Day 4: San Antonio

By Charles E. Roop

Today was our last, full day in Texas and Erin, her father and I spent some of it 200 miles from Houston. It was not the desert or some rodeo, but the Alimo and vicinity: the City of San Antonio. We took the back roads to San Antonio instead of taking the more-than-likely clogged I-10 from Houston. It was interesting to see the countryside of Texas. It was mostly nothing out there but some farms and one or two interesting sites.

When we got to San Antonio, we first took a little tour through the Alimo. It was pretty interesting to see. We also took a tour through the city. They have a Venice, Italy-type setup with the river and boat tour. Around the man-made river are restaurants. We ate at a nice Mexican restaurant. After a little more sightseeing, we decided to head back to Conroe. After hours of driving, we returned to her father’s home around 7:45 p.m. CDT.

Erin and I plan on leaving the area nearly 6 a.m. CDT and will hopefully be back in Gainesville not long after sundown.

Videos and photos will be uploaded after my return home. That’ll probably be sometime Friday.

Stay tuned.

TORNADO WARNING FOR HARRIS, MONTGOMERY COUNTIES IN TEXAS.

We are not too far away from where a possible tornado might hit. Here is the warning that was just issued by the NWS in Leauge City, TX…

BULLETIN – EAS ACTIVATION REQUESTED
TORNADO WARNING
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE HOUSTON/GALVESTON TX
1002 PM CDT TUE MAR 13 2007

THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN LEAGUE CITY HAS ISSUED A

* TORNADO WARNING FOR…NORTHERN HARRIS COUNTY IN SOUTHEAST TEXAS SOUTHEAST MONTGOMERY COUNTY IN SOUTHEAST TEXAS

* UNTIL 1030 PM CDT

* AT 959 PM CDT…NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE DOPPLER RADAR INDICATED A SEVERE THUNDERSTORM CAPABLE OF PRODUCING A TORNADO.  THIS TORNADO WAS LOCATED NEAR BUSH-INTERCONTINENTAL AIRPORT…MOVING NORTHEAST AT 25 MPH.

* LOCATIONS IMPACTED INCLUDE…
  HUMBLE…
  KINGWOOD…

TORNADOES AT NIGHT ARE ESPECIALLY DANGEROUS. DO NOT WAIT UNTIL YOUSEE OR HEAR A TORNADO – TAKE COVER NOW!

A TORNADO WATCH REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 200 AM CDT WEDNESDAY MORNINGFOR SOUTHEAST TEXAS.

PLEASE REPORT SEVERE WEATHER TO THE COUNTY SHERIFF…LOCAL POLICE…OR DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC SAFETY. THEY WILL RELAY YOUR REPORT TO THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE.

Watching the Texas Weather.

By Charles E. Roop

Erin, her father and I just got back to Conroe from a day out in town. I’ll elaborate more on what we did later, but it’s weather time.

To our west is a Severe Thunderstorm Watch in effect until 7 p.m. CDT. However, I think they might issue a watch for our area later on this evening. Currently, there is a batch of rain over south-central Texas with embedded thunderstorms moving in an easterly direction.

From looking at the skew-t charts in the southern Texas area, Lifted Indicies are anywhere between -5 and 0.7. This reinforces the severe weather threat. Also, the CAPES are a little high the further west you go.

As of this entry posting, there are five counties in Texas that have severe thunderstorm warnings.

Currently here in Conroe, the weather is slowly deteriorating with some lightning and rain coming from the southwest. I am currently monitoring the N5HNE (I think that’s the right call) repeater in Conroe for any reports. I’ll keep in touch.

Texas Update.

By Charles E. Roop

Today was a very light day when it comes to events. Erin and I traveled with her dad and went to a few places in Houston. One of them was very awesome to me: an electronics store. Oh, not just any electronics store. This kicks Best Buy and Circuit City’s ass combined. Say hello to Fry’s Electronics. They have everything you can imagine…I mean everything. Motherboards for a computer, TVs, VCRs, DVDs, DSLRs, videos of all kinds, appliances, you name it. They even have CBs, some ham radio equipment and literature, antennas and police scanners. Holy cow, that was freakin’ awesome. I picked up three things: an extra firewire (IEE 1394) cable for digital video capture, a DVD of All The President’s Men, and a brand new copy of the ARRL repeater directory. It was sweet. A note to Fry’s: please come to Gainesville. Believe me, you will get plenty of business.

We went to a technical book store, which mostly had medical stuff. Erin got a veterinary manual, which has nearly everything on any subject on vet medicine.

Tomorrow will be more exploring downtown. Wednesday should be San Antonio day.

The weather tomorrow looks a little damp with a slight risk of severe weather for south-central and southeast Texas. Again, I will be monitoring the weather.

I am slowly putting videos on YouTube. They are listed below with the links…

Erin, Opie and Tuffy.
Erin playing with her dog, Opie, while her father’s dog hangs out at a nearby lake in Conroe.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oWuF1CkNT5c

The Mississippi River and Crazy drivers.
See the river along with crazy drivers during our trip to Texas Saturday afternoon in Louisiana.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tX6thx1cJuo 

Keep checking back.

PHOTOS!

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Erin and Charles in Houston, originally uploaded by thewxmanjeckel_83.

By Charles E. Roop

Above is a photo of Erin and I with the Houston skyline behind us. For more photos, check out my Flickr photo page…

http://www.flickr.com/photos/daweathaman-journalist/

Check back later.

Day 1: Galveston.

By Charles E. Roop

Today was my first full day in Texas. Things are pretty different here than in Florida.

You know that saying "everything is bigger in Texas?" Well, it’s true. The cars. The highways. The cities. The bugs. Hell, just about everything. The Houston Chronicle Sunday edition was freakin’ huge…much larger than the Gainesville Sun. When we got to the house last night, Erin and I saw what we thought were these giant mosquitoes (but they are not mosquitoes).

Anyways, today we started out the day with a breakfast at the local Whataburger. We then left for a little drive and very short stay in downtown Houston. It’s a very nice and large city. Erin and I got some pictures (and they will be posted on the blog and Flickr later).

We later headed out to Galveston and hung out at the beach for a short time. It was a very nice beach. It’s a little more crowded than I initially imagined it. There are jetties where people can walk out on and fish from. There were also some nice hotels on the island facing the beach. On the other side of the island, there were some ports where cruise lines and oil rig support boats sat.

We left the town and headed back to Conroe on I-45. However, the journey back took a little longer than desired. There were many back-ups along the six-laned highway and even an auto accident on the southbound lane of the highway.

So, tomorrow looks like Houston day. The weather for our remaining days in southern Texas appears to be rainy. There might be a slight risk of severe weather for the south-central Texas and Houston-metro area tomorrow. I’ll have the camera on hand just in case anything happens.

Check back later on for photos and other stories.

MADE IT TO TEXAS.

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Southeast Texas sunset, originally uploaded by thewxmanjeckel_83.

By Charles E. Roop

The alarm blares at our apartment at 4 a.m. Saturday morning. Most of Gainesville was either dead asleep or empty because of the student that left for Spring Break. Instead, we were getting ready to leave for the Houston-metro area in Texas. We departed at 5:30 a.m. with Erin, myself, the dog and everything we needed along the way.

It was a very long trip, but I think we made very good timing. We made it to Baytown just before sunset at nearly 6:30 p.m. CST. After eating at a Waffle House, we traveled north to Dayton and met Erin’s dad. We then followed him to his home in Conroe – nearly 30 miles north of Houston.

We woke up this morning at 8 a.m. CDT and are about to head out to Galveston later on today. Expect updates and some photos this evening.