Baton Rouge to the moon

Got a surprisingly early start to the day today considering the festivities of the night previous. Drove straight to Baton Rouge, which is a cool (albeit quiet) looking city. They have a state building that looks like the Empire State Building and a big paddle-wheeler steam stacked riverboat casino. Too early for such pleasantries, however. We carry on to Lafayette to a restaurant recommended by a coworker of Matt's dad. Tasty char-grilled oysters to start (these I can handle; cooked they are fine) then seafood pasta for me and red snappers for the other 2. Good meal, and I think we have all had a sufficient amount of seafood for a while. Once we leave Lafayette, the landscape looks a lot like Hwy 1 between Calgary and Banff. We get a short burst of torrential downpour (seems we can't escape the rain in any state) just before Lake Charles. Lake Charles appears to be more of a tailings pond for the multitude of industry and refineries surrounding the body of water. We drive over a crazy high/steep bridge that takes us to the other side of the lake and into Texas shortly thereafter. Right at the border is a massive visitor center where we take photos inside a metal star and next to the Welcome to Texas sign. One thing I have forgotten to mention thus far is the unbelievable amount of "adult" stores advertised on billboards on the interstate highways. Not sure who is driving the huge supply but evidently there must be a big demand for such places, as they number even greater than the fireworks stores. Near Houston the refineries start appearing and suddenly are all you can see in any direction.

We still play our game of who can see and call out each and every Waffle House sign first along the way. We're at well over a hundred by now I'm sure. We drive to the Johnson Space Center in the Clear Lake/Webster area (just outside of Houston) with 3 hours to spare before they close. Hustle in, get tickets and start exploring. First is a large museum/interactive type place with heaps of kids, but we soon find a tram tour that we hop on. This tour takes us to the astronaut training center where they learn skills for space and the hangar houses a full scale replica of the entire International Space Station. Learn some cool things about what goes on there and then the tram takes us to the Saturn V building. This massive structure houses the Saturn 5 rocket, used to send astronauts to the moon. Not a replica; the real thing. And it is MASSIVE. Along the wall are photos and write ups and quotes from each Apollo mission. Pretty inspirational. 

The tram takes us back to the museum building and we go into a theatre to see a 4D video of a rocket launch, complete with bass loud enough to feel and smoke pouring out at the point in the video where the rocket engines fire up. Then a guide tells us all about the ISS, the astronauts, and their roles. Informative and interesting. We wander around other stationary exhibits including one of the evolution of space suits. It finished with the suit worn by Felix Baumgartner for his Red Bull Stratos jump along with video and storyboards to accompany it. Hit the gift shop then drive back to the hotel. Matt stays to give the missus a call while Nick and I opt to drive to a pier amusement park. We get there and it looks unimpressive; like a smaller version of Callaway Park in Calgary. But they have a big wooden roller coaster so we each grab a $6 ticket for the thing and take it for a spin. Absolutely terrifying and amazing. So borderline unsafe, and also so thrilling. The guy didn't take our tickets (almost the end of the night combined with not caring) so we rode the thing again. $6 for two coaster rides? Bargain! Went back to the hotel and did laundry at the poolside machines and had beers in the coolish "hot tub" while waiting for that to finish. Booked our next 2 nights in Austin and turned in for the night. Tomorrow we go through San Antonio then head up to Austin.