Then we saw it. Black and huge, like the Titanic, with all of the sails and levels, but only black, or from where we could see it was black. This was the Battleship Texas, and we were going here to have a tour around this very famous boat or ship or whatever the official word is. I was a little tired from going to the San Jacinto War Monument, but it was about noon and we had made good time and were now going to do the rest of the day here. We had all wanted to go out to lunch, but the place we looked at, The Monument Cafe, was not open, and we wouldn't want to go back over the ferry to just do lunch, and besides, we might not come back to do the Battleship Texas. I had a small headache, and everybody wasn't in their best mood, but we would try to do this tour over an old ship. Had done ships before also, from little speedboats to U.S.S. Constitution's in Boston and one in Chicago. So this was a little bit of old hat for us also. But on the others we hadn't gone up or down, just stayed on one level and talked to a few people. Maybe here in Texas, it would be a lot larger. We had no way of knowing as we approached the huge craft, with flags and circles with what looked like cannons on them. I hoped that it wouldn't be two old, you know. But there was trees and a parking lot where some picnic tables and a building were close by. We came over there, and then after that got out of the car, with cameras, phones, and other things. This would be an interesting time.
Needing to go to the restroom after drinking some water bottles from a long parched mouth, we went to go by this little building, which served as a going to restroom place. Mom and I, the most full (and don't make me explain how we were full) water people, went first, away from the others. I had a little pistol, for I wanted to have fun there and pretend to be a cowboy on a battleship (never seen that before have you?). I also got a pocket knife. So these restrooms had little slots for windows, and also red brick architecture. Going up some stairs to the right, I also saw a bronze statue on a little concrete area amidst all the park stuff. We went up the concrete steps of the building, then looking around and seeing those doors to the restroom. Right then not feeling like it, I actually sat up by a column on a shelf that was by the stairs, while Mom went to the restroom. When Dad and Rebecca arrived, I went in with Dad, in that smelly area with the gnats, and all the names on the wall and the dirt and odor filling the room. Later on in this blog, you'll read about even worse restrooms. Worse than that? How is that possible? If you want to know, dear reader, please read on. But for then, done with going to the restroom, we walked down the stairs of that building and then went to the statue.
As it was a Saturday, we knew that there were going to be schoolchildren, and this was evident in that we saw some boy scouts, with all their uniform and stuff. Now, I would of been a boy scout, probably, had I liked all the badges and the beige clothing, and all the oaths and everything, plus the knots. But I hate all that, especially the knots. I can't even tie my shoes well, if you can believe it. I could never be a sailor; I am not a knot person. Or tying of any sort. But I am getting off the subject here. What I meant to say was that they were looking at the statue of the guy in tights with a musket, and of course a weird hat. The bronze inscription read something about it being a Revolutionary War Mason, and of course the scout leader explained what this was, that it was a club almost as cool as their own, almost, of course. It was interesting to look at for a little while, but we didn't gaze at it long, just went up a concrete walkway with rail, and looked at another brick building, which was small and had a gift shop in there. I looked around a little, and mostly little toy ships, t-shirts and other things were there, nothing really else. Although there were other things. By the exit in the front left corner, where a counter and an old lady sat down, I looked at some cute animal flashlights on that thing that spins that nobody knows the name for. It rotates...um...it'll come to me sooner or later. Anyway, uh... man now I have to start a new paragraph. Oh well.
Dad went through a long strenuous process, showing certain passes and doing other things. In the meanwhile, I silently chuckled while listening to young kid talking to a blonde haired kid (my age) and another black haired kid with a dark shirt and kind of goth looking features, like 14. We would see another guy like this in another blog you'll have to read to find out about. The kid was facing those two, and said, "Jack, (to the blonde haired guy) there was a guy in a cowboy hat, and he looked just like you!!! (child-like innocence.)" Then, the black haired guy turned the little kid around, towards me, as I smiled and looked at them. "THAT'S HIM!!" the toddler proclaimed. I said to the blonde haired guy that I saw a resemblance, jokingly and kind of sarcastic. He didn't get it and just said, "I don't think so." Oh well. Sometimes they can't play along, but we actors can. You'll read a little dialogue between me and a professional actor later on in the blog posts, way later on. The kid then laughed and we didn't talk after that. Our tickets all in order, we walked out of the place and then came across a sidewalk where they were looking at the water, and then past the bikers, and got onto the wooden walkway, of dark blue navy paint, and then walked up it, the rails there, trying to not stick our legs through the openings, where water gushed below us. Scary. We were on, the Battleship Texas.
Alright so there it was, the big singular tower in the middle, with the staircases, and other things. By us on both sides of us were huge cylinder guns, with rotating wheels and many dials. All of this was blue, but it had prior looked black. Surrounding these guns were blue circular fence, with an opening and ladder, sometimes. There was a man in uniform, short sleeved with a name tag, that worked there. By that tower, he picked up torpedoes as large as him, but you could never really do such a thing; these were empty and one was fake. This man told us many interesting things about the ship, how it's sister was the Battleship New York, and how it sank, and it fought in WWI and WWII, the only battleship able to say such a thing, or have such a title. He also told us that in one room on this level was a movie that played continuously. We thanked him, gave him the tickets, as I got up on one of them there guns. I got into the circle, and then got up on a small seat, where other foot places, like in a car, were at the bottom. There were some cross hairs, and all this was of blue metal, dark, as I mentioned before. I imagined myself bombing a coastline as I took pictures for Mom, here camera taking me. For the rest of the time, I would get on these guns.
Under a roof now, but still with a railing overlooking the water and seeing the open air, we looked at some rectangular panels that told about some things, but not many, as we wanted to see this movie they spoke about. In a small room with many chairs and a little T.V., we watched the program that was running when we came in. Dad, who had left when we were taking pictures, was seated, and Mom and Rebecca were too. I had to run by myself over the actually short area. I sat, as some other people filed in and leaned up against the back. The movie was from History Channel, and talked about how the ship was on Iwo Jima and bombarded the coast as the Marines held up the flag. It was crazy to think that this boat had that part in history. It also helped in other places in the Pacific, but after that was called to D-Day, and distracted some of the Germans while the Allies got on France. I couldn't believe I was sitting on such a great vessel that had such a major part in winning the War. Dad said that maybe if it wasn't for this craft, we would be speaking German right now. I don't know if I would be THAT extreme, but pretty close. Then the movie went over to talk about the different captains, and how in the 70's they dry-docked it and gave it all the new paint, apart from the concrete it did half earlier. Then about how the U.S. Government called it a National Monument, and that the Texas State owned it now. But then it started over. I had gotten it in the middle.
It talked about the beginnings and WWI, then. I shifted in my seat, looking out the windows at the panels. A lot of kids were there that day. Then it came to the part where Mom and them had come in at, and they started to leave, but then Mom said that I hadn't seen it yet, and they remained 'til I had. After that, we got out of the room. In front of this room was a strip of area, just a little cooking place, with all the old counters and pots and stuff, and a chain link not letting people come through. I wondered if this was from the past or was a current thing. But we passed on, seeing more of these guns that destroyed so many things, and so many people, also. There were stairs going up, with rails, very steep, and rectangular shapes, that also had stairs, and they were in the deck, going down into another floor. We went up to the front, where there was a pointed bow and some more railing. I did the whole Titanic King of the World thing that you always do on a ship, to be romantic and adventurous, and we took some moor pictures, looking at these thick cables that held the sails up, and we took more pictures in these diagonal guns facing upward. On the back there were horizontal guns that were facing the stern, and they were 44 Magnum, as the movie and that guy holding the torpedoes told us.
Rebecca and I wanted to go to up to those big towers, by those stairs that went up there. But Mom and Dad were less than voluntary for that excursion, so they would watch us from where that guy was sitting, on some big rectangle blue thing, and that thing that looks like a tuba or larger. I am not a person to name things, I just describe them. They would take pictures of us. Okay, so first, we went under another roof, but still in open air, on this maze-like boat, and we went up a few metal bars called a ladder, and looked through a little hole, seeing glassed-off dials, numbers, and holes where the torpedoes went to destroy enemy ships. I imagined myself in this hot area, sweating my water in my body off, so tired and dirty, without a shower. I don't think I could stay up here, loading the weapons. Rebecca had gone up first, so I kind of hung up there as she went down. There were little areas where a certain floor was, and I stayed there while she went down. Bad idea for us both to go up. Well, later, we tried to find the staircase that took you up, and then saw the steep ones on either side of the tower, and we held onto the rails while making the ascent. On the next level, there was still a lot of area left, and very big, just a smudge smaller than the other one. There were still guns that I got in, and even a very old one, all crusty and paint coming off, that you could see was an original. Rebecca kept telling me to come on and stop pretending I was Indiana Jones, as I jumped around and shot my gun, going and shooting, not being careful. Would my carelessness cost me?
Okay so then we could not find the next staircase. We waved to Mom and Dad, retraced our steps, looked around, and could not now find the dang thing. Finally I asked some people which were by that old gun I spoke about facing the bay, and they were talking a little also. Then they said right behind us. It was a serious blunder on our part. We looked behind us, at a staircase right up against the tower, and went up to the front of the ship, well in that direction anyway. We thanked them as we went up, and climbed yet more stairs. I was a little uneasy going up these stairs with the breaks in the steps, and had to be extra careful. I was a little afraid, you know. We walked up, bit by bit, now on a narrow line of balcony, over everything else, with railing, of course. We looked through past the tuba and waved to Mom and Dad, and peeked through the locked windows of the captain's quarters, as I did a little shoot-up playacting, as Rebecca hugely scolded it, telling me to be more careful. There was some stairs on the left side of this little thing, but also a path going around the full length of this upper level. Earlier we had gone through yellow lines and tried to desperately find the way up, for what? Because we couldn't go up any further, the lines had chain linked. Well, I had been up one of these things on a battleship, and the foreshadowing you saw when we went to Pensacola Naval Aviation Museum is now reflected here. Dad was wrong, I would go on something like an aircraft carrier in my life... the beautiful battleship.
So we went back down, and I was afraid of Rebecca behind me, pushing me down, so I let her go first, and then a Mexican family, for I didn't want them pushing me down either. I brought up the rear as I made my way down, holding on both sides of the rail, thinking of ponies to not make myself scared. So we went then down two more levels, and came to Mom and Dad. We had done the top half of the Battleship, now all that remained were the corridors down in the bottom of the ship. This would prove to be the most exciting part. Throughout the time I had pretended I was looking for the captain and being a sailor, imagining their life here and what it would be like. I couldn't even begin to even ponder it. I wanted Dad and Mom to make the ascent upward, but Dad would have none of it. the iPad was the only ascent he would make. Mom did agree with us to come down into the bowels of the boat, and go downstairs. There was a flap up door that went over the entrance, and it was not over it, and a little staircase, dark. I couldn't see it, and there was a low ceiling and a CAUTION sign. I took a few sighs, telling myself the trip was about adventure and I needed to do it for the blog, and I looked one last time at the bright blue sky around me, thinking that maybe this would be the last time I would see the light of day, as I took the first step into the darkness below.
The first floor down, as we reached the bottom of the staircase, wasn't too large. There were more stairs down. We went around in a little circle, and saw a few rooms, for charts, with old tables and cabinets, plus a few other things, like a mail room. Soon we had to go down again. Like I said, not large. The next floor would bring all the cool things with it, and all the dangers and thrills also. Going down once more, we passed people who said it was really cool down there, and things like that. They said that this level was named Main Street, because of all the business and activities on the floor. Looking around after the descent, we saw many rooms along the sides of the area. There were those scouts again, talking to a man. We talked about living down here, as we read the small panels that told what a few of these rooms were. In the middle, hanging by the ceiling, were brown little mattresses that hung gracefully, and had little crosshatch black leather to hold them up and support it. If you were one of the about 1,100 on the boat in WWI or WWII, then you would pull this down and sleep on one of these cot things. Man, I probably couldn't do that. You also had to be pretty short, you know. All the crowdness and other things- this would get worse later on in our stay.
To our right was a little doctor's office, and there was a chair, some liquids, and a weighing thing, all white and very old. There was a bare table that you would lay on, unlike the clean ones that we put the thing over it nowadays, nothing like that. Most of these rooms had doors that had a bar through it, open, but you can't get in. I read the panels, and one of those I don't really want to mention what it was. It was a small room, with a long sink, and many needles. You can make the assumptions yourself. I'll give you a hint, smart people of the Internet, it had something to do with girls. Changing the subject, we walked along the hard floor, and it got a little hot down there. I suddenly wanted to go back up. But I could not. We kept going around in this large circle, and then we saw many things. Like a little kitchen in the center of this Main Street, or a large pantry we looked out, a general store, where there were canned soups and cigarettes, sadly. Also there were cards if you lost your other one, and then right by it there was an old laundry mat. It wasn't too big of a room, actually, and we saw where they would hang it up, and also the oldest and weirdest looking laundry machines I've ever seen, all circular and decaying. It was funny to learn on the panels how they lived down there.
Then, I saw it. It was one of the grossest things I saw...a bathroom green in color and no stalls, just shower heads and toilets and one large sink serving as a universal urinal. Mom said that there must of been no privacy for the people on the ship. It was so disgusting, and so unimaginable for people of the 21st century to even think about that. I mean all using the same showers, with no things making you not seen, and all the people who would have to use one urinal... it made me shudder. We passed through a couple of these on our way around, joking about them, in different areas. So then we continued along, seeing a bunk room, with desk and table, and all those cot things, and some boy scouts were in there. A guy was explaining to them that if they made reservations and went through the process, they could sleep on the Battleship, and they would experience what it would be like to be a sailor on the ship, and things like that. Only special groups, like the boy scouts, could do it. Okay, so now being a boy scout presented it's advantages of adventure...but I still don't like uniforms or knots. We passed on as they talked, now seeing the chart room, and some meeting rooms for those special officers. The captain had his own private quarters, and it wasn't here. We had seen that area, but couldn't go in, as I mentioned earlier.
There were green doors, with little tags on them, telling the names. These, according to the panels telling all about this stuff, and they had little openings, but the doors were locked, and I couldn't see in any of them. We walked a little farther, seeing what Mom supposed to be a door at the end of a long corridor on the right. They went back while I was reading a panel, and I told them I would be on the way. My phone was on low battery, but I would be right behind them. But before leaving, I inspected that door once more, and it pushed right open. My eyebrows raised. I then went up over the little part, and saw a more twisty very small hallway. There was a large wooden door. It seemed the end of the line. But this one came through, after a man was on the other side. Was this Private, for the employees. I opened and fell over. Then I took in my surroundings, while seeing a man in front of me. It was a marble floor, with a glass display case, and in there were silver beautiful little things, like plates, candle holders, and glasses, and an open floor, on the left side of this room, and on the right side a pretty table. The signs said that this was where they would dance and do skating, and there were also little trophies and things. I only had one word for it: WOW.
I read a few of the signs, and it was very interesting. But I was a little worried that Mom and Rebecca wouldn't know where I was. After a while I came back through the door, but I saw another too. Going through, I retraced my steps as I saw some tan girls looking with a phone at a torn whole in the tiny slots of an officer's door, and it shone light. When they had gone, I looked through, and they said it was just a tiny room. It was a good twist of luck, as I looked in there and saw a little bed and drawer. It was awful creepy, looking into a dark room, crouched down, alone, with no one else there. But I overcame that. I passed on, past the staircase up to the surface and past the room that I am not giving you a name of that involves girls, and I found Mom and Rebecca, who were yelling at me and saying why I drifted off. I told them about the secret entrance, and I showed Rebecca the dark room, and then took them through all the doors and where all the silver was. They were laughing at their own ignorance of this, as we went away. Well, we were now by that kitchen again, by another staircase going down, and the boy scouts went down that. I looked down. It was very steep, and hot air burst from it like air on a windy day in the Rocky's. Rebecca wanted to go down there, but Mom did not. Down there were all the hot engines that powered the battleship, so far away from the surface of the world, in the chambers of metal and heat, that made people as hot as....well I'm not allowed to use that kind of language in the blog. It was as hot as Heck.
I was fine with going, but none the less was a little scared. The man told us that it wasn't worth it to just see engines and such, but we could go down anyhow, that it wasn't worth it to just have steepness and being scared. Rebecca and I preceded to go down, but the man said we couldn't go without Mom, and Mom said later he was trying to be nice to her, by allowing her not to go. But Mom volunteered none the less, and we went down. It was very steep, and nauseating. On the break between more stairs, we looked to our left and saw a little chamber over the rafters, and a little room. There was some more things in there. Well, the next steps were even more steep, so Rebecca backed out, saying it wasn't worth it and we could go back up again. I could've gone on, but I was really scared also. Back up on the cooler temperatures, we didn't see the guy any more, the cleanshaven white haired man, but talked to a skinny bearded man about movies and documentaries they do in the ship, as we had seen a couple of people with a camera and clipboard earlier. He had a lot of info he told us. I waited when asking questions, for a break in the conversation when I could shoot one. I asked about daily life, and he said cooks could be doing engine or torpedo work when they weren't making lunch. Mom asked about some of the dry-docking things. Then we went up the stairs, into the fresh wonderful air and bright of day.
Dad was sitting on a big block of blue square, which was something else, and he was actually speaking to the guy who warned us of the engine. I came up first, done with talking to the other man. Mom and Rebecca followed. The man asked us if we had backed out and we said yes. Then that man, and the bearded man(who actually came up and talked some more) talked about places in the nearby island of Galveston and what you could do there, a sub, a railroad museum, and an oil rigging museum also. The cleanshaven man told us that the Monument Cafe, the restaurant we had planned on going to, was very pricey, and not to go. We thanked them, as we came down off the boat, the Battleship Texas, and went into the store for a little while, then Mom went to the restroom. I was really parched, and got the hot water of a Dasini as I drank it. We then went off in the jeep, and Dad said, despite the man's critique, we would go to the Monument Cafe. There was nothing else around. So then we left. I liked the San Jacinto War Monument, we saw a lot of artifacts, a great interesting movie, and had the wonderful view of the freight city. The Battleship was cool, to enjoy it's halls, and see how the sailors would live and work, and it is truly a wonderful ship, having survived two world wars. I wonder if this special ship will survive WWIII. Hmmmm....
But seriously, we had a great time wandering the maze of the ship, and it must have so many stories. We came to the blue restaurant, with the second floor, and they make you go up stairs to get to the restaurant. We were seated and we all had a good meal, looking out at the barges passing by. It may have been expensive, but there sure were a lot of people. We spied on old people coming in, and balloons and things saying "HAPPY 90th Birthday" and stuff like that. We looked at them for a while. But then after a good meal we left. We went back over the ferry, and came back to the R.V. park as we relaxed and didn't do anything really worth the blog. The next day would bring subs and old houses, movie ideas and movie masks, goths and mean ladies alike, and pancakes. Goodbye for now.
You know how they say, "Don't mess with Texas."? Well, I think you should say don't mess with Texas Battleships! They've survived two world wars!,
Andrew.
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