TRANSIT REPORT: Houston, Texas

Metro is Houston's transit authority and it runs a system of three light rail lines and a web of bus lines through the region.

The light rail system serves the downtown area very well with frequent service to most points of interest. What it fails to do is serve either airport, George H.W. Bush International or Houston Hobby Airport.

Lines come in from the east (Green), south (purple and red) and north (red) and converge on the Main Street/ Fannin corridor downtown.

The system is 100% wheelchair accessible and you can get maps and more information at ridemetro.org.

That is pretty much the entire system, it works well for the city, especially well in the central city, but lacks commuter bus or rail for points farther out.

Fare is $1.25 and is good for three hours.  Disabled fare is $.60. A day pass is $3 but it's a weird way to pay...you must load at least that amount on a fare card (tappable at the station to validate the fare) and, after three taps, the card won't collect any fare past $3.

Darryl Musick
Copyright 2017 - All Rights Reserved

A Step Into History: Johnson Space Center - Houston, Texas

This has always been a big destination on my wish list. I'm a child of the 60's and 70's. Watching the brave men of the earlier space program was a right of passage for us. Imagine it, it was less than two months before I was born that a human ever left the bonds of our planet to float around in the microgravity beyond our atmosphere.

It's more commonplace, now. Almost routine enough that tourists are already taking the trip to space but back then, it was something groundbreaking, cutting edge science, and incredibly dangerous.

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While the coast of Florida proved to be aligned just right for launches, the control center for these flights needn't be co-located in the days of modern telecommunications. A list of criteria was drawn up and 22 sites fit it but only one had the backing of the vice president from Texas, Lyndon Johnson.

Politics has a great influence on the decision to locate here.

There is one bus that goes from downtown Houston to Johnson Space Center (JSC). It'll take about an hour and a half from our hotel. That's more time than I'm really willing to invest so, for just a few dollars more, I reserve a car from Avis for the day.

The rental office is not near our hotel. It's a couple of miles to Avis so I catch an Uber ride. It was almost my last ride as the driver ran a red light near our destination with a big van barreling down on us. As Maxwell Smart would say, "missed us by that much."

Jittery but OK, I get back to the hotel and pick up the rest of the crew. About forty minutes later, we're in the parking lot of the Johnson Space Center visitor's center. This is a large museum with various exhibits related to space and space travel.

A corner is given over to missions to Mars; a demonstration gives us a glimpse of life on the International Space Station (ISS); we can wander through a full-size replica of Skylab. It's all very interesting and, it seems to me, heavy on exhibits on how astronauts use the toilet in zero gravity conditions.

Included in the admission (AAA and AARP members get a discount so show your cards) are two tours on wheelchair accessible trams...just like the vehicles at Universal Studios or our previous Captain Morgan Distillery tour...each one going to a different historic site on the actual campus about a half mile away.

First, we board the tram to the Christopher Cross Mission Control Center. This is it, what I really came to see. The nerve center of the early space program. Gemini, Apollo, and even early shuttle missions.

This is the room where Neil Armstrong's words came in upon stepping on the Moon. Jim Lovell reported here when he had that problem on Apollo 13. We've all seen this room on the news and historic films and documentaries.

It's no longer in service, it's now a historic landmark and a preserved monument to America's space program. A guide points out different spots where different specialist would sit at their consoles to guide those early missions. The seats we're in are where VIP's such as Queen Elizabeth II sat when she came in to observe.

It's a short presentation...maybe just a tad too short...but an incredible slice of history.

The next tour takes us to the Astronaut Training Facility where a full-size mockup of the ISS is installed in a giant room. Astronauts train here for missions to the station. There are also gizmos here to emulate working in zero gravity along with a robot facility making androids to go into space.

Another mockup of the spaceship that will someday go to Mars is here to train those astronauts.

Both tours end up at Rocket Park where a few rockets and engines are on display.

Sitting in the sun is an Atlas II rocket with a Mercury capsule on top. It's really a tiny little thing.

Inside an adjacent building is another story altogether. In here is one of the few remaining, fully intact Saturn V rockets.

This is the largest rocket ever made. We're dwarfed by the five massive engines that propelled this giant into space.

It's a bit of a walk to the other end where an Apollo capsule sits at the top, just above the Command Module that provided living quarters for the three astronauts on their mission.

This particular rocket would have been designated Apollo 19 for it's mission to the Moon had the program not been scrubbed after Apollo 17.

After our break at Rocket Park, we board another shuttle back to the visitor's center. Before visiting the gift shop and after perusing the exhibits outlined above, we go outside where a full-sized replica of a space shuttle sits atop a real 747 carrier plane.

This particular plane was purchased from American Airlines by NASA during the shuttle program's years and was used to ship the shuttle back to Florida when circumstances dictated that the space plane land in California instead.

An elevator is available to take wheelchair users to any of the three levels of this display. 

We've been on a shuttle before and this one is no different. We inspect the pilot's cockpit and the cramped crew quarters before heading out to the cargo bay to see a satellite waiting to enter orbit via the Canadian arm, a space crane that is used to move heavy objects in space.

Warby Parker's Free Home-Try-On Program

The carrier plane is new to us and we take a little more time inspecting this stripped-out former passenger plane. 

There are huge concrete weights behind the cockpit that were placed there to balance out the heavy load on top. Displays explain the difficulties and quirks of carrying a plane on top of another. Displays let you try your skills at navigating the various tasks associated with shipping a space shuttle, coast-to-coast.

Tim tries his hand at flying the entire contraption in various wind conditions at one of those displays.

It's been a fun morning turning into afternoon and we're a bit hungry.  It's time to head back to Houston, have some dinner, and pack up. Tomorrow we're heading back to the airport.

Darryl Musick
Copyright 2017 - All Rights Reserved

Photos by Letty Musick
Copyright 2017 - All Rights Reserved

Fields of Dreams: Minute Maid Park - Houston, Texas

Minute Maid Park is the home of the Houston Astros and displaces the now unused Astrodome, an historical landmark it shared with the Houston Oilers football team.  It's located in downtown Houston, beside (and incorporating) the old Union Station train depot.

Originally, the team was known as the Houston Colt 45's. In fact, I made sure I got and wore a replica Colt 45's t-shirt to the game. A lot of old-time Houston fans at the game let me know how much they appreciated the gesture. The team was an expansion to the National League in 1962, the same year the New York Mets started their MLB career.

Houston became the nerve center of the country's space program with the creation of Johnson Space Center and everything became space-themed. The new indoor stadium became known as the Astrodome and the team changed names to the Astros to pay homage to American Astronauts.

The dome was a modern marvel in its day, cutting edge in stadium design, but 1965 modern didn't translate into new millennium modern. Houston had just lost their football team by not giving them a modern stadium to move into. They weren't about to lose the baseball team for the same reason and construction began on a new downtown stadium in 1997. The Astros opened their 2000 season in the new, modern, retractable roof stadium with natural grass (as opposed to the synthetic grass developed especially for the Astrodome, dubbed Astroturf). 

Naming rights soon went to Enron, an energy company that soon found itself broiled in scandal, then the Astros went to CocaCola who ponied up the money to name the stadium after its juice brand. Because of that, the stadium now has the unofficial nickname the "juicebox."

A few years ago when the team was moved to the American League, the Astros were kind of a laughing stock for having a miniscule budget, no-name players, and an awful record. The team management basically said "wait, this is part of an improvement plan." It must have been a pretty good plan because they have steadily worked themselves up the standings and, as of this writing, sit atop the American League West standings a whopping 12 games over the second place Angels and the season is not even half over.

Notable names on today's roster include second baseman Jose Altuve, outfielder Carlos Beltran, and shortstop Carlos Correa. 

Here are the stats…

Year opened: 2000

Surface: Platinum TE Paspalum

Construction cost: $250 million

Capacity:  44,950

Field dimensions: Left field – 315 ft.; left center – 404 ft.; Center field – 409 ft.; right center – 408 ft.;  Right field – 326 ft.

Home team: Houston Astros, 2000 - Present

Events attended: one game

Minute Maid Park seems huge when you’re outside but gets a more intimate feel once you're in. Perhaps because a large part, the old Union Station where the team has its offices and gift shop, really sits outside of the seating bowl making it larger than it feels.   The staff is professional and fans are very welcoming to out-of-towners.  It’s know as a hitter-friendly park despite the long distance to center field but is does have fairly short power alleys.

In addition to the long distance to center field, there used to be a small hill and flagpole here that was in play. Saner heads prevailed and the ground was flattened and the flagpole removed after the 2016 season.

Another unique feature, paying homage to the stadium's former life as a train station, is a full-size replica locomotive that travels across the top of the left field stands whenever the home team hits a home run. 

Also, look for the corner window at the top of the office building beyond the left field foul pole with the noticeably thicker glass and a 422 feet marker under it. That's the owner's office and one day at batting practice, someone hit a ball there, shattered the glass, and made a mess of the interior. The office was cleaned up, the sign installed, and...now...thick shatterproof glass makes sure this won't be repeated (story was told to me by our usher).

The seating bowl features three larger decks and a small level of suites, two decks in right field and a smaller deck in left.  The Texas heat is left behind when it gets too hot...the roof is closed and the air conditioning turned on. If the weather is pleasant, the roof is opened.

Wheelchair seating is liberally spread out through the park. We opted for the club level, near the right field foul pole. Our seats were on a very comfortable and roomy deck above the seats below.They were about the same price as the seats we had back at Globe Life Park but much more comfortable. An Interior food court was directly behind us.

Hot dogs here are good.  Very good and big. The park is also know for it's street tacos which are good too. Beer selection is also very good and the food and drink prices are a little above average. 

Public transportation to the park is good with a trolley station a block away. Houston has a good light rail system in the downtown area and it connects with a lot of hotels.

Warby Parker's Free Home-Try-On Program

Minute Maid Park now displaces Miller Park in Milwaukee as our favorite domed/retractable roof stadium in the majors. It's a wonderful place to see a ballgame in or out of a wheelchair.

Darryl Musick
Copyright 2017 - All Rights Reserved

Photos by Letty Musick
Copyright 2017 - All Rights Reserved

The Opening Salvo of the Silver Boot Series - Gameday in Houston, Texas

Otherwise known as the Silver Boot Series, the Lone Star Series is a intrastate rivalry between Texas' two Major League Baseball teams, the Texas Rangers and the Houston Astros. Basically, the team that has the better record of the seasons games against each other gets a silver boot trophy. Makes the division rivalry a little more interesting to the fans.

Tonight is the first game of the season between these two teams and we've got tickets.

Our hotel, the Homewood Suites in downtown, is almost the closest hotel to the stadium. There is a Four Seasons (that is probably four times the price) between our hotel and Minute Maid Park. It's a wonderful hotel and a two minute walk down the block from the stadium.

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Formerly named Enron Park, the stadium picked up a new sponsor after that company sank in scandal, the stadium is expanded out from the beautifully restored train depot, Union Station. The former transportation hub makes for a grand entrance into the facility. It's also the closest entrance to our hotel, so we enter there.

This puts us in left field so we wind our way around center field, take a little elevator ride, and then end up at our club level seats near the right field foul pole. They are fine seats, very comfortable on a private-feeling deck above the rest of the seats here. The searing sun is upon them, however, so we go indoors to the club level food court directly behind us. It's the end of the day so it will only be 5 or 10 minutes before our seats are in the shade again.

Warby Parker's Free Home-Try-On Program

We take this opportunity to see what kinds of foods we have available to us so when I go on a food run later, everyone will know what's available. When we do get food, the foot long hot dogs, carne asada tacos, and popcorn really hit the spot.

A selection of Texas craft brews also keep us hydrated.

Earlier in the day, we'd visited the team's gift shop in the lobby of the old station to prepare for tonight's game. If our team isn't playing, we usually root for the home team. Knowing that before they were the Astros the team was known as the Colt .45's, I was able to get a retro Colt 45's shirt for the game.  A lot of old-timers at the game got it and were appreciative. Suddenly, I'd had a cadre of friends that I could chat baseball with.

The game gets underway and as a Pyrrhic revenge, the Rangers just don't have it tonight. The bats are quiet, Houston's pitchers have their way with them, and the Rangers make a few errors before going down 6 - 2.

I say Pyrrhic because, although it's fun to see the team that defeated ours a week earlier go down in flames, Houston is still the team in first place that the Angels are chasing.

It still is a very fun game in a very good stadium, now our favorite covered stadium.  As the fireworks shoot above the locomotive traveling across the top of the left field wall, celebrating another Astros win, we take a pleasant stroll back to the hotel and call it a night.

Darryl Musick
Copyright 2017 - All  Rights Reserved

Photos by Letty Musick
Copyright 2017 - All  Rights Reserved

Crashing the Party - A Light Rail Tour of Houston

Our downtown hotel, Homewood Suites, is not only a great hotel. It's in a great location, too, with Houston's light rail running on either side of the building. This makes for a great, easy way to go out and see the city.

Ready? Let's go...

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Across from the hotel is a parking lot and on the other side of that is the train station.  It's a bit confusing paying the fare at first...day passes have to be validated but one trip tickets don't...and we start off with a little bickering about how it works on transfers but we take a deep breath and move on, determined to have a good time.

The trains run often here at about 6 to 7 minute intervals.  It's a quick ride to where we have to transfer. Looking back, we probably could have walked those three blocks just as quickly.

The Red Line runs down Main Street in downtown Houston before heading out to Rice University, the Ensemble District, and the massive hospital district before reaching our destination of Stadium Park.

Along the way, we take note of other stops we might want to make on the way back but, first, we go to see some sports history.

At Stadium Park sits the massive, new NRG Stadium, home to the NFL's Houston Texans. It's a rather sterile behemoth, as generic as the team's name but next door sits a landmark of an old stadium that harks back to the nostalgic days when the city had a much better name for it's team, the aptly named Houston Oilers. Along with baseball's Astros, they called this stadium...the Astrodome...home.

Warby Parker's Free Home-Try-On Program

Completed in 1965, the Astrodome was the world's first multi-purpose, domed stadium. While now pretty common place in locales where weather would affect gameplay, this was revolutionary when it opened. One thing they didn't take into account, however, was that the natural grass playing surface would not survive indoors.  A synthetic grass was developed and installed and Astroturf became a household word.

There are a lot of people getting off at this station and the parking lot is full even though nothing is in season here. We walk towards the dome and find the area fenced off. A gate with two attendants and a table block our way. They are checking everybody's packages...I should mention everybody is very well dressed, too.

Obviously, some event is taking place and the entire area is cordoned off for it.

I explain to the people manning the table that we just wanted to take a look at the old dome and if they could show me a way to get over to it. They said to just let us check your purses and backpacks and you can go in.

Security check over, we end up wandering into the Offshore Technology Conference, a convention for oil people from all over the world to explore the wonders of offshore oil drilling.

As we make our way over to the old stadium, we pass by oil rigs, pumps, and even industrial air conditioners along the way. There's a food-truck court (where we get a five dollar bottle of water to quench our thirst) and candy samples along the way from all of the oil industry vendors.

There are Saudi men in smart suits and turbans. Nigerian oil execs in very sharp looking Nehru suits; South Americans in sharply pressed suits and very stylish dresses; and Oklahoma oilmen in their dress jeans, Pendletons, and custom cowboy boots all classed up the place. Then, there is a family of three bloggers dressed in shorts, t-shirts, sandals, and baseball caps.

Guess who stuck out like a sore thumb.

While it was obvious who did not belong at this gathering, the people there were still very nice and courteous to us.

We make our way through, a bit amazed at all the technology available in the industry and we're only on the outside. Who knows what amazing pieces of machinery and technology await in the main exhibit hall?

On the other end of the lot, we find ourselves on a small street with the old Astrodome on our left and it's replacement...NRG Stadium...on the right.  The new stadium dwarfs the old, which is not a small feat.

The old place looks a little worn, a dowdy old woman next to the sparkly new girlfriend. It's been declared unsafe so from the outside is all we can see. It could use a cleaning and a coat of paint.

I'm sure inside there's much to be done, too. It's now a landmark and no demolition is scheduled. One day, it can be reconditioned and served as another venue to this rather large event center...maybe a concert hall or even a sports arena for local college teams.

Now, it just sits in the Texas sun waiting for another turn in the spotlight while we make our way back out via the convention's food court. A lady offers us a sample of Brazilian steak from a food truck. It is very good.

After an hour or so of this Texas hospitality, we're on our way out when a security guard approaches us and asks what we're doing. We tell him and then say we're just trying to find our way out again. He scolds us for being there and says "no pictures" after we'd already been there an hour and other security guards said nothing...not even when we took their pictures.

I figure he's just not on the same page as the others, who were gracious and hospitable to us, and we leave.

On the way back, we stop at the Ensemble District, which looked like a nice, walkable area on our way to the stadium. It is but it's also more of a nighttime area and nothing much is happening. We do find an old looking southern restaurant called Natachee's open for lunch so we amble on in.

It's a rustic looking room with a wooden porch out front and a picnic area to the side. Looks like a southern grandma's house. Inside, we take a seat and order. I have on of their signature punches (very tasty adult versions here but they have non-alcoholic punches for kids, too) and some ice cream. Tim has the pulled pork and Letty has the day's special, chicken rosa. 

Letty is blown away by her dish. A very tasty battered chicken covered with a pink sauce and Tim is liking his sandwich, too. Unfortunately, I was still full from breakfast so it was just the punch and ice cream for me, which was still very good.

We walk around for a bit more then hop the train back to downtown. 

A little window shopping and more walking take us up to dinner time where we decide that the happy hour at Bombay Pizza, a combo Indian and pizza joint, where we had some great pizza and beer for dinner.

Letty has the shrimp and sausage pasta.

Bellies sated, steps achieved, it's time to go back to the hotel and get ready for this city's baseball game. We'll get to that in the next report.

Darryl Musick
Copyright 2017 - All Rights Reserved

Pictures by Letty Musick
Copyright 2017 - All Rights Reserved

Houston, We Don't Have a Problem

If there was one thing on this trip I would have done differently, it would have been the way we got to Houston. Oh, Southwest Airlines did their job well...getting us there on time and on a short, one hour hop...but when I think about it, it would have been about the same time as driving. Cheaper and less hassle, too.

Think about it...since we're with a wheelchair, we need to get to the airport about two hours pre flight. That's after a half hour drive plus another half hour to return the rental car.  In Houston, we have to deplane last, then go find our luggage, then find the shuttle (which is about $50 each way), and...finally...another half hour to our hotel. That's about five hours, total, of which only one is flying.

The drive from Dallas to Houston would take about four hours and cost about an extra hundred dollars over the regular rental price. Next time, a one-way rental from Dallas to Houston will be the ticket.

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But, that's not what we did this time. Luckily, everything went swimmingly and we had a great SuperShuttle driver and arrived at our hotel about one hour before the check in time. It took the front desk about twenty minutes to assure that our room was ready and they let us check in.

This time, the room we booked and guaranteed was indeed the room we got. A king-size, studio suite with sofabed that was actually bigger than the two-room suite we had in Dallas. It felt massive.

I've got to put in a note here that the Homewood Suites in downtown Houston (only a very short block from the stadium for this leg's baseball game) is just wonderful. Clean, modern, up-to-date, functional, friendly and competent staff, good food and drink...it was all we could ask for and more.

After check in and dropping off our bags, we head out to find some dinner. Today's game ended about an hour ago and there's a little bit of a lingering party atmosphere over by the stadium. We explore a few bars before deciding to sit on the deck of Lucky's on the other side of Interstate 69 from the stadium.

The sign about it being 'Crawfish Boil' day might have had something to do with it.

The weather is perfect, a man is boiling way in the corner, and we make a new friend named Roger (you can see him in the video). Roger takes us under his wing and guides us to the proper ordering technique, introduces us around, and keeps us company while we're there.

A pound of crawfish and a couple of Lone Stars later, we're feeling pretty good as we walk back toward the hotel.

Up the street, I notice a crowd of people, some smoke, and music. Let's go investigate.

We find a very busy park called Discovery Green just swarming with families out for a day at the park in the middle of downtown Houston. There's a lot to do here...

Maybe you caught us on Twitter or Facebook when we stopped at the park's kiosk for a gratis photo and posting. Restaurants from the fast food to fine dining variety line the park's perimeter. Radio controlled boats and kayaks patrol a pond. Playgrounds and ice cream vendors abound for hot and restless kids.

Tim and I find a cool splash pad.  It's even wheelchair accessible so I coax him in.

Since it's an electric chair, I have him follow me around a route to get him cool and damp without drenching the chair.

It's a Texas-sized serving of fun to cap our first day here.

Darryl Musick
Copyright 2017 - All Rights Reserved

Photos by Letty Musick
Copyright 2017 - All Rights Reserved