It's been a long time since the last post. There is so much to catch up on, and so much to explain. Once again, as seems to be the norm with these posts now, I am hereby promising to keep this one as short as possible! Quite how successful I am going to be at this remains to be seen, but fitting 3 Texan cities into a couple of paragraphs is going to be hard.
To begin with, a word of advice. If you ever plan on visiting a new town or city that may have been hit by a hurricane sometime in recent memory, be sure to read reviews of said place from both before AND after the storm.
Galveston never really picked itself up in the same way that cities such as New Orleans did. Me and Ben bandied along, assuming we'd be met by a busy, fun-loving, seaside resort. What we actually came across was a depressed, grey dwelling with about as much charm as a primary school recorder performance.
The day in Galveston was spent being underwhelmed. Sadly, in the end, it probably gets the award for "Worst Place We've Been So Far," which is especially notable considering we'd just spent the night in the "Second Saddest Place to Live in the US" (Beaumont, which we actually quite liked).
3rd April
The next day we drove from Galveston to a KOA in Baytown, just outside of Houston. The drive was noticeably ugly, passing nothing but industrial plants and other highways. However, the unspectacularness of the drive just made the scenic site of the campsite even more striking. Situated on a lake I've forgotten the name of, the whole day was spent just making ourselves feel better. Laundry, long showers, and an amateur BBQ in the evening meant, whilst forgettable, it was a very comfortable day.
That level of comfort was nothing compared to the next few days, though. Very kindly, a friend of ours, Lauren, offered us to stay with her for a few days (despite the fact I'd only met and spoken to her for half an hour at a gathering of people in Baton Rouge, a few days previously).
As far as Ben and I were concerned we were going to stay in a grimy student flat above a Kebab shop somewhere in the suburbs of Houston. How wrong we were. Katy, where Lauren lived, lay just outside of Houston. It was a picturesque community.
We pulled up at her house and went in to be greeted by one of the nicest families we've ever met. The next few days were bliss. Patty, Lauren's mum, wasn't only the best host in the world, but also a massive football fan (of which there are not many in America, particularly those who support Everton). For the duration of our time in the Lee household there was a footy game on the TV (at one point even Norwich vs Swansea – so we were very happy). Mr Lee also managed to put every British BBQ to shame.
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| Ben, Patty, Me |
The opportunity to use a proper internet connection was something we couldn't pass up, either. Therefore, we managed to Skype the Mum and speak to her properly for the first time in a month ("Well, I've run out of things to say now" - our Mum).
Both nights we stayed at the Lees' we went out into Houston. We met several of Lauren's friends and went to some really cool bars (shout out to Lucas, Jeff, Matt and Millie for letting us cotch at your place). It was odd because, in Texas, it's illegal to sell alcohol after 2am on weekends (earlier on weekdays), so Texans just get pissed quicker. Once again we got drunk-food from somewhere far too organised and enjoyable to ever be considered feasible in the UK.
After two nights, Ben and I were worried we were going to get too comfortable (we were days from asking for our names to be put on the mail box, and calling Patty 'Mum'). So, for the sake of making progress, we sadly decided we had to pick up and move on. Lauren, Mr and Mrs Lee, Kirsten and Brett thanks so much for some of the most pleasant days we've spent in the USA. It was great getting to know you, it would be great to see you all again (Lauren, you better come to Vegas).
7th April
After a night sleeping in slightly less comfortable surroundings (another Wal-Mart), we spent the day at one of Houston's main attractions, NASA. I went there with the completely ignorant assumption that it may have actually been educational. Instead, most of the day consisted of tram rides, films, and hands-on Angry Birds exhibitions. Not that I was complaining. We got to see the Mission Control room for every US space mission from the 60s until 1992, which includes the Apollo missions. It is now a National Historic site and cannot be tampered with.
There were, of course, dozens of huge rockets and space shuttles to wander around too. However, all this was nothing in comparison to the grand finale: the gift shop.
That evening we embarked upon the long journey to Austin, taking about four hours or so. Everything takes longer when you're driving the equivalent of an unfortunate student flat around behind you. But it was totally worth it as it meant we arrived that evening in possibly the best city I've been to so far.
8th April
We spent our time in Austin with one of Lauren's friends, Olivia (Hi Olivia), who we'd met in Houston a few days previously. Olivia very kindly let us stay at her house, making going back to sleeping in the RV an even harder ordeal when it came to it.
Austin really is like no other city I have been to in the US. I got a real soft spot for it as it reminded me so much of Stokes Croft in Bristol. It had a real charm, clinging relentlessly to its rock n roll image and being, to put it bluntly, weird. Ambling down 6th Street was a great way to spend the day. Its concoction of bars and shops unmatched in style, except perhaps by New Orleans.
The Museum of the Weird, in the back of the Lucky Lizzard store, was one of the best finds of the trip. A collection of oddities and strange things from all over the world (shrunken heads, waxworks, skeletons, and a huge but not to scale King Kong model are just examples). Upstairs we got shown the actual flat that Johnny Depp and the Gibby Haynes (of the Butthole Surfers) shared for a short while. At the end, we were treated to a short show from an employee there who put a nail up his nose, hung fish from his eyelids, and trapped his tongue in a mouse trap. All fine entertainment, but with me and Ben as the only people in the audience I felt his time could have maybe been better spent.
The second day in Austin we felt like we needed to do a bit of exercise, so went for a jog around the park. I was quite impressed with how far I managed, but that sense of pride soon wavered after realising we'd become totally lost.
What was supposed to be a 45 minute run, ended up being a 3.45 hour trek in the boiling sun, with no money or water. The tour of the city was lovely (including the Stevie Ray Vaughan memorial), but once you start considering drinking your own sweat, the novelty of a mini-train ride begins to wear off. Luckily, I was able to text Olivia with the name of the street we were on, and, using her invaluable local knowledge, managed to inform us "Oh, I know there, it's a really pretty area!" We found our own way back.
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| Stevie Ray Vaughan memorial |
10th April
The next day we took it a bit easier and visited the Presidential Library of Lyndon B. Johnson (which was particularly significant for Ben, as LBJ was the notable protagonist of his dissertation). The museum was very biased towards the achievements of LBJ, but, for someone with relatively little knowledge of him as a President, I did leave surprised at how many there were.
Later on, we met with Olivia and her friend Kelsey (guessing it's spelt that way?) and went for a meal at one of the many Mexican restaurants that are becoming more and more frequent as we've started heading west. She also showed us around some other parts of Austin, including Mt. Bonnell, which gave us a great bird's eye view of just how lost we'd gotten the previous day.
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| Ben and LBJ (from left to right) |
Austin is great in that its nightlife, from what I gathered, is centred around live music. As we worked our way down 6th Street, both the days and nights we were there, there was always a band on somewhere.
I also loved Austin because it's probably the place that has most in common with Britain socially and politically. I felt comfortable discussing certain things there that I wouldn't dare to have done in other parts of Texas for fear of 'offending people' (which is something else we need to talk about, America). On leaving the city, I mentally concluded that, of the places I've visited so far, Austin is the place I would most like to live (don't worry Olivia, it's probably not going to happen).
To end, I thought I'd make a few summation points about the trip. For those interested (which, let's face it, stretches no further than me and Mum, (Hi Mum!)), we've travelled just under 3,000miles at the time of writing (14th April); passing through 16 states (NY, NJ, DE, PA, MD, VA, WV, NC, SC, GA, AL, FL, MS, LA, TX, OK, respectively).
When I look back at my time spent here, there's one question that really sticks out to me: why are there so many mattress shops?
THE VIDEO EXTRAVAGANZA:
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