Johnson Space Center

Another day and we’re on our own again. So, after a great breakfast at the Buffalo Grille (weak coffee tho) we headed on down to the Johnson Space Center. Another iconic “only in (or near) Houston” attraction. Actually, the tourist center is called “Space Center Houston”, but I can’t stop calling it Johnson Space Center.

Mary Lou and the space shuttle replica Explorer.
Since we had just seen the Endeavor, we didn’t bother with it after the photo op

The first thing we did after getting our museum tickets was to head to the back to sign up for the tram tour. This tour is the only way for tourists to get into NASA’s Johnson Space Center (correct name this time). I thought it was an interesting tour well worth the time and money. But then I was glued to the television set during the space program’s early years.

Original Mission Control Omnipresent ashtrays are a nice reminder of how far we’ve come in that respect	Building 9 – space vehicle mockup facility
Astronauts in training on the Orion module in the mockup facility	The RV of the future? Space vehicle mockup facility

The last stop of the tour was the building housing this Saturn V rocket.
Big just doesn’t describe it

After the tram tour, the museum was a bit of a let-down for me. It seemed to be geared toward kids (who seemed to be having a wonderful time), but I prefer a bit more information density and a little less “Gee whiz!” Or maybe I was in sensory overload. It happens.

Lunar landing module. Replica or Real? I don’t know

 

After the museum, we had a late lunch at the Marble Slab Creamery. We both felt like we were lacking dairy in our diets. Then back to the hotel.

But first, time for a little panic. We were approaching I-45 when the Check Engine light came on. Man, don’t you just hate it when something happens to your car a thousand miles from home (and your second vehicle)? And that Check Engine light could mean “It can wait until you get back to Mesa” or “Your car’s going to expire any second now”. You just don’t know.

Luckily, there was an O’Reilly’s nearby and they could scan the engine code and give us some idea of what was happening. Result – “Oxygen sensor bad”. Whatever that means. A little more driving around found us at an independent mechanic who confirmed the sensor read and said he could fix it but needed to order the part. More chat revealed that he felt we wouldn’t do any damage to the car if we drove it a couple hundred miles, but all the way back to Mesa might be pushing it. Ugh.

So back to the hotel where we found a nearby Dodge dealer and Ken spent some time on the phone with their service department trying to find out if they had the part in stock. For some reason he had trouble getting a definitive answer but it finally seemed like they did. So he tried setting up an appointment for tomorrow. No appointments. So we decided we’d be there bright and early when they opened at 7am. That was all we could do right now.

Both children seemed to be in fine form tonight so we all went out to the Thai Gourmet and had a wonderful supper. Then topped it off by going to Amy’s Ice Cream & Coffee for desert. I could have skipped that, but honesty requires me to reveal that I did have one scoop.

[written 1/6/14]