a “DialysSPA”, presumably a dialysis clinic with SPA –like surroundings.

Here they are fighting for patients while at home we are turning them away.