On the 29th of January, we took showers and got dressed, and the morning passed without much incident. Rebecca and I were pleading Dad to take us to Dallas, even though other people had said that it was like any big city. You see, in Maine on a Whale watching boat, in the middle of August, we had met a girl named Lauren (see blog entitled, "Whale Watching") and had stood at the railing with her for the whole time, looking at countless whales, talking at intervals, and really getting to know her. She likes culinary stuff, and after the whole ordeal we gave her our phone numbers and kept in touch for the whole trip. She told us she lived in a place called Farmer's Branch, Texas, right by Dallas. So that was why Rebecca and I were pleading Dad to maybe let us go in the area, and see their family, because she was a nice girl and we had seen the Penny's in FL after seeing them in Detroit, and had also seen many of Mom and Dad's friends along the way. He was unsure though. But we got ready to leave, and I picked up the book of Mark Twain, A Tramp Abroad, that I got in Hannibal Missouri. I had read like a paragraph the day we had arrived in San Jacinto, but then I couldn't do more because it was dark and we were looking at a gas factory. But I was determined to read some today. Oh and by the way I had finished the Tin Woodman of Oz book. Good book for kids. I recommend it.
We drove out to an IHOP (International House Of Pancakes) while I texted a girl named Zoe, who was in a movie class with me at Red Door, and one of my other friend's gave her my number, and we have been talking ever since. She was actually a character in Stuck in Space, an alien called Graca. I talked to her as we entered the IHOP, and we had to wait a long time on a bench with a large kid my age by us, and the lady with the podium to our back. She then led us to a seat, and we were not far from a window, and we looked a little bit at the kitchen behind us. The cool thing with IHOP is, that it is an INTERNATIONAL diner, so that means that most of my readers, no matter what country they are in, will most likely know what they look like. Less work for me. A nice guy who I later knew as Robert, African-American, served us, and I looked at the menu and got some blueberry pancakes. Boy were those good. We talked a little, and I went to the restroom, having to dodge a lot of people with plates on the way there. On the way back everything passed without incident; it was actually pretty smooth. It was a good meal and a good time with my family, and Dad told me a few more funny stories. We walked out, as stuffed as teddy bears. Never has the phrase rung so true, "Come Hungry, Leave Happy. IHOP"
Dad had told us at breakfast that Galveston was only a little bit away, and we drove over a bridge to the notorious island. Our Aunt Tammy has a grandmother that lives there, and the Jeff Clan, and I've said this earlier, visited her on Christmas break. As we passed into the little island, that is a good way's away from Corpus Christie(we didn't actually get to go to this beautiful place) I texted Aunt Tammy and told her where we were. She didn't end up answering, but oh well. On the island was a nice sidewalk by the water, and many people were out and about. Facing the water were a lot of nice beach houses, perhaps Mom will post some of the pictures. They were very pretty. I liked the whole bulky porch thing, with nice painted wood; we had seen some of those in New Orleans, and you could see that in "3 Hour Bus Tour of NO". There were also some hotels and casinos along the way also. Rebecca and I, a little bored and not allowed to read about Frankfort and The Gutenberg Bible in A tramp Abroad because we had to look around and be attentive, pretended to be safety people and put a regulation on every single thing we saw, saying that there was something wrong with EVERYTHING. Oh was it fun.
But it wasn't at all sensible. It was like, "Oh my gosh, that person is not wearing knight armor, he could fall and break his finger" or "that is a loose wood, a kid could just come by there and be scraped in the eye!" or even, "that tree could be hit by a bird and that bird could be slipped by a pedestrian and that pedestrian could be fallen and their family would have grief!" It was very fun as we came into some of the back neighborhoods of the island, like all the little shabby homes, and came into the little city town part. We had to stop eventually, however, because Rebecca didn't want to continue and I had a small headache. In the GPS, we put in the address for the sub, deciding that we weren't going to go to the RailRoad museum, the reviews weren't good and I had been to a Railroad museum earlier, and nobody really wanted to go to the Oil Rigging one. And so, we were going to the sub. Down away from the neighborhood, by the coast, I saw like three huge cruise ships, one with a flag thing, called Carnival. It looked like there was a water slide also there also. We thought about abandoning the R.V., dogs, and jeep to go on the cruise, but this idea was discarded. We did think about going on a cruise ship some time after the trip. A little dream, perhaps.
Well, we went through a gate, and a guy told us that we pay him, and did an uneconomical amount that we paid him. We were now in the place where the sub was. It had been cool to look at the beach houses and the neighborhoods, also the hotels and cruise ships, and it was very pretty, but this was the punch line, the reason we came, the fruit of the loom, the bird to the bees, the mouse to the pad, and the wing to my plane. The sub looking. There was a little parking lot facing the bay. This was a State Park, and there was a building, a house really, with some stairs going up to a second floor, and some nice paint. I was talking to Zoe about possibly writing a second Stuck In Space, and maybe making Graca, her character, get captured and the kids going back to save her. I had tried other ones, failures really, where Dr. Goo comes back into the past searching to destroy Dr. Venati, and things like that, but I always stopped after a few pages. I was determined to write the next one, it had long been expected by people so I would write it. I told all this to Grac...I mean Zoe. As we got out of the car, I said goodbye to her, needing to go to the restroom. We couldn't see anything beside some jiffy johns, porter poddies, so I went in one by the picnic tables, trees, and little hill going down to the bay, and I don't want to even begin to describe that bathroom. Too gross.
Mom and Rebecca, in their exquisite and proper state, did not want to engross themselves in the creepy disgusting jiffy john, therefore demanding a real restroom, for their specific tastes. A worker told them that on a ramp were some nice restrooms, rectangular things the same size and shape of jiffy johns, but cleaner and more white. So, they went up there as Dad and I went up the ramp to the dry docked sub, which was long, with a flat surface, and black, with a red stripe. They had that tower thing also, but looking vaguely like a shark. On the right of the entrance, was a little monument, and there was a rifle, with an army hat, and some boots. It was the sign of the loyal soldier. I thought it was cool and earlier had shown it to Mom, and we took pictures. We would see it later, of course, in the trip. Dad and I went up together, and looked upward as we stood in the middle, looking at the tower. There was an entrance downward to the left, and also to the right. One at the bow and one at the stern. Earlier I had also seen a little wooden walkway up to an entrance on the side of the sub, downward, and had been confused at this. Well, we decided we would go down to the right, that way, and were going down that way when Mom and Rebecca got out. I waved at them, as they inspected around, looking at the railings, and the lack of huge chain anchor that Battleship Texas had at the bow. But we went down, with Rebecca and Mom bringing up the rear.
There was water at the base of these mildly steep stairs, and it was a little puddle. I took in my surroundings, seeing the same kind of cots I had seen on the Battleship, connected to the ceiling. Also there were cylinder steel structures, torpedoes, that were a little backed away from a cylinder hole, where they would be lowered into the water, down into the more base of it, and shot out at an enemy. There were all sorts of dials and even a little steering wheel. I couldn't imagine myself being down here, in the midst of all the water around me, and not be claustrophobic. You had to be a small person down here. We passed on, and heard a girl and some other people coming down. There was only an oval opening in the wall, as I looked on the left and right of me at open doored, with no doors, toilets, on both sides, and it was like fitting an elephant in a tea cup, man it was wet and worse than the jiffy johns. And you don't wanna even know where that poop and stuff goes. Shivers. We had to put our feet up high, and go through with camera. Mom was the last one. Now on our right was a little room with counters and shelves, where they made food. I backed up while holding Mom's camera, crashing into the back counter. Mom took it as I then heard kids and then saw him. Darth Vader.
Or at least it looked closely related. It was someone my size, with a sort of black gas mask on, and black overcoat, with black hair. I said, "DARTH VADER!!!" as I stumbled backward and ran away. His little sister, Darth Pretty, was by him. She had brown hair, and had black on too, with a pink unicorn. The symbol of hatred and evil. The kid though, took off his mask and said hi. Had a pale face. He said, "Hello cowboy."(I was in my cowboy attire.) I flashed my gun about, and said that he had a nice space station going. I talked to him a little longer, about how cool it was, and we had a little dialogue, after I then went farther on. It was quite tight down there, I must say. Mom was looking at a little video where there was a table, and they would all eat there, at different times. You know, the submarine didn't have any labels like the Battleship had, which is a little weird. But it was worth it to explore. It was very long also. I thought about how I could never be down there for that period of time, and then I remembered reading a book by Jules Verne called 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea and how they were captured by a man named Captain Nemo on a ship called the Nautilus. Good book. But that was the first time I looked in a sub. I also thought about the Bob King dude we had met in Alabama from Kansas who was on a sub. A nuclear sub. But it was really cool to see how they lived and worked, and it was a little less cool than the battleship, but still awesome.
We looked at the opposite end of the submarine, and more dials and even a really cool submarine launch spot was shown to us. We came back into the open air again, after seeing some other rooms. It was good to be away from the blackness of the sub. There was still one more part to discover and explore. The tower part, where the captain's quarters were supposed to be. Rebecca and I went up some steps, now looking around the sub. We were outside of a balcony, if you will, and there were staircases down on the other side, with also some big guns that Mom and another lady were talking at, on the right side. Me and that kid had a duel with guns, hiding behind the opposite sides, going with our fake guns and occasionally darting our head, gun trained, seeing if our opponent was there. At one point I heard footsteps and around the corner said bang as I shot the fake gun, and was disappointed to see a little girl, her sister. I apologized, then shooting and making my opponent fall down flat and die. I later told him good acting, and Mom and the other lady said we only had a few minutes 'til we had to go. I found out the kids' names were Derek and Maddie, and I think you know which were which. Just to annoy the girl I said, "Abby?" and "Addy?" It was fun.
We looked, all four of us after the trip was explained, at a little personal bed that the captain had and some shower. It was all very interesting. There was a bridge we inspected too. After we went down we said goodbye to the goth Mom and kids(all were wearing black, so what can you expect?) We, before leaving to the car, looked at the wooden pathway, and R.V.'s were across from it. Up at the door, it said, PRIVATE: DO NOT ENTER, but they were old words and were grey and scraped off. I opened the door as I heard shower water, seeing a long table and a whole big room. We heard a ladies voice saying us to scat, and I backed up as Rebecca looked at the old lady, as she told us this was private and to go away. Rebecca apologized and we left. We thought the letters were from another age. They should make the sign more updated. Oh well. I never saw the lady's face, but Rebecca did. I wish we had gotten a picture. Oh well. Long story short, we left the cool submarine, in the jeep, and took some pictures by the bay as Rebecca told me numerous stupid jokes, something she had done at the Monument Cafe the day before, talking about robber ducky's who stole soap (get it?) and other things. One of them was (and it is not my political view but just a funny joke):
Hilary Clinton died and went to Heaven. At the pearly gates, Peter was there and had a wall of clocks behind them. "What are those?" Hilary asked.
"Oh, these are our lie clocks. Every time someone lies, the hand on the clock moves. Like here," and he showed her one, "is Mother Teressa's clock. The hands have never moved, because good Mother T.(I'm abbreviating it because it's so hard to spell it) has never lied. And here," as Peter showed another, "is Abraham Lincoln's clock. It's moved twice so that tells us that Abe only lied twice in his entire life."
Hilary speculated, "Where's Bill's (Bill Clinton) clock?"
"Oh Jesus took it off and to his office, and is using it as a ceiling fan."
That should get some laughs.
We went back across the ferry, and went into Houston, the city, just to check it out. It was pretty nice. We were coming to see M.D. Anderson's, where both my Aunt Beth from my Mom's side got her cancer treatment and her tumor was thrown away, and where my Uncle Dean got care for his some kind of blood thing. It was cool to be where their lives were saved, and I talked to Aunt Beth over texting. There were great big office buildings and doctor rooms, which were as big as skyscrapers. There area was very huge. There were also sky ways across the buildings, such as we had seen in Minneapolis. On the sign saying: M.D. Anderson's Cancer Center, there was a red line crossing out Cancer. It was really cool. Well, we saw a little park that was lower than us, with a basketball court and fountain. It's a pretty nice city. After that we went home, and so ended the day. It was cool to go to the sub and see it; I had never been in one before. The island was fun, and pretty, with nice houses. Well, goodbye for now. Blog you later.
Bad idea to open a window on a sub....,
Andrew.
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