Stay in Houston

Stay in Houston

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I took US Route 90 all the way from New Orleans to Houston and it was only about an eight hour drive. I only took the interstate (I10) where US90 went on the same roads. That also included the entry to Texas where I wanted to stop at the information center to get maps. You have to travel the interstates to easily get maps at the visitor centers. I had traveled much of this way when I was headed to Dallas. There were still some oil being pumped (here is a refinery) as well as rice fields (some flooded).
In Lafayette there were lots of grain silos (for rice I presume), but this one struck me (definitely one of the older ones). They were still growing rice as I approached Houston, though it was certainly much drier.... After I couldn't repair my nylon fabric exterior and vinyl interior air mattress and Adventure Sports did not have them, I ordered one from A-1 Camping on the web on February 5th for $20 with $7 S&H. However, they couldn't ship it until February 12 and it wouldn't arrive in time. I then checked the web and found four sporting good stores on my route to Houston, but when I called them, none carried the sleeping bag size I was looking for (the world seems to have shifted to regular bed size air mattresses since I bought my now defunct one which I got at Sears over a decade ago for $8).
On the drive to Houston I saw two army navy surplus stores which I checked to no avail. As I was on my way to Bally's for a shower, I noticed Academy Sports and Outdoors on Spencer Highway in Pasadena, TX. It is a really large store and had two kinds of sleeping bag size air mattresses. The more expensive was only $8 and was nylon fabric on one side and vinyl on the other. The other was a swimming mattress and was all vinyl and only $3. As I considered it, I believe that I prefer all vinyl as I should be able to repair any leaks. With the fabric exterior ones, you are less likely to get leaks, but when you do, you have to cut the fabric to repair the leak and it is a tricky operation. In a good work environment I did it successfully once, but it is not something you want to try on the road. So, I got the $3 air mattress and we will see how it hold ups.
Here is the Bally's on Spencer Highway in South Houston, TX. They are one of the Bally's closest to Crosby, TX (mentioned later) and also are close to a Wal-mart Supercenter and various libraries. Sounds promising. They also seem to have a reasonable place to park overnight across the street from them. We will see what developes.
Here is the Wal-mart Supercenter on Shaver in Pasadena, TX where a nice hispanic woman knocked on my window and gave me ten dollars saying 'This is for you'. I was parked next to her car and was mixing up a batch of Flavoraid, a Koolaid clone. She correctly deduced that I was homeless and inferred that I was destitute, I presume. I said, 'Why thank you!' What to do? I then added her ten dollars to my next charitable contribution. That was such a nice thought on her part.
Here is the Labor Ready temporary agency about a block from Wal-mart on Southmore. How convenient to have all three in close proximity! They have a bathroom for laborers and stackable white resin chairs. Seems very nice. Further, it seems about half the laborers here are white, one fourth hispanic, and one fourth black. It is run by two nice women; it used to be four, but one was fired and the third is in the office. They seem to do a pretty fair amount of business and try to go first in first out with them opening at 5AM and most everyone who comes in at 5AM gets out with work.
As I was leaving Dallas, Charlie, who I as working for, was headed to Houston to work on another contract. We agreed that I would look him up when I got to Houston and we would see whether they needed any help. So, on Monday, February 18, I headed out to Crosby to see what was doing. Charlie wasn't there, but I met his youngest brother, Wes. Their father was having open heart surgery at 9AM that very morning. I hope it went well. As Wes was not sure as to whether they needed additional help, I said I would come out the next morning and talk to Charlie (who should be back). However, the next morning no one was there. As Crosby is about an hour outside of Houston I concluded that fate was telling me I should do different work and meet new co-workers. At Labor Ready you really need to be there at 5AM to get work. I used the two days to catch up on my web pages.
This is the main library in Pasadena, Texas. They have excellent internet access for a public library, but I have gotten spoiled by college libraries. They have to limit access to one hour (still quite reasonable) and then have a waiting list. Further, they are most liberal with library cards and I was able to get a library card just based on my Texas driver's license. They also have a quite good science fiction collection. Sure makes me very comfortable.
This is the library at San Jacinto Community College, North Campus. They have most excellent internet access, but are mostly closed on weekends. If I need to do a lot of internet access on a week day or evening, I make the trip up their way (about fifteen miles, 25 minutes).
Here is the branch of Harris County library in South Houston (right next to Pasadena). It is pretty close to the Bally's and Wal-mart and such, but while their internet access is pretty good they have set up their computers to allocate time based on your library card making it a hassle for transients such as myself. Their hours aren't that good either, so it looks like Pasadena Public Library will be my choice for short accesses.
This is the library at the San Jacinto Community College central campus. It is just East of Pasadena, TX and about six miles from the Walmart, Labor Ready, and Bally's that I expect to be using during the week so will probably be one of my evening hang outs during the week. Their internet access is not quite as nice as the North campus's.
There are loads of oil refineries and such in Houston, but is hard to take a picture of miles and miles of oil refineries (without an airplane or something). Oh well, this scene conveyed some of the feeling. Many of the oil refineries are in Pasadena, TX and this one is right off of Main Street where it feeds into Shaver.