Texas

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Greetings from Texas, the 14th US state (2 Canadian provinces on top) that we have visited on our travels. Weve had a couple of flying stops in Texas, Houston and then Dallas. Were now en route to Denver, Colorado, for our first taste of some really cold weather - the weather there is currently fluctuating between -1 degree and 6 degrees today, with snow forecast for tomorrow & Sunday.

Houston was a lovely, clean, seemingly safe city. Unfortunately there wasnt a whole lot to do there, and we couldnt believe how dead the city was when we were wandering around. The hotel there was extremely interesting. It was a little 23-suite hotel that had a great room with comfy beds, but rude and unhelpful owners. There was only one employee who seemed willing to help us, but was quite manic in everything that he was trying to do for us. Do you want some clean towels? Yeah, Ill get you some clean towels. Will I take away youre old ones? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah Ill just get your old ones and now you have new ones. Youd like to check out an hour later? Sure, an hour later would be fine, or you could leave your bags downstairs, or you could just check out an hour later, thats fine. Okay, yeah. (Imagine this in a really fast voice). But at least he was helpful. We had a room with a kitchen with a stove and everything, yet no pots and pans or anything to cook with! When I rang downstairs to ask for some things, I was given a tiny pot, a tiny pan and two baking trays. Gee, thanks. And one morning, we were awoken at 9am by a man who wanted to clean our two plastic plants that were in the room. We told him we were in there and to come back later, but he said hed just grab the plastic plants and be on his way. Youre waking us up.for plastic plants!? The whole place was just bizarre. (The staff were simply peculiar - Craig)

The main reason that we went to Houston was so that we could check out the baseball stadium there. It was pretty cool, and had a few different things that we hadnt seen at other baseball stadiums. Ill let Craig talk about it.

(Minute Maid Park in Houston is one of the more interesting stadiums. One of the things that is unique to this stadium is that it has a massive retractable roof that to cover the stadium, however one of the walls over left field is attached to the roof & it is made of glass. Its pretty cool that when the roof is closed, the park is still filled with natural light from this massive wall. Also on top of the left field wall is a train, about 3 times the size of an old steam engine. The owners wanted to include a part of Houstons railroad history in the construction of the stadium, as it is built on the old Union Station. The train has 800 feet of track & actually travels along it, each time the Astros hit a home run, or when they win a game. It also has a coal cart at the back, however it is filled with fake oranges, due to the stadium sponsorship from Minute Maid juice. On the tour we actually got to walk around the entire warning track (dirt track running around the edge of the playing surface), which is something that we havent been able to do anywhere else. Another strange part of the park is in centre field, where there is a hill which leads from the warning track up to the wall. There is also a flagpole that is on the hill about 3 metres from the wall in the playing area! They had to get special permission from MLB to do this, its surprising that they were allowed to do so! It was cool stuff though, it was a stadium which we both enjoyed touring! - Craig)


After a day in Houston, it was off to Dallas via a 4 hour Greyhound bus. Dallas, like Houston, was a clean, pretty city. It was a bit more lively than Houston, particularly since we were there for Veterans Day (Remembrance Day back home) and they had a big parade for the veterans. We watched the parade for a while, and thought it had finished so we wandered off to check out a couple of things around the city. But when we came back, an hour and a half later, the parade was still going! It went for 2 hours and 15 minutes, it was huge! They had veterans in army vehicles and expensive cars (which Craig enjoyed), and many high school marching bands with cheerleaders and baton twirlers. There were lots of people cheering on the sidelines of the parade, and screaming out Thank you to the veterans. Being in the armed forces is very highly regarded here in America, with the armed forces and veterans getting discounts at attractions, restaurants and hotels, and being able to skip the lines in airports and the like. People treat them very well, and its nice to see.

The main reason that I wanted to come to Dallas was to see the site of the JKF assassination. Ive read a lot about it, and about the conspiracy theories surrounding the assassination, and it was extremely surreal to be standing in front of the white cross on the road where he was shot, and being able to look around and see the Texas School Book Depository and the infamous grassy knoll. There were a couple of people walking around who had a chat to us about the conspiracy and sold us a couple of homemade data CDs and books about it. I loved that, as I find the whole conspiracy thing really interesting.

We went up to the Sixth Floor Museum in the old Texas School Book Depository, where they have a great exhibition about what happened. They have also set up boxes around the window where Lee Harvey Oswald allegedly shot JFK to show people how it was found back in 1963, and also boxes set up around the area where the rifle was found. Unfortunately we couldnt take photos, so I dont have anything to show you.

While in Dallas, Craig went to check out the Dallas Cowboys NFL stadium. I didnt go, so Ill let him tell you all about it.

(Well this stadium was incredible, as it is the largest domed structure in the world. It was simply massive! It has 80,000 seats, another 8,000 people that fit in the suites, plus they let in about 15,000 standing room. For the Superbowl early next year, they are replacing the comfy wide padded seats in most parts of the stadium with smaller basic plastic ones, so they can hopefully reach an attendance figure of 120,000 for the game! The stadium cost $1.4 billion to make, a simply incredible figure. When you first step inside, the first thing you notice is the massive TV Jumbotron in the stadium. Apparently it is the largest screen in the world at the current time. It is simply huge, & is about half the size of the actual football field. You need to look at the photos to get an idea of the size of the thing, it is simply incredible! Unfortunately the field wasnt in place as they were setting up for a boxing match in the stadium this weekend. We did get to see the field though, as we got to see the rolled up Astroturf in storage underneath the ground.

The stadium has been made very elaborately, with lighting & chandeliers made to represent a football, special black & grey marble that turns Cowboys blue when the light hits it at certain angles, a water fountain & many other little touches. On the tour we got to head into the Cowboys locker room & interview room & saw the path they take to the field. This was really interesting as it runs right through the middle of an exclusive field level suite bar, so people line the sides of the bar & high five the players on the way out to the field! We also got to check out the cheerleaders dressing room! (I was thinking of hiding in one of the lockers, but it would be a long wait until the Cowboys next home game in a couple of weeks!) Anyway the stadium was simply incredible & I would love to see an event there one day! Although it would be an expensive experience, as there is no public transport to the ground so you either have to drive or cab it, then they charge $75 for parking! They even upped it to $125 during last years playoffs! - Craig)

We have changed some plans for the rest of the trip. Were not going to go to Yellowstone anymore (unfortunately!), as getting into Winter there are only a couple of roads open, and while it would be cool to see in Winter it was going to be a lot of driving just to get there, and Craig was a bit worried about driving on icy roads because hes had no experience with it. Well definitely get there one day, but not this trip. (Unfortunately the forecast for the two days we were going to be there was for -3 degree maximum & snow, I was a little worried driving through conditions like that for quite a few hours. Plus theres a good chance the road will get blocked & we wouldnt be able to get there anyway. Its a real shame though, this was one of the places I was really looking forward too! - Craig)

So from Denver were catching a train to Salt Lake City. Its a 15 hour train trip through the Rocky Mountains with apparently amazing scenery, and weve paid a little bit extra to get a sleeper car so that we can relax and really enjoy the scenery and a bit of privacy. Theres no way that we would have been able to make the 15 hour train trip otherwise, as we had an 8 hour train trip from New Orleans to Houston and we were at our wits end (think Marge Simpson on the airplane running up and down the aisle going, Lemme off lemme off lemme off lemme off lemme off!)

After a day in Salt Lake City were catching a plane to Vancouver, where well stay for 5 days and possibly going to Whistler for some snowboarding and skiing. Then well head to Alaska, and from there Seattle. Thats the plan!

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Photos

Houston
They were preparing an ice rink in the background

Minute Maid Park - Houston
In the bullpen

Houston
Water fountain over the tram tracks