Florida Coalcracker Chronicles: Going Back To Houston Houston Houston

Saturday, February 12, 2022

Going Back To Houston Houston Houston - Houston We Have A Problem

Rice University

The Houston Astrodome
8th Wonder of the World

What are you doing in Houston for 5 day in February? Lulu has to be in Tallahassee on Thursdays to teach an in-person grad class. So we have designed a series of "5 day weekends." First was Kansas City - then Sarasota - now Houston.

We left Tallahassee at 6 AM on Friday. Our Delta flight took us to Atlanta - and had us at our Airbnb in downtown Houston at 11 AM. We have a lovely little condo with living room - kitchen - bedroom - bath. It is a second floor walkup. We have it for 5 days for $402 that includes all fees and taxes. We took an Uber from the Houston Hobby Airport to our little home. We had lunch at El Rey's just down the street - a Cuban/ Mexican Place.

RICE UNIVERSITY

Next we took an Uber to Rice University. 28 years ago - my son and I took a college visitor tour to Rice in Houston and Tulane in New Orleans.

Rice is sometimes called the Harvard of Texas. At the time in 1994 - Rice only had 2500 students - it was the smallest Division I school in America. Their endowment per student was more than Harvard's. William Rice died and left his fortune to building a co-education college in Houston. He made his fortune as a land owner - railroad owner - and cotton producer. For 50 years - if you were accepted - you paid no tuition. At the time we visited in 1994 - the full cost of a year was $16,000 - compared to $35,000 for Duke. They covered all of a student's need. They also agreed to keep that price until you graduated.

The Rice Campus is one of the prettiest in America. Many buildings are Byzantine in nature.

A donor gave a stadium that held 70,000 people. They also brag that a student has plenty of parking space - each student can bring 8 cars! Then they figured out - even if every graduate came to a game - in its entire history - that would not fill the stadium. John Kennedy gave the famous speech - "why does Rice play Texas - we wish to go to the moon because it is hard." The stadium is so big - they had Super Bowl VIII here.

Next we took the trolley to downtown. We wanted to get ticket to see a show. Downtown next to City Hall is the theater district. We got ticket to see - South Pacific - for Saturday at 2 PM. they were not cheap - but we wanted to see a show and be down close. $135.

THE ASTRODOME

Downtown is the Astrodome. This was the first football/baseball stadium built for MBL/NFL/NBA. It was built to house the Houston Colt 45s - Houston Oilers - Houston Rockets in 1962. At first they put Bermuda grass in it but that failed. They then invented Astroturf for the Astrodome - and changed the baseball team to the Astros.

Richie Allen hit the first official home run there.

The Game of the Century pitted Houston against UCLA in college basketball. UCLA was on a 60 game winning streak and lost by 2.

Billie Jean King played Bobby Riggs in the Battle of the Sex's in Texas. She won.

It hosted concerts by Elvis - The Rolling Stones - even Selena filled it.

During the Katrina Hurricane - they brought refugees from New Orleans to live in it.

The stadium became antiquated - they tried to pass a bond issues to renovate it - they were voted down. In 2008 - it was condemned. People want to keep it but do not want to pay to fix it. So it sits on the National Historic Register. It is an eyesore.

We were tired by 5:00 pm - because it was 6:00 pm back at home. We took a trolley west toward our condo. It was about 3 miles. About halfway we saw a HEB Super Store. We stopped and bought 3 bags of groceries. Using our $3 all day trolley and bus pass - we took the last leg home.

1 day gone and 4 to go. As I type here at 9 am - my tour guide is in the shower warming up for a full day.

Friday is was sunny and 70s. Today it is 50's with a 70% chance of rain - it is heavily overcast. It is a good day for the theater.