USS Lexington in Corpus Christi, Texas

A short drive up the coast and we arrived at the USS Lexington in Corpus Christi.

Shannon, Bill and I boarded the USS Lexington to explore this Essex-class aircraft carrier and it's history during WWII.

Launched in 1942, it glided into the sea with a non-typical blue coat of paint.  Active during the war, it was often reported missing in action only to show up within a week.  Tokyo Rose nicknamed it the Blue Ghost for it's frequent disappearing act then miraculous reappearance.

Originally scheduled to be named the USS Cabot, the sinking of the 4th USS Lexington in the Battle of the Coral Sea inspired shipyard worker to propose renaming it to pay honor to the lost Lexington and crew.  The proposal was approved and the 5th USS Lexington was born.

You can see in the middle between the two aft guns, the Japanese flag.  This is located on the only kamikaze hit during sea battles.  She also had her rudder damaged  but was able to limp back to Pearl Harbor.

The bridge.

View of the bow end and runway.  The jet on the starboard (right) side is like the one used in Top Gun.

Various jets lining the port side.  During Hurricane Harvey all the jets on this deck were moved to the hanger one deck below.

Top Gun

 Below is a preserved section of the deck in it's original wood material.  The entire flight deck was originally made of wood because it was lighter in weight.  Time and hard use took it's toll and when brought to Corpus Christi it leaked like a sieve.   To preserve the ships structural integrity and future museum use, the decks were asphalted.

Looking aft from flight deck toward bridge.

A-4E Skyhawk .  During WWII, John McCain piloted a jet like this but was shot down.  He endured years as a POW before his release.

What would an aircraft carrier be without a brig.

A functioning city below decks included a surgical hospital.

Hospital ward.

A Barbershop

Dental repairs.

Of course a galley and loads of food for hungry sailors and pilots.

An alternate to hot bunking, hot hamocking.

Sunday services.

A beautiful ship with a courageous history.  She served in the war. Spent 30 years as a training carrier then finally in 1992 she was brought to Corpus Christi and docked to become a museum.

It was a fun and interesting day.  We disembarked and headed home for some well earned r and r.

Thanks for visiting.  Come back.

Susan

Rockport and Hurricane Harvey

As our little caravan traveled along country roads, leaving Houston behind and Rockport in the not too far distance, we began to notice the damage from Hurricane Harvey.  The damage soon evolved to devastation.

We arrived at Bayview in Rockport to a park that survived the hurricane but not without extensive damage.

It's 3 months post Harvey and damage is still apparent and sad to view.

More park damage.
Pickleball courts.

Almost every living oak sustained damage.

Driving around the neighboring area we were shocked at the extent of the devastation.  This is one of two huge boat storage mega sheds.

Hard to imagine the force required to mangle and twist the structure beams.

The mast on this 33 ft. Westsail snapped in half.

We hopped on the car ferry that crossed the quarter mile from Aransas to Port Aransas.  

The devastation on Port Aransas is equally bad.  This house has nearly sunk into the bay.

All in the Rockport area is not destroyed.  There still remains beauty in this once thriving beach front town.  Life goes on and ships gotta go where ships gotta go.

The beaches are beautiful. People still frolic in the surf.

NASA Johnson Space Center - Houston, Texas

NASA, finally arrived.  Had no idea of the extent of genius we were about to stroll through.






An impressive site seen below. The space shuttle.

We hopped aboard our first of two trams and went straight to the hanger for the ISS, International Space Station, components, modules and test/training.  Below is a model of the ISS. 

The ISS orbits the earth at a height of 254 miles and a speed of 4.76/miles per second.

"The ISS is made up of 16 pressurized modules: five Russian modules (Zarya, Pirs, Zvezda, Poisk and Rassvet), eight US modules (BEAM, Leonardo, Harmony, Quest, Tranquility, Unity, Cupola, and Destiny), two Japanese modules (the JEM-ELM-PS and JEM-PM) and one European module (Columbus)."

Our next tram stop was at the Rocket facility.

Below on right is the Saturn I rocket, the precursor to the Saturn V that took man to the moon.   The Mercury Redstone, on the left, was the one to carry the first man into space, Alan Shepard, May 61'.

Liftoff of Apollo 11 in 69' on a Saturn V.

Saturn V, one of only 3 in the world.
5 liftoff engines.

Second stage rocket.

Used to launch and return astronauts to the moon and back.  The ocean bottom is littered with these separated liftoff modeles.

Landing and re-entry capsule modeled.

Our second tram took us to the original Mission Control. To imagine how a man was put on the moon in 1965 with the technology of a dial up phone.

The viewing area is original to 1965.  Dignitaries from every country have sat in these same seats viewing how various missions and catastrophic events have unfolded.

Houston, we have a problem.

Space walking.

Inside the ISS.  Sleeping pod.  No gravity, your bed hangs on a wall.

Weightlessness routines.

Can't  even imagine doing this.

A magical, impressive 5 hours.  A must see.

Come visit again all y'all.

Susan