Texans choose to drop the 'io' off the end Antonio... I think it's for effect.
Well...! What an amazing few days it has been. To pick up where I left off - I continued to Dallas on Tuesday night as planned... but there's a kicker. On Tuesday I saw a quick facebook post from my friend Georgia Fryer saying she was leaving Florida and heading to Texas. Georgia is a radiographer that went to CSU at the same time as I did. She was heading to Dallas at the same time as I was, so we met up and started our trip together. Tuesday night we hit downtown Dallas and ended up at an average bar having a few drinks. By the end of the night we had befriended a group of yanks who took us to their downtown apartment where we had some red wine on their balcony - very cool view of the city and completely unexpected adventure!
Wednesday morning we headed off and tripped down to Houston. The trip was extremely enjoyable as the scenery was far more pretty than expected, particularly with the Autumn tree colours. I did manage to have my first driving dilemma by driving on the wrong side of the road but the crisis was averted before too long. We made it policy that we would not stop at any chain-stores so we ended up at a diner for lunch where there were more doors than teeth and yes, of course you could smoke cigars at the dinner table.
The trip to Houston was about 240 miles so took around 4 hours all totalled - we arrived on sunset and the city was beautiful. It is so flat and there are several glass front buildings so we got a few cool photos and just enjoyed the city falling into night. We had a debacle finding accommodation and ended up at a hotel not far from downtown. We booked in online (cheaper) but the booking didn't process so we had dinner at another local bar and then headed downtown, hoping that the processing would occur before we got home.
Downtown Houston was pretty cool - we started at a bar called the Mucky Duck which was a little live music bar away from the main strip. There was supposed to be a live gig there which wasn't the case but there was a cool group playing Irish folk song. Georgia insisted that I play a song because she hadn't heard me play for ages and asked the band, who were more than willing to let me have a bash. I started up with 'Peaches and Cream' by John Butler. This started solo but one by one, the guitarist, accordian, recorder and two violinists joined in so by the end of the song it was all built up. Despite the modest patronage and surrounds, it was an amazing experience and something that I will remember for a long time.
We finished up at a sports-bar, which are so big over here, and headed home. The booking had not processed so we slept in the vehicle overnight which luckily was relatively comfortable given the size of 'me truck'.
Galveston was the first stop for Thursday, which is the coastal port of Houston. On the way is the NASA space centre, so we stopped in for a tour of the centre. It was a great tour - they're so big on audio tours around the states which is excellent as you really do pick up a lot more, much more quickly than standing around reading everything. That took up most of the morning, and although Galveston is only 35 miles from Houston, by the time we arrived it was about 2pm. Galveston itself was extremely underwhelming but we enjoyed a couple of pina coladas and some shrimp whilst looking out over the Gulf of Mexico. What kind of shrimp? Scampa shrimp, fried shrimp, battered shrimp, shrimp and bacon...
Despite being warned by the locals at Houston to avoid traffice between 3-7pm we ended up travelling toward Houston at around 3pm to scoot around the city and out to San Antonio. We hit a bit of heavy traffic but generally had a good run onto the interstate. The length of the trip was yet again underestimated - this time around 180 miles so we ended up having another diner stop and eventually landing in San Anton' late-ish. We had a nice little hotel but then got picked up by the cab to head to town where the driver noted 'Why y'all staying out here...y'all are in Little Mexico out here'. The driver home confirmed these concerns - we were a block or two away from a crack-selling district apparently. The night out in San Anton' was amazing as we ended up at a bar called 'Howl at the Moon'. Apparently these are a small chain of bars, but basically there is a group of around 8 musicians who rotate between two baby grands, electric guitar, drums, bass, trumpet and sax playing pop songs. It was an absolute ball!
Yesterday in San Anton' was also plenty of fun - there is a really nice 'river walk' the city is known for. The river is more of a creek but the walk is really nice all the same, filled with cafes and small shops either side. We toured the Alamo which is a Texan history icon, again enjoying an audio tour and a little education. We headed back to the hotel (the Grand Hyatt this time) and sorted our stuff out before welcome drinks at the Convention Centre. There were around 1000 attend the drinks and then we headed into town - we went back to the piano bar which was a closed party. Turns out the closed party was hosted by Pfizer so we told the bouncers we were with the company and promptly got into some free drinks and more entertainment. Flippa finally turned up at about 10pm and we kicked on until 2, which is the universal closing time for bars in San Anton'.
I don't think I've really captured the fun in this blog, probably because I'm extremely hungover, but the past few days have been an absolute ball. We're now heading down to the first of the conference days to check out the scene.
Hope all's well at home.
