Brazos Bend State Park, Texas

November 9, 2022

Brazos Bend State Park.

After saying goodbye to the beach, we headed inland to Brazos Bend State Park.

Being fairly close to Houston, we decided to make a trip up to the Johnson Space Center (or Space Center Houston, as the visitor attraction is called). We got there at 10am when it opened, and spent pretty much the entire day there. The entrance to the Space Center boasted a space shuttle replica on top of an actual 747 that had been converted into a transport for the space shuttle.

(A "shuttle shuttle" 😉)

They had some nicely done life-size dioramas depicting the various moon landings.

We thought it funny that this calculator was intended as a backup to the onboard computer.

One of SpaceX's re-usable first stage rockets was on display.

You can tell it had flown a couple of times.

Hard to believe it can actually land on its feet.

The space shuttle cockpit

The shuttle airlock

The heat-deflecting tiles on the underside of the shuttle.

This is an aerial walkway that the shuttle astronauts took to get into the shuttle before launch.

It must have been quite the mixture of terror and excitement for the astronauts as they entered the shuttle.

We had taken two tram rides which took us to some attractions on NASA property outside of the main visitor building. The first stop (and our favorite) was the trip to Mission Control and the original control room used for Apollo 11 (the first moon landing). The room had been restored to what it looked like back in 1969. There were screen displays showing the actual moon landing data, along with the actual audio recording between the landing party and Mission Control. Part of what made it so interesting was that the viewing area we were sitting in was in the original observation deck, and it was restored to how it looked when the dignitaries and astronauts' families monitored the missions. The seats even had ash trays!

The Mission Control Center is still in use today.

We were seated in the original observation deck which has been restored to its original furnishings.

Original audio and video footage from the Apollo 11 mission were presented.

It was so interesting to see and hear all that was being recorded. It almost felt like we were really back in 1969 (except for the empty desks).

The desk paraphernalia looked quite realistic. Lots of cigarette butts at every station.

The control panels look so quaint will all the flashing buttons and such. Check out Charlie Brown and Snoopy!

Our second stop was the training facility--a bit of a disappointment. We were ushered without much comment through an area used primarily for International Space Station safety training. Nobody was doing anything interesting, and not much was explained, so we weren't really that impressed.

Lots of equipment but no action to see here.

The last stop was called Rocket Park, and the primary attraction here was the enormous Saturn V rocket used to launch the Apollo missions. It is really astoundingly large when you stand next to it.

The Saturn V was originally displayed outside, but it started to degrade in the weather. So, a very long building was built to house it.

Can't really fit the whole rocket in one picture.

This smaller test rocket made for a better photo subject.

Back at the main building, the Spacelab exhibit was pretty interesting to walk through and to imagine what it would be like to live aboard in a weightless environment.

The shower

The ~~coffin~~ sleep compartment

Things modernized somewhat in the ISS (International Space Station)

This little closet is where you tuck yourself into a hanging bag to go to sleep.

All in all, we enjoyed our visit to Space Center Houston. We were amazed by the scale of things. Like how large the rockets had to be just to get people up into space (and how much fuel was needed). And how comparatively small (actually more like tiny) the spaces were for the actual astronauts. And how little computing power they had back then to somehow make these complex systems fly to the moon and back (usually).

On the way "home", we stopped by a local pub for dinner. All the tv's inside were playing the same baseball game, and we suddenly realized that the Astros were playing in Game 6 of the World Series. Upon returning to the campground, there were large tv's set up alongside many of the tents and trailers in our loop. It wasn't too much longer before we heard lots of cheering and inferred an Astro win.

The next two days were relaxing days. We rode our bikes around the park a couple of times (around 10 miles each), took evening walks, and hung out on the deck watching nature. One night we saw four deer in the woods, and another night an armadillo wandered into camp. We had never seen one of those before!

Julie likes taking pictures of trees almost as much as wildflowers.

During the Texas Revolution, the Steamboat Yellowstone passed by at this spot on the Brazos River.The river wasn't particularly attractive here--felt kind of like a big ditch with some water in it.

Lots of vultures hanging out with an alligator (in the puddle).

And then they all just flew away.

This guy was so still, we were beginning to suspect it was fake. Rick resisted the urge to poke it with a stick.

Our first armadillo sighting!

It didn't seem to notice Julie taking photos - just kept nosing around in the lawn

Half the park on the first ride - pretty flat

Second half of the park on the second ride.

Overall, Brazos Bend was a very pleasant state park that we wouldn't mind revisiting if we pass this way again.

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