Carl Henning

After finding the  Lone Star Flight Museum on line, I expected a quick visit. Three hours and 78 pictures later… There was a substantial section on space travel. Houston is Space City after all. Thinking of the pilot in the family, we saw lots of information on military pilot training starting with WW1.

Our admission to the Audubon special exhibit at the Houston Museum of Natural Science included access to the regular exhibits. We visited gems, Texas wildlife, African wildlife, and more. But we spent the most time with the dinosaurs in the Morian Hall of Paleontology.

With the end of college baseball’s summer season, we were free to travel again. So we traveled 45 minutes to Houston and the Houston Natural Science Museum for their special Audubon Exhibit. I took lots of pictures.

Sometimes the travel blog takes you only five miles from home. After four years here we finally visited The Humble Museum. “Humble” is an adjective meaning modest, but in this case, Humble is the name of a Texas town. It’s pronounced without the ‘H’ because in 1886 when Pleasant Humble applied for a post office, the town adopted his pronunciation of his name, ‘umble.

Being a relative newcomer to Texas, I don’t know much Texas history. (Except The Alamo. I remember The Alamo.) Visiting The Old Stone Fort on the campus of Stephen F. Austin State University filled in some on the gaps.

Skyline Drive runs along the ridge of Shenandoah National Park. We entered on the north near Front Royal, Virginia and exited 30 miles later. The Drive goes on many more miles but we had a good sample: scenic vistas and 25 deer.

In Staunton, Virginia, we visited the Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library and Museum. I think this is our third presidential library after JFK’s and Rutherford B. Hayes. Tours of his birthplace house are offered.

We paid a perfunctory visit to the home of Confederate Civil War General Stonewall Jackson. From this we gleaned that he was successful in the Mexican-American War, taught at Virginia Military Institute (VMI), owned slaves, and was wounded in the arm, leading to his death. 

Casey Jones was the famous train engineer that saved his train (and people) by braking hard to minimize a collision with a freight train in the wrong place. He died in the effort after telling his fireman to jump.

In addition to the Bathhouses over the hot springs, Hot Springs National Park includes Hot Springs Mountain and other scenic locations.