April 28, 2008

April 28, 2008

Before leaving Houston this morning we traveled a few miles south and took a ferry across the Ship Channel to the San Jacinto Battlefield. It is our first time taking the RV on the water. A good test for when we take longer excursions later this summer.

This State Historic Site, where Sam Houston and his Texas militia defeated General Santa Ana of Mexico to gain Independence for Texas, is commemorated with an obelisk similar but ten-feet taller than the Washington Monument in DC. Inside the base of the monument are housed some interesting exhibits on the history of Texas.

Crossing back north on the ferry again to I-10 we continue east to Beaumont, TX where we park downtown in the Museum District. Beaumont claims to be the museum capital of Texas. We park next door to the world’s largest fire hydrant, symbol of the local Fire Museum. East Texas was home to Spindletop, the world’s first oil well gusher so I want to see the Energy Museum and learn more about oil. Unfortunately the museum turns out to be closed on Mondays. I need to remember this isn’t Chicago.

Determined to see something here, we walk next door to what must be the world’s smallest art museum collection. And it’s in a decent size building!! The collection is so small I ask the guard if I missed something. Less than a minute later we are heading back to the RV when we remember the Edison Museum. Despite being housed in a tiny electrical substation building, it contains a nice collection of Edison inventions and does a good job reviewing Edison’s life history. Edison was the most prolific inventor ever. It turns out though he didn’t really invent the light bulb. It had been discovered many years before. But what he did do was find a longer-lasting filament (sort-of) and at the same time develop and build all the necessary equipment for an electrical distribution industry. His light bulb would have been useless without the electricity.

Satisfied we now gave Beaumont a fair tourist opportunity, we get back on I-10 and less than a half hour later, we are finally thru Texas after over 1300 miles. Texas is mind-boggling large. We snag the last site in a private campground just across the border in Vinton, LA.