(country music) - [Robert] Greetings
from the Lone Star State. Today we are exploring Houston, Texas. ♪ I'm riding, riding, riding ♪ ♪ Riding in my RV, my RV ♪ ♪ Wherever I want to be ♪ ♪ Because I'm free in my RV, yeah ♪ We're gonna be staying at San
Jacinto Riverfront RV Resort, a little over 20 miles east of downtown, right on the east bank of
the San Jacinto, River. Let me go and check in. Here we are. This is our pull through site. They're supposed to have an infinity pool on the other side, so
let's go check that out. (jazzy music) It is a very large, very clean RV resort. Two swimming pools and some sites even have their own spa. Here is the San Jacinto River. And there are some very
nice, riverfront sites and across the river we can see all this industrial
installations: oil refineries. Also out there, the San Jacinto Monument. The RV park has all this
colorful cottages as well if you don't happen to have an RV, you can stay in those. And here's the infinity pool. Very nice with this view of the river and it's really hot today, so
you know what I'm gonna do? I'm gonna go back to the RV
and grab a couple of towels and take a dip in the pool. The spa hmm, it might be too hot for that. Ah, going back it's very
hot here in Texas today. It's in the 90s, probably feels like 100. But the San Jacinto River or Jacinto, I have no idea how to
pronounce it, very nice. It turns out, you know Jacinto, and my mom always talks about him, it used to be a great
uncle of mine, I guess. Though I never met the guy. But my mom's always talking about him, so. There you go, that's why I
gonna pronounce it Jacinto, because my great uncle name was Jacinto. Of course needless to say,
my great uncle Jacinto has nothing to do with San Jacinto, which is the Spanish spelling for the Christian saint Hacinth. Let me tell ya, so many times
I have trouble figuring out how to pronounce names of places that were originally Spanish words and I tend to default back to Spanish, but that's not always the
case, as I've found out. Apparently it really depends
how the original settlers of the place called it. And I've kind of come
up with a rule of thumb after visiting the
Southwest several times. And let me tell you, if
we were in New Mexico, I betcha two bottles of tequila it would be pronounced Jacinto, as New Mexicans tend to preserve
the Spanish pronunciation. Texas, on the other hand,
kind of makes it a point to pronounce everything
as you would in English. Less confusing, I guess. And then in California or
Arizona, all bets are off. So you have to ask, as I
usually do when in doubt. All right, enough linguistics. Let's enjoy the pool. Ah, it is, oh, I'm sinking. Well it is an infinity pool. Isn't it? That's how they sold it
to me and it sure is. Let's go all the way to the edge. You see, it's an infinity pool. It's like you can't tell
where the pool ends, but it ends right there. And you can actually sit down on the edge and enjoy the beautiful scenery, the San Jacinto Monument built
in honor of my great uncle, no just kidding, just kidding. Oh. (bright music) And they have a spa. They have a spa. Let's go explore. (upbeat music) There, right in front of us
is the San Jacinto Monument, built between 1936 and 1939. It is the world's tallest masonry column. The 220 ton star atop
commemorates the site of the Battle of San
Jacinto, the decisive battle of the Texas Revolution. It is quite an impressive
monument, let me tell ya. There we can also see
Battleship Texas nearby. Let's go to the top. From inside the recently
renovated elevator we can see the emergency stairs. From the top we get a
commanding view of the area. The Houston Ship Channel and once again, Battleship Texas, notable for being the first U.S. battleship to
become a permanent museum ship and one of the only seven remaining ships and the only remaining
capital ship to have served in both World Wars. There's the Fred Hartman Bridge,
which we took to get here and what we're listening
to in the background is a recording, narrating the events that transpired here on April 21st, 1836. There's downtown Houston,
barely visible in the distance. - [Narrator] There is a
monument and the star. - [Narrator] Salvation location. Since it was dredged to 25 feet deep and opened for ocean going
vessels on November 10th, 1914, the Houston Ship Channel
has played an important role in the movement of products and goods. Today this area has developed
into a thriving enterprise. - [Robert] Amazing. It is like an endless ocean
of industrial facilities, oil refineries, I don't
even know what all this is, but I've never seen anything like it. Nothing this vast. (techno music) And somehow nature manages to coexist. There's the old manual elevator lever, which nowadays is just for
show, as we go back down. The base of the monument houses the San Jacinto Museum of History. There are several displays and paintings related to the battle of San Jacinto, as well as some artifacts
from the oil industry and pictures of the
construction of the monument and many, many other displays. (upbeat music) Finally, here we have a
model of Battleship Texas, which we will visit some
other time, I promise. Outside they are starting to lower the six flags of Texas. And he's doing the Mexican flag right now. And the six flags, of
course, Spain, France, Mexico, the Republic of Texas,
the United States of America and the Confederate States of America. (jazzy music) Well this was really cool. I really enjoyed seeing the monument. Now let's continue. Let's go eat! Hmm, I wonder what happened there. Oh no, there's a train coming. And it is a slow one. Oh well, looks like we're
gonna be here for a while. Although I don't really
mind all that much. I like trains. Oo, chlorine, inhalation hazard. I'll hold my breath just in case. (tense music) All right, the plan is to
go the Kemah Boardwalk, which is a little further south, almost halfway to
Galveston Island, actually. And they have restaurants
and amusement park, shopping, should be fun. The wooden roller coaster
looks kind of vintage, but it only dates back to 2007. The boardwalk itself opened up in 1998, although there have been
several additions and expansions throughout the years. They also have a bunch of
these carnival game stalls. Very cool. And there's the train that
goes all around the boardwalk, which is a replica of the
famous 1863 CP Huntington train. (train horn toots) Plenty of restaurants and it seems to be a pretty cool place for the locals. You know mainly families to hang out. It being a Tuesday doesn't seem very busy, but I betcha it gets
packed on the weekends. (faint slow rock music) Here we are walking
along the narrow channel between Clear Lake and Galveston Bay. Are those shrimping boats I see? You see, not very busy at all. Lots of birds though. And I bet you all those
birds and these two cats here eat better than you and me. Hello there. Today's obviously a slow day here. Okay, enough wandering around. Let's find something to eat. And being so close to the Gulf, it kind of makes sense
to try the local seafood. We sit at the bar while we wait. There is about a half an hour wait time. All right, it is almost time. Let's take our drink outside and join all the other people waiting. The birds are such a
nuisance that the servers have to come out in pairs. One in charge of carrying the food, and the other one to scare the birds off. Tell you what, let's go someplace else. Cool, they have street performers. And do you know why the
birds are so aggressive? People have been feeding them. That's why. - Two?
- Local IPAs. Whoa, that was close. Yep, the bird almost ate my fries. We ended up eating at this place called Bill's Burgers & Bar New York. In Texas. And if it wasn't for the birds that were a real nuisance and the service was a little slow. I mean the burgers were amazing. And the chili fries were too but, that's the only thing. And this is the thing. They have these machines
for you to feed the fish. But the birds didn't get the memo and they eat from the same machine, you know that people feed the fish and the birds eat. And then the birds think
that your food is their food and they're a nuisance. But other than that, it was a great meal. (mystical techno musical) (upbeat music) And good morning to y'all. Today we are going to
explore downtown itself. But first, I have some
CDs and stickers to mail. TravelingRobert.com/stickers
if you wanna get yours. We like to explore cities
as much as we do nature, especially when we're talking about one of the great American
cities, Houston, Texas. Number four in the USA
actually, population wise. (upbeat music) Let's find parking, which in a big city can be a little bit of
a challenge sometimes because of the price, more than anything. Let's park right here and explore walking, the only way to really get to know a city. And here we are walking along Main Street. The METRORail tracks in the middle. We don't really know where
we're going, not yet anyway. But meanwhile check out the sky pool on the top of Market Square Tower. Here's the famous, actually iconic Houston Is Inspired mural. It was originally part of
an advertising campaign, although it has become a
landmark in its own right. It is still early, so
there's not too much activity around the city yet. Although it is past noon,
so I suspect the city will be coming alive very soon with lunch hour traffic. Here we stumble upon Market
Square, very nice actually. (upbeat music) There is some street art
here in Market Square as we continue walking around. This La Carafe Bar, we wanted to see it, but it is closed. It is actually supposed to be haunted. And it happens to be the
oldest commercial building in the city. Houston, slowly coming alive as business people come down from their high rise office
buildings for their lunch break. Definitely a vibrant downtown, especially at this time of the day. At least Main Street. So many places to eat, so many choices. Now we are in a segment of Main Street that is pedestrian only, so it is most appropriately
called Main Street Square. Here we have this piece of public art, a sculpture called Planters
and Stems by Floyd Newsum. It represents the development of Houston and its entrepreneurs. (bright music) The ride rail system goes straight through the middle of the square. On the next block there's
this really cool fountain that the trains kind of go through, but it doesn't seem to be on at the time. Lots of construction,
lots of new development here in Houston. You might say what are you
guys doing walking into a mall? She said to go to the right, yeah that's the entrance. Well it is not the mall we
are really interested in. Although that Tejas Grill
Sports Bar sounds tempting. We are going down into the
downtown tunnel system. (pensive electronic music) This expansive network of tunnels connects 80 downtown buildings. But they are kind of hard to
find because the entrances, like the one we came in through are inside the buildings. And I've heard that it's really
easy to get lost down here. We've seen tunnel systems
similar to this one before in cities up north, mainly
designed to protect people from the cold and the
snow and the elements. This one is a nice air conditioned respite from the hot and muggy
surface street level. You could really spend
the whole day down here, well in theory your whole life, without having to go back to the surface. But we do. We have the rest of Houston to explore. It is really cool. We emerge by the fountain
on Main Street Plaza, immediately surrounded by
the sounds of the city. It is a totally different
world underground. And one not obviously apparent unless you know about it. The fountain is on, kind of. Although I've seen
pictures of the water jets going much, much higher than this, much more impressive. Well yeah, as far as cities go, Houston so far, I like it. We are getting kind of hungry, but we are even thirstier. And remember I said I was kind of tempted by that Tejas Grill Sports Bar before? Well, let's go in and
have a Karbach Double IPA. A viewer recommended we ate at this place called Pappasito's Cantina. Which is a local chain, part of the Pappas family of restaurants. And the bartender at the
Tejas Grill was adamant we ate someplace else and he was recommending a restaurant where a friend of his was the manager. Hmm, I suspect maybe he
had an ulterior motive, or perhaps he felt Pappasito's
wouldn't be authentic enough, it being a chain owned
by a Greek guy, no less. Well in any case, here we are. Let me tell you, a chain
is not necessarily bad. And this place is really nice. And I'm happy to report
the food is excellent. So the bartender was wrong and the viewer was right as usual. You guys give me the best advice. (upbeat music) Let's continue. This nice park here is
called Discovery Green and the white building with the funny looking red periscope pipes is the convention center. (children yelling happily) And there's another transparent
glass swimming pool. They must be a thing. Coming up ahead, Minute Maid
Park, home of the Astros. (happy music) And there's Irma's, the restaurant the bartender
recommended actually. And we've gotta move the car. Our parking expired. It turns out there's another
YouTuber video creator in town, one of the original Van
Life Travel Vloggers, before Van Life was even a thing. So we're looking forward
to meeting him in person. This looks like a good spot. Okay, make up your mind. Anyways there is plenty of parking. We're actually parked in front of the Christ Church Cathedral, the city's first religious
congregation, founded in 1839. Here's where we're
going, The Flying Saucer, located in the former S.H.
Crescent Co. Building, dating back to 1913. Nowadays, St. Germain
Lofts, luxury condos. I love to see the juxtaposition
of the old with the new. And this is a prime example, 609 Main, completed in 2017. (pensive music) All right, let's do it. We are meeting up with James Wheelock, also known as Wanderlust Estate. Cool bar, by the way. Waiting for James. (laughing) - Dueling GoPros. - [Robert] It is James the Wanderlust, is here himself.
- And here, I finally get to meet Robert here in person. So instead of just talking
to him online all the time. - I know man. We've been here hanging out
with James Wanderlust Estate. - Robert over here, at Roberts Travels, awesome guy. We just talked for like three hours. They need to go to bed now, 'cause you know Robert's a lightweight. - You know I need to get my beauty sleep, you know, like that.
(James laughs) And you know to be honest
we've had a busy day here in Houston, but it's
so great to finally meet you and James, of course you
were one of the original nomad YouTube channels. Wanderlust Estate, check
him out on the YouTubes. - Thanks guys. It's nice to meet you all. All of you guys that have never met me, I know some of you probably have. - Most of you probably have. It was very cool meeting
James Wanderlust Estate. And hope to meet him again in the future. We're heading back to the
car here as it gets dark here in Houston, Texas. (bright saxophone music) (thoughtful music) Well, time flew today. Let's stop real quick here to
take a picture of the sunset and we're gonna call it a night. It is so beautiful. Particularly with the silhouette
of all of the refineries in the foreground. (ominous tones) (mystical music) (upbeat music) Well good morning. We've got one more thing
to do here in Houston and they seem to have RV parking so we are going to visit it on our way out with Minitini in tow. And if you guessed the Space
Center, you are correct. Yes, we are saving
perhaps the best for last. That is if you are into
the space thing, and I am. Ever since Jim Lovell
said the famous phrase, "Houston we have a problem"
from somewhere out there between the Earth and the moon I've wanted to visit this place. Now was it Jim Lovell or Tom Hanks? I can't remember. We're parked here at
the Johnson Space Center or Space Center Houston I
think it's the official name. They have bus and RV
parking so if you come you know where you can park with your RV. It is a little bit overwhelming when you walk in, let me tell you, but I love all this stuff. Anything space related. There's the lunar module. (thoughtful music) This is so cool. Here they have a model
of the space shuttle and this is the International
Space Station, I guess. But before there was ever an
International Space Station there was Skylab, which never
quite worked as expected. It was plagued by all kinds of problems, not to mention NASA budget cuts. In any case, it is really cool to see how spacious it was inside, at a time right after the Apollo program when astronauts barely had room to move. This must have felt
like a mansion in space. (upbeat music) Cool, a space toilet. Let's check out Independence Plaza, where they have the modified 747 that used to carry the space shuttle. That's a nice picture. Oo! There it is. It is actually quite
impressive to see it in person. Well they have elevators. The top floor here is
Space Shuttle Independence, not an actual space shuttle, but a full scale high fidelity replica which was originally on display at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida from 1993 until 2011 when it was replaced by the retired Atlantis,
an actual space shuttle. In 2012 they moved it here and in 2014 they put
it on top of the plane. I always imagined that
part would be bigger. Let's go into this room
here on the lower level. It kind of looks like a storage room with a bunch of lockers. Apparently part of the
living quarters as well. This seems to be the airlock, perhaps, and they have an EMU space suit specially designed for
the space shuttle program. First of all they were reusable,
unlike previous versions of the space suit. It had air pressure and
the temperature control. It was practically a wearable space craft. - [Child] Is that a GoPro? - [Child] No, that's an astronaut. - Oh, forgive me, but that's a toilet. This, a representation
of many of the payloads the space shuttle carried out into space. Let's go to the plane. NASA 905 here was one of two SCA, short for Shuttle Carrier Aircraft, which was an extensively
modified Boeing 747. They were used to
transport the space shuttle from its landing location
back to the launch facility at Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Its few final flights were to
deliver retired space shuttles to their respective museums. The only part of the aircraft
that remained nearly unchanged was 1st class for NASA personnel. The original American
Airlines 1st class seats. Restricted area, do not enter. Aw man, I wanted to go to the bar. The rest of the main cabin,
which was mostly stripped down to save on weight now
houses a bunch of exhibits. Very cool to see it. (jazzy music) Yeah, that's the bulkhead that they built to support the weight of the shuttle. By the way, the Independence here, went through some major renovations to make it look more
like a modern shuttle. And one of those was the addition of replica thermal tiles to the bottom. It's very cool, very cool to see. Here's a Soyuz capsule, the Russian workhorse since the late '60s. So much to see, so little time. As usual I underestimated the time that it would take us
to see the Space Center and we still have to take two trams, one to the historic Mission
Control, one to Building 9 where they have the
Vehicle Mockup Facility, oh and there's also the Saturn
V and the other rockets. But all in time. This looks just like the set where they faked the moon landing. I'm kidding of course! It is a very nice detailed diorama though. Very nice. Here we are about to touch a moon rock. And this is a Mercury capsule. It is time to finally get on the tram. Here we are at the historic
Mission Control building. And they have this display
illustrating the evolution of computers at Mission Control. And that's all I'm gonna
be able to show you. They are using Mission Control for the upcoming lunar missions. So since they are doing
real work in there, photography is not allowed. Now we are driving by what
they call Memorial Grove. And all these trees are planted here in memory of NASA
employees, their families and other individuals who
made noteworthy contributions to America's space program. (thoughtful music) Let's go see some rockets, shall we? Here's Little Joe II, named
after the first rocket designed for man space flight. This one, however, was
used to test the systems for the Apollo program. And here's a Mercury-Redstone, the first one to put Americans in space. Okay, let's see what
we really came to see, the Saturn V. - Hmm, tiny little rocket. Actually tiny is the capsule sitting atop, compared to the size of
the rest of the rocket, which is taller than the Statue of Liberty when standing up. And here's where they would store the lunar module deployment. By the way, this is the
real deal, not a mockup. Actually one of only
three surviving Saturn Vs. Amazing how intricate
the rocket engine can be. You really gotta be a rocket scientist to figure that one out. Yeah, this was really cool. The other two surviving
Saturn Vs, by the way, are at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida and at the U.S. Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville, Alabama,
which I saw last year. Hmm, only in Texas, huh? (upbeat music) We're gonna hop on yet another tram to visit the Space
Vehicle Mockup Facility. And here we are. Kind of crowded, huh? We all gather along this narrow catwalk to see the main floor. These are all full size
models of spacecraft used for training purposes mainly. Let me tell you some of the stuff they are working on down
there is actually really cool. (upbeat music) I'm gonna say one last thing. That's gotta be one super
interesting job working here. (upbeat music) Well, time's up. We're like four hours behind schedule. But the delay was well worth it. Visiting the Space Center is a must if you are in Houston. Of course, leave it up to us to attempt to drive across Houston in the
middle of rush hour traffic. Yep, impeccable timing. Well it was bound to happen. We're stuck in traffic
in rush hour traffic. We're getting out of Houston. And Space Center took a
lot longer than I expected. I expected, you know two or three hours, we outta there. But the tram system, it's not
the most efficient system. And yeah, it takes a long time. If you come to the Space Center and you wanna see everything,
allocate almost a whole day because I would say at least four hours. Well, we'll make it to
San Antonio eventually. The GPS says 8:00 p.m.
but I have a feeling we're gonna get there by nine, well into the night. But we'll see San Antonio tomorrow. And for you, that might be the next video. (upbeat music) It is a long, love, uneventful drive from Houston to San Antonio. As I was saying, on the next episode we will explore San Antonio, Texas. Until then, thank you so much for watching and see you on the road. (jazzy music) ♪ I'm riding ♪ ♪ Riding in my RV ♪
