Day 228- 230 March 14-16, 2017

All across Louisiana people commented on how warm the weather was. They had a much warmer than normal Winter and Spring was way ahead of schedule. As we headed into Texas, the days were actually much cooler. It was in the low 50s the day we rode into Houston. We assumed that was a bit chilly for the area, but not by much.  "Bridge may be icy" signs were common on Louisiana roads, so we assumed it would be the same in the Houston area. While talking with some native Houston folks, we were set straight. This weather was too cold, especially for this time of year. They claimed it never got much below 70 and it was common to have days in the mid 80s, occasionally 90s in January. All of them said it was common to run the AC on Christmas day.






The ride into Houston was a bit over 51 miles, most was over fairly rural ground. I cannot remember what river this was but it was completely covered with floating plants. The plants were so thick, trash and blown leaves just sat on top of them. As is typical, the picture does not do it justice, but the effect was amazing, a swirl of yellows and green carpet as far as we could see. I would have loved to go exploring, but time, John's worry, and my fear of alligators made me move along.

For the last week or so, I have been teasing John that he drove all the trains away. He is big train geek. He loves to see them go by and check out where they came from etc. As you can imagine, we see a lot of trains, but lately, they have been out of sight or the tracks have been empty. They made up for it last night and today. There was even track work going on!

We passed cars with rocks from pebbles to small boulders. They were in long cars that looked as if several normal cars had been connected into one very large one. In the picture above, a crane is lifting a car back on the track after it had apparently derailed. Even happens to the big trains, I guess.

On the advice of John's cousin Candy, we got a hotel on the northwest side of Houston which meant we had to go through the city to get there.

Welcome to our church? Somehow barbed wire does not impart a
feeling of community.

Like all big cities it was a combination of poor and wealthy homes, but it struck me as odd that they were mixed together on the same blocks. There would be several ramshackle homes and then a hacienda/ranch surrounded by a wall or tall barbed wire fence. Across the street would be a small factory or oil refinery. - Oil refineries are everywhere. It was hard to find hotels in parts of Louisiana and Texas because they are full of construction workers. The workers are expanding oil refineries or roads needed because of the refinery expansion. Southwestern Louisiana and so far Texas are covered with expanding refineries.-

Houston is a BIG city. It reminds me of Los Angeles, in that it sprawls for miles. The highways are 4 to 6 lanes in each direction. Right now they are in the middle of a highway expansion project. It was supposed to be done for the Super Bowl but is still in progress.

We will be in Houston for a week, so we rented a car to help us see the sights and visit family. John has an aunt and four cousins to visit and our nephew, Andrew is in Corpus Christi, so we plan to look in on him as well. Tomorrow we head to the USS Texas a battleship John is keen to see.