Galveston, oh Galveston

Today’s post brought to you by: Apollo 15

Grateful for: Being born a middle class New Zealander

Trying hard to accept: Being married

Every home needs one. No, not a me. A porch swing!

I’ve got so much to tell you I’m actually sitting at a desk to write this.

First of all, I’m married! According to the server at the space centre BBQ joint, Jim is my “second husband”. Not sure who my first one was. And don’t remember either of my weddings, but stranger things have happened in space.

Space. There’s so much to tell you about the Johnson Space Centre I’ll put it in lists and pictures. Ok, ready? LIFTOFF!

• 10,000 people work there
• Rice University built a campus at the space centre in the 1960s with the deal that if NASA ever went bust the university would have a second campus in Houston. They also reinstated the Texas longhorn cattle that used to roam the land. There are also deer everywhere – hang out there to avoid the local coyotes.
• It includes the facilities where they make the space food (3 year shelf life), put astronauts through before & after medical tests (you grow taller in space due to lack of spinal pressure), and have managed to grow peppers and lettuce in soil from the moon (“Right kids, I went to the moon and back to make this salad. EAT IT.”)

The eagle (has landed) eyed will notice how clean this rocket it. They ran out of money, it never left the car park.

Close-up of the lunar landing bit. Like a work of art in steel.

Orion control centre ready for the 2035 mission to Mars. The video feeds are from the International Space Station, which in this pic was hovering over the Falklands. The ISS control centre was next door.

Gail M Wilson Jnr, fourth astronaut on the 1972 Apollo mission. They had to photoshop me into the official picture – I was busy (washing my hair) at the time.

Jim’s reaction to being told he’s my husband.

Our wedding breakfast. BBQ brisket and mac cheese. Two of my favourite food groups.

This is the actual 747 used on shuttle launches. We went inside. It was big. That’s a replica shuttle. We went inside. It was surprisingly big, but not when you’re floating around crashing into everything I guess. The cockpit made your average passenger plane cockpit look like child’s play.

I now know why every town in these parts has a water tower shaped like that one yonder. First person to guess gets a prize. Gail M Wilson Jnr’s autograph or one-way ticket to Mars – you choose. (You’re not allowed to enter, Dad).

So, back in time, before we landed at NASA Jim took me on a tour of Houston. First we went round the neighbourhood I’m staying in so I could drool over all the 1920s homes with their front porches and swings, then to the even more historic Houston Heights area of the most gorgeous homes.

Then we went up a trillion real estate brackets to the moneyed River Oaks. Ok see that house above? Well that’d be at least 10 bedrooms, 12 bathrooms, 10,000 sq ft, with a section the size of two NASA hangars. And that’s not all. Most of them had full-time guards at the gate. And probably more staff than family.

There’s a huge medical industry here. You’ve got Texas University medical school, Texas children’s hospital, and the massive and I mean massive MD Anderson Cancer Centre to name a few.

Every faith has its own medical centre – each the size of a large hospital in NZ. I was interested to learn the Catholic centres won’t allow stem cell research.

This is Jim and Fran’s church – Covenant Church, an ecumenical, liberal, Baptist congregation. Stunning building, in its simplicity.

To me, their church is what religion should be about. They focus on practical ways to help people (homes for teenagers kicked out of home for being gay, shelters for abused women, food banks etc.)

From tomorrow’s service: “It would be so much easier, Jesus, to ignore the hard truths around us; the widening gap between rich and poor … give us the courage to disrupt the way things are in the name of what should be … in order to heal and restore …” Jim and Fran embody that – the way they treat others, help people, believe strongly in justice and always act according to their beliefs rather than any social/political pressure.

Thanks to Houston’s decision to build another trillion miles of freeways there was so much construction work that we never made it to Galveston. Instead, we spent ages trying to get from A to B and talking about big scary subjects like what Trump’s doing to families in border detention centres, what drug companies get up to and the obscene gap between rich and poor in the US.

For someone who would’ve fled NZ like a shot to come live here I can now appreciate how lucky I am to have been born where I was, and not only that, to be born into a middle class family. I still love the US for many reasons but if I lived here I’d have to be head-in-the-sand re politics because otherwise I’d be so angry and feel so helpless.

Jim’s views echoed those of the people I’ve met so far, a few of who have told me they’re ashamed to be Americans. And those are words I never thought I’d hear.

After a long day of driving half of Houston and its surrounding cities we went to Jim and Fran’s apartment in their retirement complex. The whole place was absolutely lovely – incredibly warm, welcoming and peaceful.

This photo of swans in Hakkaido is one of a series taken by a resident who has Parkinson’s.

This one’s for you Kay. One of several quilts hand sewed by Fran’s mother. Just beautiful.

I could not believe the dining room. It was starched white table cloths, table service, 5-star dining the whole way. It’d be like Christmas dinner every night. Completely beyond anything I’d imagined.

In case you’re interested (you are) I had cream of broccoli soup which I could’ve eaten the whole saucepan of, my good friend salmon again, a delicious citrus sauce, balsamic grilled vegetables, my beloved corn, and sage stuffing with gravy which is one of the best comfort foods ever to have come out of an oven.

It was the best day. Thank you again Jim and Fran for teaching me so much about so much.