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Published: September 15th 2010
Inside the Beast!!
The delightful Greyhound interior.Today I am in Denver, Colorado arriving at 11am this morning after a grueling 29 hour drive from New Orleans. Of course 20 hours were consumed driving along the endless highways of Texas. This was after a relaxing final night out on Frenchman Street in New Orleans where I had some fun cocktails from the bartender (one that tasted like sweet tarts was the best called the RSVP), listened to the fine folksy jazz of the French Quarter, ate some nice creole blackened redfish with Louisiana shrimps and shot the shit with some English blokes I met. I did not get much sleep that night or no the bus. Tomorrow I will head up the mountains north of Denver with my friend Tate. It is stunningly beautiful up there as I understand it.
From New Orleans on the Greyhound bus, one passes St. Charles, Louisiana, Beaumont, Texas and a number of other towns and cities before running into the concrete behemoth named Houston. Much of the drive to Houston is a visual eyesore as the oil refinery business covers most of the shoreline. Meanwhile Houston is a property developer's hoochie mama as the skyscrapers you see in the center are
not the city. Houston really seems to be strip mall after strip mall, the car dealership after car dealership and retail shop after retail shop for 40-50 miles extending from the center. It seems like a lifetime getting out of this city where everyone drives a car and traffic jams are legion. As I was told by one Houston native,"The people in Houston are like no other I have ever met anywhere." He was referring to the hectic lifestyle that this road based engenders and he wasn't being positive.
The drive in Texas is long and just about as flat as you could possibly imagine. The landscape along the highway has a character I have not really seen anywhere else. The paradox of Adult DVD shops in the middle of nowhere that pop up every once in a while followed up by humorous billboards promoting Christianity is quite amusing. Dallas, several hours from Houston, is nearly as uninspiring from the highway. Once you cross the border from Texas into New Mexico the landscape turns to desert populated with mountains. It is such a welcome change and quite beautiful at various times of day.
The worst part of traveling
Near Dallas
Thanh took my photo. by bus is the food. I have not had a good meal on the bus yet and McDonald's is the best you can get (when available). There is just never enough time at stops to go look for food.
The best part of the trip has been meeting interesting people. From New Orleans to Dallas, I sat with a guy (I forgot his name) who provides security detail for corporate executives in the Middle East and is trained in Muay Thai, ju jitsu, aikido and Krav Maga (Israeli). He was the type who enjoyed the sort of anonymous lifestyle this entailed. I also met Thanh from Vietnam who is doing his final year of high school in the US and wants to go to medical school. He spent the entire time practicing his English with me and complaining about the state of the education system in Vietnam. He is expected to know 13 subjects there!!!! (truly ridiculous). I also met I guy who works for Starbucks (yes!!) but unfortunately I didn't get any free coffee. He works in Seattle in their shipping department. It was extremely pleasant fun to talk with all three of them. They genuinely seemed to
be great guys, all three of them. Of course, there are always annoying people on the bus, but so it goes.
I apologize for the briefness and lack of pizazz in this blog as I am exhausted and will be going out in Denver with Tate and his roommate soon. Tomorrow we head up to the mountains in the early morning. Living life to the fullest!!! (Tate and I went for a swim out at the local reservoir today and did some prairie dog watching)
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Dad
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phodos
hey, you're photos are getting better! you're self portraits are helped by the total wornoutness of your being. Colorado looks like nirvana!