Concert Choir Tour Day Seven: We had no problems, Houston

Aloha from some muggy hotel room in Houston!

Aaron is chatting with his sweetie and Stewart is running to the bus for more water so I have a moment, just us, to talk about the day.  I need to make it quick though because beauty rest doesn’t just happen. 

This morning we met at the Carpenter’s Church and said our “goodbyes”.  A bag of cookies was stowed away for our journey as well.  A lot of good reports came in from the host families, so that was a good way to start the day.  The first beads of sweat started forming while we were loading the bus but it never got too bad on the actual bus the entire day, despite the temperatures pushing 100.

The drive wasn’t real long today, so we didn’t even bother changing them into their play clothes.  The boys updated their journals and wrote nice letters home for you.  I dropped a whole stack of letters in the mailbox.  I think there was only two boys that didn’t finish and I have an extremely good feeling those letters will be in my hands before they put a single toe in the Gulf tomorrow.

We made it to the Johnson Space Center and had lunches under some trees on the grounds.  For boys the age we are carrying on board, this is a pretty cool stop on the tour.  (There have already been about a half dozen of those so far, but this was the “big” stop for a handful of them like Jeremiah that loves this kind of stuff.)  After lunch, we went right in and boarded the tram for the semi-guided tour of a few of the buildings.  We had to wait in a line for the next tram for about 15 minutes, so it got a little warm, but they didn’t complain too bad.  They’re tough.

The tour was pretty sweet.  We pretty much waved to every single person that was out and about as the tram went by.  We did our best to convince the boys they were all astronauts.  The boys were able to see the training facility with all the simulators and some of the futuristic things NASA always seems to be working on.  One was a “Robonaut” that looked exactly like “Ironman”, but they were adamant that it wasn’t “Ironman”.  Whatever.  First NASA copies Star Trek so they can feel cool, now Ironman.

 

We also were able to go into the first Mission Control for the Gemini, Apollo, and early Space Shuttle missions.  There was an awful lot of history within those walls.   It looks so much larger on the pictures but it really isn’t a whole lot bigger than Fitzgerald hall with a taller ceiling.

A quick trip through “Rocket Park” was also on the itinerary for us.  This is where we got to see the absolutely enormous Saturn V Rocket booster.  I took a picture, but it and all the others on the camera are still on the bus.  You’ll have to close your eyes and imagine it this time.  The weather warmed-up even more during the trip and now we were all pretty miserable in the heat while we waited to head back to the main building.  The tram came and whisked us away to air conditioned glory.

The gift store has become the new funding source for NASA once Neil Armstrong first tracked lunar mud into the LEM.  The Johnson Space Center has one of the larger gift stores around.  Spoiler alert:  most of you are getting moon rocks as souvenirs.  After we funded the Orion Project, we had a few minutes to play around with the exhibits before boarded the bus for our joint concert with the Houston Boys Choir.

The boys conked-out right away and the majority slept pretty hard.  It’s been a busy few days for them and they are starting to look a little worn-out.  We have two days in a motel on the Gulf coming-up where we can relax, sleep-in, take naps by the pool and just “be boys”.  They need it.

We found the church, nestled right in the shadow of Rice University Stadium where the football team plays.  Who knew they had such a big football field?  It’s impressive.  The boys had some time to work on their joint piece with the Houston Boys Choir before sharing dinner with them.  We have never done anything with the HBC before and only stumbled across them by chance on a choral message board about a trip to South Africa they have coming up.  We have a lot in common with them and the staffs of both of our organizations seemed to hit it off well right away.  This was a very good find by Aaron.

The concert went very well and the boys sounded pretty good tonight.  I promised video yesterday so this will have to do for now.  Forgive the poor quality, as it was recorded on my phone from the back of the church, but I figured something was better than nothing.  I will still try to go back and get some of the older footage from earlier in the tour to share with you if you’d like and I have the time.  Following the concert, the boys were given a pin from the HBC and we took a fun picture together.  The boys met their host families and went into the night.

I need to hit the hay.

-P.J.