Houston to Clovis NM

While in Houston we went to the Johnson Space Center (JSC) which we found quite underwhelming. We went there thinking we were going to see some really cool stuff, rockets etc. the low down it's a big kids park with heaps of educational stuff to make the most of this we would have to spend a shit load of time there that we didn't have. The JSC was full of acronyms such as the ATF (Astronaut Training Facility) the SVF (Saturn V Facility), the BT (blue tour), the RT (red tour). We went on the RT to the JSC ATF and SVF the BT went to MC and the SVF. The BT took us 90 minutes and consisted of a train ride to the JSC ATF for the walk through where we saw high fidelity mock ups (sorry HFMUs) of the space station and the space shuttle (see space station HFMU below)

Everything in here was cover in plastic and it was no wonder why the place was a friggin mess. Apparently there is 14,000 people working on the JSC campus and it is set up similar to the university campus to aid in collaboration, we saw about five people working while we were there, I didn't want to ask when the next mission was planned to take off.

Our next stop on the BT was the SVF this is where we saw the coolest thing on the tour the massive Saturn V Rocket, even though it was 40 years old it's still pretty cool. Amazing to think this massive rocket was used, 17 separate missions 17 separate rockets to get three people each time into space.....where's the  pay back on that?

After the JSC we rode off into the heat, averaged about 100oF all day today 8:30am to 7pm.  We stopped the  night in Brownwood TX, our first hotel we stopped at will remain unnamed but after being in the room for 5 minutes and seeing 2 large cockroaches we packed our bags and got our money back and went down the road to the Holiday Inn Express. Alison insisted that we have a room on the top floor as she was adament that the roaches can't climb that far. We woke in the morning at about 5am to you quessed it.............(or did you) a massive thunder storm.

Got on the road early as it was raining and we didn't know how the weather was going to effect our travel plans, after about two hours we had driven into fine weather again.

Gas here is so cheap, about a third of the  price of NZ, considering we're filling the car up every day this is a good thing for the bank account.  (This is the price per gallon.)

Cheap gas prices because of several factors, pumping it out of the ground, lower taxes, corn ethanol subsidies etc. who cares it's cheap and I'm getting screwed at home.

Cheap gas + big car = crazy women driver. At home all the time I get "it's not a race you know", I said this to Al today and the answer I got was "oooooh yes it is!" 

Have to go now, the swamp people is on TV, I might see Troy's dad.

Note: (MC - mission control (freaks)