Sorry for the delay this week -no wifi…

After we said farewell to Helen and Steve we had one more night in Louisiana, at Lake Charles. Nice enough but after so much time in one state we were keen to cross into Texas, a new state for both of us. We gave Reg a good workout as he had been rather idle during all that bead throwing.

Inspired by Glen Campbell we booked to stay in Galveston which is about an hour south of Houston. We drove along the Gulf Coast and already things were going slightly awry as the weather was a bit rainy. We went on the ferry across to the island which was rather good fun as Reg took up so many spaces. We were followed by numerous gulls and pelicans and laughed as the spray came over and soaked everyone on the deck.

We stayed on Galveston Island in a state park – complete change from Louisiana – being back amongst sand dunes. Lovely spot and we walked to a good place on the waterfront for dinner and all was well with the world.
Last Monday we went into downtown Houston and sadly did not spot any Ewing lookalikes or men in Stetsons, but did go to a great bar and the science museum. They also have a cool tram system which we used having walked through the ‘hood’ on the way into town and did not fancy the return leg, after dark with drink inside us!

Next morning disaster struck. One of the large side windows shattered on us. Glass everywhere – and after an hour on the phone we were not sure how easy it was going to be to get mended.

Sadly, it was a complete pain. We wasted two and half days waiting for it to be replaced. A great RV place helped us out in the end, but it was very boring waiting for it to be done.

Reg was not secure so we could not really go or do anything with him whilst we were waiting. We never really knew when this glass was going to come from the glazier to the garage to be fitted so we spent one day optimistically around the corner in the Walmart car park… not ideal. Another day we had to stay in a different site which meant driving through a huge thunderstorm. The hole was blocked up with sheeting, but five minutes down the road it blew off and we had to improvise with some duct tape and bin liners. Reg is normally quite noisy compared to a car, but Reg with a flesh wound was unbearable. We both had headaches wherever we went.

The real low point came when he was still not fixed as the glazier had sent the wrong piece of glass to be tempered and had to cut another bit. It meant another night on Galveston Island, which by now was completely shrouded in sea fog. To add to the sinister nature, I then read that probably twelve thousand people had been killed there in the 1900 hurricane… so many in fact that they had to burn the bodies on the beach in pyres! Charming holiday destination! So, we were very fed up and decided to go to the cinema to cheer ourselves up.

We went to see Hidden Figures – which was great by the way – but it was hilarious as we had to take all our valuables with us. We had laptops, iPads, Kindles and best of all a Go Pro… we could have been prosecuted then and there for piracy! Our luck was so down that we were convinced that someone would climb though the bin liner and clean us out if we left everything behind.

The next day we hung around until we got the call and by 4pm we were at last back on our way. We had timely calls at this point from Mummy and B to make sure that we were ok and not coming back, which was much appreciated. I remarked to both- if this was a film – this is where we would to dig deep and be resilient…but no one can come home because of a broken window!

We had to rejig the sites we had booked, but it ended up well. We arrived on Thursday night in San Antonio. Again an unbelievable storm – rain lashing down but at least this time we were quieter and warmer than last time driving through it.

On Gavin’s recommendation we enjoyed the Riverwalk in San Antonio and of course the Alamo. We did the audio tour and learnt loads about this tragic event. I have never seen the film, but it was a gruesome episode culminating in everyone dying. I do worry that theme of this blog and our trip seems to be death and destruction!! We learnt more about Texas being independent of the US for a time after breaking away from the new Mexican Republic and smiled at the irony that Mexico was the first county to be concerned about immigration along this border. There was a terrible problem with illegal US immigrants at the time. Why did they not think to build a wall?!!

Weather still rubbish, but on Saturday we then drove up to Austin. In a rare bit of timing we arrived in town just as SXSW (South by South West) starts. We even saw the British pavilion and hoped I think to see Steve Lamacq or someone from Radio 1 or 6 Music, but instead the highlight was Greg Hands, one of our ministers doing a speech. We did not attend.

Fantastic city – but cold and wet and everyone had a name badge on except Alex and Matt from London. SXSW is not just bands, but comedy, films and last weekend a fair number of nerds for the tech shows. We sampled way too much beer and saw a few bands along Sixth Street which is where all the action is. Would be a great place to come to again.

On Sunday, we got stuck into the culture. We went to see the capitol building from outside and the Lyndon Baines Johnson presidential library. This was really good and one of our favourites. LBJ did so much on the phone that all the calls were taped. You can listen to him speaking to various people and there was one call between him and Jacqueline Kennedy on November 26th that brought a tear to the eye. He is so tender towards her – they are both clearly so traumatized by events. Quirky things on display – like the speech and menu for the dinner that JFK was meant to make that night in Dallas.

Also, good about LBJ were his connections with our other favs – NASA and civil rights. For instance, when Apollo 8 sent back a picture of Earthrise – LBJ sent a colour photograph to all world leaders – even Ho Chi Minh – who of course at the time was public enemy number 1. Hilarious is that Minh replies (in French of course) – ‘thank you very much’!! Splendid irony too of course that as a white southerner he did do more for civil rights than anyone else. Lots of people making that point – including it seems all the surviving presidents at a special conference a couple of years back, held at the library.

Austin was freezing on Monday morning. Our blood may have thinned as I am sure not as cold as home, but not acceptable weather for being on a trip. So, we headed off west to the sunshine and as I speak we are back on track as it is boiling tonight! Texas has come good.

Difficult week, but we saw some great things in the end. The lows are there to balance the highs I guess.