New Mexico

Louisiana

Texas May 2021

  El Paso   Big Bend   San Antonio   Austin   Galveston   Houston

El Paso

View into Mexico, across narrow Rio Grande

View to downtown El Paso

Border Crossing - outbound

Border Crossing - inbound

Lobby of glamorous Paso del Norte Hotel

Big Bend National Park

An overcast, often drizzly, day

Cliffs on Mexican side of Rio Grande

Santa Elena Canyon

Rio Grande at Santa Elena Canyon

Rio Grande emerges from the narrow Santa Elena canyon

View from US side of Santa Elena Canyon

View down to sluggish, wadeable Rio Grande

Sluggish brown Rio Grande, near Boquillas Canyon

The Rio Grande enter Boquillas Canyon A hard-to-spot slot between cliffs

Fort Stockton

Pecos County Courthouse

Old Pecos County Jail (1883)

Historic Fort Stockton (1868)

Ozona

Ozona: Davy Crockett statue

Crockett County Courthouse (1902)

Pioneer Family memorial (1996)

Imposing Ozona National Bank

Crockett County school warning

San Antonio

The Alamo

Alamo Church

Patriotic visitors

Enthusiastic fast talking tour guide

James Bowie

David Crockett

William Barret Travis Drawing a famous line in the dirt

Alamo Memorial

San Fernando Cathedral 19th c extension of 18th c core.

San Fernando Cathedral interior

Supposed remains of Alamo heroes

Mission San Jose

Fortified mission compound walls

San Jose Mission Church

San Jose Mission church interior

Mill (rebuild of 1794 original)

Grindstone, turned by water wheel below

Horizontal waterwheel in cellar Powered by water from pool above

Austin

Texas State Capitol

Rotunda

Looking up...

Looking down...

Outside the House of Representatives Chamber

Texas House of Representatives

A vote about to close.

Texas Senate

Former State Treasury office

Sam Houston

Stephen F. Austin

"The Surrender of Santa Anna" (1886)

"David Crockett" (1889)

COVID-19 Rapid Test tent Required for entry to Senate gallery

Lego model of Texas State Capitol

Texas State Capitol: Monuments and Memorials

Pioneers monument

Texas African American History Memorial With an "Emancipation" central theme

Ten Commandments monument

(Confederate) Texas Rangers Monument

"Heroes of the Alamo" monument

"Heroes of the Alamao" detail

Confederate War Dead memorial

Austin Museums, etc.

Bullock Museum: Recovered Hull of La Belle (1686)

Found in La Belle

The Teax Cowboy: Myth building

Goddess of Liberty From Texas State Capitol (1888)

Texas Memorial Museum: The Texas Pterosaur Only a replica, but still very cool

Texas Memorial Museum: The Texas Pterosaur With a forty foot wingspan

Unexpected tent encampment Down by the riverfront

Galveston

"Bishop's Palace" mansion

Galveston Red Cross monument

Galveston Seawall

Galveston Seawall

Moody Gardens: Rainforest Pyramid

Moody Gardens: Rainforest Pyramid

Pyramid interior

Green Tree Pythons

Poison dart frog

Komodo Dragon

Houston

Allen's Landing & Buffalo Bayou

Buffalo Bayou

Houston Space Center: Saturn V Temple

The Saturn V Temple

Houston Space Center

Apollo 17 Command Module

Apollo 17 Command Module

Mercury-9 capsule (1963)

Gemini-5 (1965)

Lunar lander (mockup)

Orion capsule (mockup)

Space Shuttle RS-25 engine (real)

Skylab mockup

Sklab mockup

Lunar mockup

Lunar basalt

Lunar breccia

Space Shuttle mockup on real 747 transporter

Inside the space shuttle mockup

Space shuttle controls (in mockup)

A recovered Falcon-9 first stage

The legs fold out for landing

"Grid fins" at top fold out to stabilize landing

New Mexico

Louisiana