Day Thirty-Two
Today I'm in greater Houston. The plan was to ride just a few miles from Gerry's place last night to rent a car and drive to Space Center Houston for one of my few touristy days of the trip. But the weather was ferocious what sheeting rain, lightning, flash flood warnings everywhere. No way was I going to ride in this slop.
Gerry gave me and the bike a lift to get the rental, and I drove 49 miles across town to Space Center Houston. 49 miles. To get across town! Houston, in addition to being the 4th most populous city in the country, is geographically massive. An impression is forming that the entire Southern Tier bike ride is vast open spaces between what is basically one, continent-wide city. While each city has some local feel, even that seems to be by way of a centralized marketing effort, which is quite standardized. What is most apparent is that the road and car culture all across America is one culture, with the same structures, standards, chain stores, entertainment and recreation, spending habits, house styles, markers of affluence and want, and life ways of people who all work in the same types of jobs, wherever they happen to be located. America is one, massive city, with people attempting to differentiate from each other, in almost identical ways.
The Space Center is everything I hoped it would be. I'm a NASA nut. Walking through the full-scale training mockup of Skylab and the 747 space shuttle transporter was amazing. Tons of kids there on school field trips too, which was fun to watch.
When I went into NASA the rain was still pounding. Coming out, it's gone. Fortuitous planning (ie, lucky) that my planned day of not riding much was a day I couldn't ride anyway.
Tonight, I'll stay with Kirsten Westmoreland, a CLC alum who's now a researcher at Rice University. Another one of our kids who's done good.
Tomorrow, riding towards Beaumont, where I'll get the beta I need to decide which route to take through Louisiana to New Orleans.
I’d love to hear from you. Donate to the ride and send along your words of encouragement and tell me why getting kids outside matters to you.
