Space

When you consider that the moon is 238,000-odd miles from the Earth and took Armstrong/Aldrin/Collins about 3 days to reach, and that the Johnson Space Centre is but 10 minutes from the Space Centre RV Park, it is both surprising and disappointing that we got so lost on the trip there. It was one of those classic throw-the-GPS-out-the-window-then-reverse-over-it-a-few-times moments when we found ourselves at the end of a dead-end street staring down a boat ramp into a sizeable river.

When we did finally get there it was awesome. I reverted to a child-like state of awe for most of the day. A lot of the main centre is for kids with play areas and games and science shows, but the cool stuff happens out back. A tram ride takes you round the actual NASA grounds (not due to laziness, but security and distance) and stops at three key places.

Number one. The ACTUAL Mission Control from the Apollo (and a few other) missions. It was used from the 60's to the 80's (and is still available as back-up). Surprising how antiquated it looks. John Ong - you must get here!

Number two. The ACTUAL Astronaut training facility. You walk along a mezzanine floor in a huge warehouse, looking down on a life-size version of the International Space Station, a space shuttle, lunar vehicles, and loads of other awesome stuff.

Number three. An ACTUAL Saturn V rocket. It's huge.

Back inside the main centre there were a few interesting displays, including some moon rocks. Unfortunately we couldn't remember Lisa Nowak's name to look for her in the photos!

We left Houston and drove along the coast towards Louisiana. The scenery changed quickly and turned into swamp land - in a good way. It's very lush and quite beautiful. No sign of the oil spill here. A quick stop at the visitor information centre provided us with all the information we needed about the place.

We're now camped in the Frog City RV Park, near Lafayette, LA. The reason for the name became apparent when the road noise dulled down.

So thanks, Texas. Any place where you can pretend to be a cowboy, frontiersman and an astronaut in the same week gets the thumbs up from me.

On a strange note, Charlotte's fake American accent has got better/worse and she's now pretending to be a Bostonian called Steve. The JFK slogan "forward, with vigah!" is being repeated regularly. I fear cabin-fever may have set in.