Part One, July 4, 2005

Ok, so today I didn't go home. Everyone knows you can't go home again. The reason is that I just slept too late. Oh well.

But I did get to do some things. I went and visited the Battleship Texas and the San Jacinto Monument.

I hadn't been to either since I was in grade school when we had a field trip. I remember on the field trip I bought some duplicated Texas money and some Confederate money and I looked for that again, because I no longer have mine and really wanted to know if it smelled the same. Yes, you read that correctly. I remember the money having a very unique smell that I can't even describe other than it was sort of sweet smelling. Alas, no money.

I also remember that I had a wax (I think it was wax) figure of the Battleship and the Monument. I recall putting money -- maybe a quarter in a machine and it making it right then and there. They didn't have those machines either. They did have a machine where you could do something with a penny. I wasn't really interested in that so, I didn't get one of those dealybobs.

I did buy 3 magnets, a t-shirt, and some post cards. Step, if you are reading this, you know what you are getting. Well, maybe. You can't have the t-shirt. Not that I'm cheap or anything, but I thought you might like a magnet.

REMEMBER THE ALAMO! REMEMBER GOLIAD! I would have added (and maybe those bands of Texians did too!) YOU BASTARD, Santa Anna! Why Sam Houston spared him, I don't know. I think we should have killed him. Marched him away, just as he did the fighters in Goliad. Maybe lead him to believe he was going free, just like Goliad. And then we could have shot him. Just like he did to the soldiers at Goliad.

I learned in school of the Yellow Rose of Texas, a mulatto indentured servant to James Morgan. Her name was Emily West and lived near where the Battle of San Jacinto was to take place -- New Washington or Morgan's Point. Anyway, when Santa Anna and his army came through New Washington (looking for the Texas government), he saw Emily and captured her. The next morning, Sam Houston, having learned of Santa Anna's nearness from a Mexican scout, saw Emily West preparing an elaborate breakfast for Santa Anna near his encampment. It was then that Sam Houston decided to rally his troops and ambush the Mexcian Army. And that the Texians did. The Texians only lost 9 men, while the Mexican Army -- 1300 strong -- lost about 800. And Santa Anna? Caught with his pants down.


Don't know if a word of that is true or not, but I learned it in Texas history. Read more about The Yellow Rose of Texas here or here in Handbook of Texas.

Almost as soon as the Battle of San Jacinto ended, the grounds became hallowed but it wasn't until 1936 that construction on the 570-foot monument construction began. It was completed in 1939, and today is operated by the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department and the Monument, Battleground and Battleship Park have over 1000 acres and a master plan for the grounds is in place.

The Battleship Texas (BB-35) was decommissioned and presented to Texas in 1948. It is permanently moored in the Houston Ship and is part of the Battleground Park. Restoration of the Battleship began in 1988 and appear to be finished. For a chick, this wasn't a very exciting visit. It's a boat. It is all about Texas and that is great, but the Battleground was much more important to me.

The day started late for me, since I overslept. I didn't know where I wanted to go or what I wanted to do. I encountered my neighbor outside my door this morning when I was leaving. He asked, "What are you doing today?" I told him that I had no idea, but I was going to do something. I kind of thought I would go to the zoo, since it's free today. But I really didn't feel like it. I thought there would be a lot of people in Hermann Park and I just didn't want to deal with that.

So, I had read that nearby Baytown would be having a parade and celebration this afternoon and I headed in that direction. Just before the Baytown exit, I saw a sign for the San Jacinto Monument. Bingo! That's where I would go and then maybe go to the parade in Baytown. Two miles down Crosby Lynchburg Road, I encountered this:
A FERRY! The Lynchburg Ferry. Sure, I had heard about it on traffic reports and heard about accidents on the news, but I never really knew where it was and I certainly had never driven onto a ferry. I have been on Ferries before, mainly when visiting Washington State, but I had never actually been in a car on one.

This Lynchburg Ferry is nothing like a Washington State Ferry though. Those ferries are huge. I didn't get any pictures of the ferry because I thought I would actually be on the ferry longer than the minute and half it took to make the crossing. Sheesh! Here's a pic from the web:
It's a miniature ferry for a miniature trip. The website says it takes 7-10 minutes to cross the Houston Ship Channel. We must have been on a super fast ferry (HAH!) because I could not have been on there longer than 3 minutes. I will say this though, the barge traffic does rock the boat. And it was really windy. Not a trip that I'll go out of my way to take again.

Part Two July 4, 2005

Once that was over, I visited the Battleship and Monument and got primo parking both places. My car was completely encapsulated in shade. Amazing. I should buy a lottery ticket because it must be my lucky day today!

Upon leaving the Monument, I didn't really know what to do. It was still sort of early and I didn't feel like coming home. I decided to look for the Fred Hartmann Bridge. I had seen pictures of this bridge but since I don't hang out in East Harris County, see picture to the left for the reason why, I hadn't actually seen the bridge. I was in the area, what the heck, I decided to find it. It wasn't hard.

This is one gorgeous bridge, but boy is it hard to photograph. First, there is the freeway obstacle. The approach from SH 225, the bridge appears to be farther away than it is. Makes for a lousy picture. You can't really stop because of the traffic on 225 and when you swing onto SH 146 from 225, the angle is poor and there is no place to stop. Busy traffic and lots of police! When you approach from Baytown toward SH 225, once again, the same problems. I did pull off at a marina on the Baytown side to try for photos, but the masts from the sailboats in teh foreground caused me, a very inexperienced photographer, a lot of problems. Here are my best efforts:


That's all folks!