Yes, we have arrived in Texas !
Another day under the heat to reach Houston and we made it to, guess where, TheMIGroup office in Houston. Huge and busy office! Houston is the fourth largest city in the United States. Traffic in Houston is fairly heavy and I must admit that the first time I drove within Houston, I was a little bit tense. No kidding, everybody is on the cellular phone while driving. This explains the way they drive.
We have visited the Houston Space Center. This is very informative and priced reasonably, especially as we spent over 4 hours there. We were particularly impressed by the rocket that was shown. See pictures on Picassa.
The following day, we headed to Galveston Island about 120 kms away from Houston. We camped two nights in Galveston, the water was really warm, in the nineties (30 degres celsius). The beach at the Galveston Island State Park is not very clean. They leaves the weeds on the beach and the sea vomits all the empty bottles and all kind of debris on the beach. It was just nice to sit in our camping chairs and for a couple of nights, to swim in the waves and in the evenings, to look at the stars and just talk together. We noted that we must not be quite normal, as we were the only aliens playing in the sea...
We had to select between San Antonio, Austin and Dallas. Dallas being our primary goal since the beginning, we have decided to skip San Antonio and Austin, another hard choice. In Dallas, we have JR to visit...
Devita and Steve have a gun collection. It's a secret, don't tell anyone! Alain was like a little boy and looked like John Wayne with his cowboy hat and the rifle and colt. Now, who is the sheriff? lol...
Devita prepared a pumpkin pie that is really amazing ! ... and Devita has kindly agreed to share with you and me. See Places and Faces (one of the side bar on the side of this blog) : Devita's Pumpkin Pie Recipe!
On Sunday, Devita and Steve also took us to a Biker's bar. This is a cultural experience, not to be missed on our section : ''faces and places'' for a Culture Shock. Check also the pictures on Picassa called : Stroker's
September 28, 2010 : Back On the Road Again. Another 488 kms with nice weather, not too hot in direction of Palo Duron Canyon. Scenery has changed from green to almost desertic, with small bushes. We took the small roads today : 380West then 83 North and finished by camping in Paducah. Straight roads most of the times with plains as far as your eyes could see. I have now learnt that this part of Texas is called the Panhandle of Texas, but the people we have asked did not seem to know why.
Alain and I have now bought our motorcycle to motorcycle communication system. At the beginning of the day, we were chatting frequently as we had to test our new toy. We agree now that we have it that it is a good idea, better than the light and hands signal system. As we were riding in all these empty spaces, we stopped talking for long period of times and felt engulfed in the immensities of the scenery. The ground is covered with yellowish grass and when it transpired you can see its ocre, almost reddish colour. It would be boring except that from time to time, you have one curve which barely reminds you that you should be slowing down. We slow down slightly, go up the next small hill and straight ahead again, you have yellowish grass, bushes and shrubs for miles and miles. From time to time, on the side of the road, you see a gate with the name : “Pinco Ranch” and you guess that far away, on that gravel road, there will be a residence. Tomorrow we will try to fold the tent early. We are impatient to see the “Grand Canyon of Texas”.
By the way, we were able to make some pictures of cotton fields. Not sure whether I have said so before, but the United States are the third producer of cotton in the world, behind China and India.
After 244 kilometers to reach Palo Duro Canyon, our first impression was a little bit of disappointment. Alain and I have been to Grand Canyon many years ago and Palo Duro Canyon is much smaller. However, again we set up our tent and decides that on September 30, we would hike some short trails. Our short trails turned into an 18 kilometers hike in the heat, with as usual, not enough water. I should know about the water, but once again, we start with the intention of hiking 6K and end up going somewhere else… In all cases, seeing the Canyon from below is really worth it and the ‘’lighthouse’’ walk is not very difficult and worth it. I forgot to say that this morning we finished the scenic ride and we had to cross some water with our motorcycles. Alain had no problems, went slowly and waited for me on the other side of the water way. Alain had said that I should be going at 30 kilometers per hour and then not slow down. This is what I did ! Alain told me that he could not see the top of my windshield. No kidding, I could not see anything, I rode across and did not slow down. I ended up being soak and wet from top up to the underwear.
By the way, our campsite is located at least one kilometer away from the closest restrooms. Needless to say that it requires organization and planning on how much we are drinking during the day, so that we don’t have to crawl out of our sleeping bags during the night. Mosquitos and flies are bad here, despite us reeking of ‘’Off’’.
We are going to take the road to Amarillo and the historic Route 66. Already working on the next post... soon to follow.
No comments:
Post a Comment