College Station, TX (USA)

A friend of mine works at NASA (in Houston) and had offered me a chance to tour one of the facilities there many times over the last year. I finally got a chance to take time off from work to make it happen. Left Fort Worth around 0800L but had to take I-820 around the West side of town to get on I-35W south. Drove to Waco with gray clouds overhead (and lots of radio reports of severe weather). Got on TX-6 and made good time with no traffic all the way down to Hearne (ate lunch there - McDonalds) before it began to rain. It kind of put a damper on my enthusiasm for the drive, but also inspired me to make some stops at indoor attractions. I'd scouted out the College Station area online and decided to visit the George H. W. Bush Presidential Library as I passed through town. After a quick dash in the rain across a huge plaza, I made it to the front entrance. Got in for free (the ID won't help too much longer...) and took my time walking through the museum. The movie was good and the displays were even better. I especially enjoyed the visuals and discussion of his life before he was Vice President - Navy career, oil business, congress, UN ambassadorship and China envoy, CIA director. The rest of the place wasn't as interesting to me, since I had seen that part of his life play out on TV as I grew up and after I graduated from college. Met some nice local volunteers - they all seemed proud to work at the Library. Most commented about how happy they were to see the rain. I now can understand Governor Perry's call for prayer on the drought - it hit this area especially hard. One lady told me things were so bad her family had sold nearly all their cattle. It was still raining when I left, so I didn't get out of the car while I "toured" the Texas A&M campus. Made it back on TX-6 and headed south again.