Deep in the Heart of Texas

The start of our second week was mostly like our first with very hot humid mornings. By 2 oclock the sky would turn dark and we would be in the middle of a huge thunder and lightning storm that would last for a few hours. On Monday afternoon Lynne & Gabriel went to their Mothers and Toddlers group while we caught up on some admin and changed a few of our upcoming flights. As we did this we watched the lightning moving closer and closer to the house, a few minutes later we heard an almighty crash as a tree just across from Lynne's back garden was hit by the lightning. Joanne disappeared down stairs, but I'm not sure if she was under the dining table or the kitchen sink hiding from the elements.

David had been told that on Monday nights a good band played in a bar called Helios in the Montrose area of Houston, so David, Joanne and myself headed out to the bar. It looked like another big Houston wooden house apart from the 20 or 30 people milling about in the garden drinking, inside wasn't much different with a few walls taken down and a bar set up on the right hand side. We got there about 10:45 and it was mobbed which I thought was quite surprising for a Monday night. The band were called "The Medicine Show"(not an eye patch in sight for you older readers) and had just finished setting up when we arrived. When they started they had two guitarists, a guy on mandolin, one tea-chest bass player and a washboard player. Before long they had most of the crowd hollering and stomping along to their Bluegrass Cajun Country Swamp Skiffle Americana fusion. This was no old timers band but just some young punks having a good time, check the cover below of "The Basement Tapes" by Bob Dylan and the Band that will give you a good idea what these guys looked like and later on they went on to cover "The Weight" by The Band.


During the second song things started to get a bit strange, a guy at the front of the crowd made a bit of space for himself and then began to strip off, pretty soon he was as naked as the day he was born apart from the few tattoos and he started doing back flips right in front of us. He nearly landed right on top of Joanne at one point, I don't think she knew where to look. On his final jump he landed on top of the washboard player and managed to break his board, before he streaked into the night to find his clothes. The band played on for another 5 or 6 songs before they all swapped instruments and started using a bass guitar and drum kit.

The place was jumping and it was hard to believe it was well after 12 o'clock on a Monday night, the band took a break so we headed up stairs for a bit to see the Jazz band in residence. Well Jazz isn't really my thing but you could tell that these guys could really play and they had a whole different vibe going on from that of downstairs with their mellow smokey laidback bluesy improvised doodles. Back downstairs we had another beer before deciding to call it a night as David had to be up at 6:30 for work.

The next day we wandered up and down the funky thrift stores and cool antique shops in the Montrose area before heading to a cool cafe bar called Brazil which we visited the previous time we were in Houston. Gabriel was in his element with his plate of avocado and glass of ice and spoons, while we tucked into our fancy sandwiches. After lunch we went to the Menil Collection which had hundreds of pieces of art from some of the 20th Century's most famous artists as well as exhibits of African and Native American art. They had some cool Rauschenberg and Warhol things, a few from Picasso and the building was also a really cool place. The rain came back on as we left but we managed to get back to the house before the roads flooded. That night Lynne made a lovely salmon meal for us all and we ended up staying up until half two in the morning drinking and talking.

Over the next few days we went to the Museum of Fine Art which had a great exhibition on Baseball in American Culture with large displays of it's memorabilia throughout the years. The museum also had another large collection of 20th Century Modern Art. Outside the museum was a large installation made of large rubber bands which was quite cool to walk through. Houston must have one of the biggest art collections outside of New York in the world. We were also considering buying a laptop the prices seemed better than back home and it would save us some time and money but we hadn't totally convinced ourselves yet.


On Friday night we got a Mexican take away and "The Motorcycle Diaries" DVD. We had tried to get this out back home out of the blockbuster in Cardonald but when asking for it for an assistant said they didn't have it but we wouldn't like it anyway because it had sub-titles. It was great to see some of the places we had visited in our time in South America and to see how the book was transferred onto film since we had read both this book and another book of a journalist following Che's same route 45 years later before we started our trip.

Next day David took us to hunt for a laptop as Lynne had a meeting at the Gallery where she is a member of the committee. For those of you who don't know our friends David and Lynne, well David is a project manager in the oil industry that's why they are based in Houston and Lynne is an Artist who has exhibited in many places throughout the world.

Here's a review of a recent show

In the afternoon David and Lynne had invited lots of friends round for a party at the house, including the use of their swimming pool. Lynne had forgotten to tell David about this and he had just put the chemicals in the pool that morning, so we were warned it might not be a good idea to sit too near as we might bleach our clothes. It didn't seem to have any long term effects on the kids who used the pool but they did seem a whole lot cleaner when they came out. This was the first day since we arrived in Houston that we didn't have an afternoon downpour or thunder storm so we all sat outside until about 10 at night. We had got talking to some of the folks, Catriona (an artist from Northern Ireland now living in Houston) and Jeff who was in a band and was into some similar type music as myself. Jeff's band were called Mansion and later he was going to see a friends band in a bar in Houston, so Joanne, Lynne and myself tagged along to Rudyard's to see them. The bands played upstairs in the bar and the place had a similar layout and feel to King Tut's in Glasgow but maybe slightly bigger.

On the Sunday after Lynne made us an enormous cooked breakfast the five of us headed south to Galveston about an hour and a half from Houston. The last time we were in Houston I mainly remember listening to Saturday Night Fish Fry (a New Orleans 60's Soul CD) and Ben Kweller (an Indie Pop Kid) as we drove about but this has all changed now as Gabriel holds sway over the in-car sounds and his personal favourite at the moment is Lisa Loe's "Catch the Moon" with songs like Oh Susana, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star and Joanne's favourite Little Red Caboose.



When we arrived in Galveston we strolled up and down the main street looking at all the shops. We decided it was time to go after going into the Corona merchandise shop where one of the sales assistants was a 50 year old hippie with nothing on but a Corona G-Sting and his flabby saggy butt on view to the whole store. We then drove down to the beach but gave it a miss as it was covered in jetsam and flotsam due to the recent storms.

We headed to the Kemah Boardwalk for food, it's a small town created by a company who owns a chain of restaurants throughout Texas. The town has about half a dozen different restaurants, a fairground, live bands and a hundred other ways to get into your wallet. We ended up having dinner in Joe's Crab Shack which seemed to be wired to the national grid as everyone was acting as if their drinks were laced with Red Bull & Big Reds. At one point the music was pumped up to twice the volume, YMCA was cranked on and all the staff climbed onto the nearest table dancing along with all the moves. After having our massive shrimp platters we rolled out to the boardwalk and wandered about in the surreal never never land of Kemah.


Next morning we bought a laptop an HP Pavilion ze2000 (after some extensive research and price matching). It means we can do a lot of things in our free time that took up some time in the internet caf?. It also has a DVD and a good screen so we can watch some movies on nights we can't find a good theatre or wine bar in some remote corner of the globe. The other big plus has been that I can get new music onto my MP3 player, my brother Andrew sent me about 100 albums that have been released since we left home. These are now on alongside the ones I've ripped from Lynne & David's collection. I would like also to thank Andrew here for all his work on our behalf since we have left - so if you see him get him a pint.

As it was a Monday night we decided to stay in for a quiet one, well we had been partying a bit too hard over the last few days. At about 11:30 out came the old photos and you can guess where the night was going..correct after a few more bottles of wine it was 4:30 in the morning. I think David was slightly late for work that day and the rest of us where suffering, but we had arranged to meet Catriona at a Vietnamese restaurant for lunch. Joanne found hers a bit too spicy but Lynne and I wolfed ours down to soak up the remaining alcohol in our systems. We all then headed to the Contemporary Arts Museum to see a show called "Landscape Collection" Most of the exhibits were good but some were fantastic and my personal favourite is the one that had about $1000 worth of Plastacine attached to a wall in some amazing patterns.

Here's a link to the exibition

We went to the Baseball once David got home as we had managed to get $1 tickets for the four of us by buying some Powerade energy drink. This was Gabriel's and our first trip to the ballpark, well I'm not sure if it's called a ballpark when it's got an enclosed roof, holds 50,000 people and looms over downtown Houston. The game was between the Houston Astros and the Philadelphia Phillies which the Astros went on to win by 2 runs to 1. Before the game I knew next to nothing about baseball, I remember playing softball a few times in the early 90's when my cousin Liam used to run a team in Glasgow. Our seats where that high up the that there called the noseblleds but once we conquered the summit we had a decent view of all the action on the grass and in the stands. There weren't many runs but it was all quite interesting, probably more than I thought it was going to be. I also think Gabriel enjoyed all the razzmatazz and noise as he didn't seem the least perturbed by the crowd clapping and shouting and the large explosion when there was a home run at the end of the game. Luckily the game didn't finish until we had devoured our foot long Hot Dogs and cold beer.

Wednesday morning and it was off to "The Breakfast Club" for the best morning food in Houston. We came here the last time we were in Houston and our memories weren't ruined, with amazing sausage ensembles, glorious French toast and great coffee to wash it all down. After a trip to Target (a bit like Asda but with a better selection of household) to pick up some provisions for the next stage of our trip it was time for me to bail out for a while and go and watch my first live Celtic game since leaving. Lynne drove me to the other side of Houston to a bar called the Bull & Bear which was located in the middle of one of the million shopping units that ring the city. Inside were about 30 to 40 Celtic supporters ready to watch Celtic's first competitive game since Gordon Strachan took over the reigns from Martin O'Neil. Well as some as you might know it wasn't that competitive as Euro giants Artmedia from Slovakia ran out 5-0 winners as the Celtic defence imploded in on itself and the midfield and forwards tried to out do each other in their game of hide and seek. It was a very surreal feeling watching Celtic be hammered in the bar surrounded by Celtic posters and memorabilia and then to head out into the bright Houston sunshine and it took a while for the result to sink in. Mick, who I sold my season ticket for the season, will be asking for his money back or at least a major reduction.

On the Wednesday night we babysat Gabriel to let Lynne and David out for a nice meal together, as the opportunities for unpaid baby-sitters are few and far between due to both their parents being back home in Scotland. Luckily we had no problems once he was down to sleep and Lynne said she would give Joanne a glowing reference if she ever wanted to take up nannying full time. She might have to if she can't get a job back in insurance once we stop this travelling malarkey.

On our last full day we picked up our last supplies and another 90 days worth of Contact Lenses for myself. We also went to an art exhibit which is a house turned inside out and I will stick a photo below to give you an idea what it looked like.


At night Lynne had booked a baby sitter so we could have a night out for the four of us to go for a meal and hit some bars. We went to the Goode Company's BBQ Shack for some more excellent brisket and sausages drowned in a wonderful sauce. Joanne said my plate was as big as Texas but being new to here I dodn't know if she meant that it was big or small. I'm sorry if we have went on quite a lot about the food in Texas but to be honest there has been so many great meals since we have been here that it's hard to name our top ten. We then had a small pub crawl of about 3 or 4 bars before heading into a place near Lynne & David's that they pass every night and see lots of cars outside but never knew what it was, what it looked like or if it was safe to enter. The only marking from the outside was three small 2's in pink neon, this didn't put us off so we headed in to find a rather large room with about 15 to 20 people sitting in the dark listening to some Goth Rock nonsense. We stayed for one drink having cured our curiosity and decided to make our last trip back to McNidder/McCabe residence.


Friday morning it was our sad farewells to Lynne & Gabriel (David was up early for work, so he got his the night before) before heading to the airport. Well it was really sad to leave Texas again and we couldn't have asked for better host but it's back to the hobo lifestyle and back on the road again.