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Published: March 30th 2008
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Posted by Onaxthiel: There are certain disadvantages to camping in warmer weather. When the nights feel hot in the summer bag, and the morning dew starts accumulating on the bivies again, we know we have been out past the cold part of the season. We have entered the endgame now, the last portion of the trip. The weather tells us, the clutter in the car tells us, and the fact that Obfuscator doesn't feel like adding much to his entries tells us. It's been a great time, but it's ending soon. These are the things that I was considering as we started out for Houston. Entering the largest city of the second largest state in the Union (despite their best efforts) during rush hour could be a serious pain. Luckily we have a few advantages. First of all, two people means we are eligible for the car pool lane. This kept us out of traffic that was backed up for miles. Secondly, we were driving right past downtown and out towards the battleship Texas today, so we didn't need to get back into the mix of cars and trucks until we were past the prime zones.
Approaching from the north,
the combined park that celebrates the San Jacinto battlefield and the state's namesake battleship is accessed by a (very) short ferry ride. This deposits you on the small, marshy peninsula where forces under Sam Houston defeated a numerically superior force under Santa Anna in 1836. The fight proved the old theory that rebellions can lose all the battles so long as they win the important one. The site also demonstrates that there is nothing that Texas won't put a massive, ostentatious monument on given half a chance. God bless 'em, they have given us the most Soviet bit of architecture we have seen since the North Dakota capitol. A 570 foot Obelisk juts phallically into the sky over the plains that barely are out of water at high tide. The tower is about a dozen feet feet taller than the Washington monument, and is capped by a giant star that features five visible points from any angle. There are really only two places you can go that will have this kind of display, so I guess it was a good thing Texas was on our side in the cold war. Around the base of the tower is carved a history
of the Texas revolution, beginning with Mexico's succession from Spain through the Alamo and running until the battle at San Jacinto. Walking around the base to read the massive letters felt a bit like reading the words scrolling towards the top of the screen at the beginning of a Star Wars film. Inside the base is a theater, a museum and a gift shop. A trip to the top of the pillar is really kind of mandatory, and the free part of the museum is informative.
The special exhibits portion can be skipped, since apparently these exhibits have almost nothing to do with the battle. The film also can be safely skipped, as the history in the film is told both in the free portion of the museum and again in a slightly shorter film in the viewing area at the top. The view would be spectacular if there was more to see, but unfortunately the area around the obelisk is mostly an industrial site, so all one sees for miles in any direction is port and service facilities. The top area may have been my favorite stop anyway, because it was the one thing we saw at the
park that wasn't overrun with screaming grade schoolers. In fairness to the children, they did stay mostly quiet in the theater while the film was going. It was just everywhere else that they moved like a swarm of screaming africanized honey bees, messing up everything in their path and always underfoot. After the tower, we went for lunch at a nearby restaurant called the Monument Inn. It featured quite a good lunch and dinner menu at reasonable prices, and the service was excellent.
After lunch it was time to hit the battleship Texas. This school kids had beaten us to this site, but thankfully the day was wearing on and they had to head back to school for release soon after Obfuscator and I got there. Texas is the only battleship to have served in both world wars, having been built in 1914 and undergoing modernization programs in between wars. By the time of the Pearl Harbor attack, it was a flagship, but also one of the slowest ships in the fleet. Serving in both theaters, Texas was twice hit by enemy shells, but only suffered one combat fatality. At Normandy, she was one of the platforms that provided
fire support for the Rangers at Point Du Hoc, and was the site that their injured were taken for treatment. At Iwo Jima and Okinawa, she set endurance records for duration of bombardment. Obfuscator and I walked her decks for a few hours and re-aimed the secondary batteries at more local targets of opportunity; the porta potties, statues and souvenir shop. Texas gives you relatively limited access compared to some ships we have been on, but it was the first battleship of the drive, and there are a few things that you will see on it that you just wouldn't on other classes of ship. The 14'' gun turrets, for example, and the fire control director. You also have a chance to step through the armor belt protecting the ships more vital functions, a steel wall about a foot thick. With the tour of the ship done, we began driving towards J's house. We took him out for dinner at a Tex-Mex restaurant, and called it a night after a few hours of catching up.
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