A Day On A Drilling Rig

Day 9 Thursday: Each morning I get up, check my phone for the latest emails, look at the orders that came in for RVupgrades and review Basecamp our inter company software for the latest issues, accomplishments and schedule of meetings and reviews.  Both dogs look at me intently while I do this,

just waiting for me to declare it is walk time.  Cali enjoys the walk and usually does not want to come back, but Wiley only gets excited because afterwards it breakfast time.   Today I was going to take a ride on the beach, but our friends had mentioned that the guys where heading over to the Oil Rig museum and ladies where going to do a little shopping.  So we hurried up and got ready and did the same.

On our drive over along the coast we could just make out two drilling platforms way out in the distance.  Then we noticed at least 15 tankers pretty much in a row heading outbound.  And that is just what we could see, it makes you wonder just how many ships are supplying us oil from what ever location each day.  And just how reliant we are on these shipping making that journey without disruption.  Kind of a scary thought.

The Ocean Star Drilling Rig Museum is located on Pier 19 in Galveston and costs $8 to do the self guided tour.  The walkway leading from land to the rig allowed us to see a sand ray, jelly fish, and a bunch of aquatic birds. Once aboard a guide explains the different areas of the rig and we started our tour.  Since it is a museum the main indoor living and working area bares no resemblance to what the rig really looked like when it was operational.  The first floor had information on this rigs size and type along with the different types of rigs and their purpose, different types of boring bits, the number of wells drilled in the Gulf and so much more.  There is also a small movie theater where they show you how the rig works and the industry in general.  The second and third floors had models of the support boats, a super intricate model of a refinery platform and a hall of fame area.  I am sure do to safety and insurance issues there is much of the rig you can not access which limits the interest factor.

Afterwards we came back to the camper, hit the pool for a couple of hours, got the dogs fed and

walked and headed back into town for dinner.  We where looking for something fast (well I was) and decided on Golden Corral.   Usually these places are a mad house with people running every which way, food crazy I call it.  This one was calm, everything was nice, the food was very good and we where in and out quickly.  We then headed over to a Kroger for a few items that we where running low on and saw this crazy car parked next to us on the way out.  I just love that someone created a car that everyone who saw it had a smile or laugh about and like us our phones out getting a picture.

Once we got back we started packing everything up for the 7 hour trip to New Orleans.  I am starting to feel like a Gipsy!

~Bill