Day 2 - Houston, serious problem !

From the little town of Fort Worth, we gathered our belongings, we stored our laughs and memories, grabbed a very suspect complimentary Cinnamon roll from our hotel, took a stroll along the main street to the " General Store" in which we spent an hour looking through souvenirs and bits and pieces with South humour, anecdotes and innuendos.

 Chey grabbed her stack of 36 postcards and a cowhide cowboy hat and we were on our way to Houston. Taking in mind, our day to departure plan was not entirely set out, and leaving the choice to line dance to the smooth sounds of Willie Nelson was a contemplation of confusion, but alas, we put our heads down and travelled South. To paint the picture, we were all hungover from the previous night of buds, shooters and $2.99 wine, (Meg being the most wounded) we didn't have a properly thought out plan with regards to the activity of the night or accommodation, we were running late on day time and it was 100 degrees Fahrenheit.

The vague idea was to attend the " Freedom of Texas " concert in which google informed us was the largest land based fireworks display in the USA. Sounds good. Cruising along the highway to the sounds of the local channels, which automatically tune in to your area as your drive, we were concernedly entertained by numerous spontaneous pit stops for Meg to, detox, yes that works, to add, not all of them were stops.

We entertained ourselves with conversations so random, few were caught on camera for us to laugh our asses off a few nights later. We stuffed our faces with value meals, because what you were getting for your money was completely worth the fight you have with your stomach about what you putting in it, Wendy's, Mc Donalds and Jack in the Box were our three favourite friends. Arriving in Houston after hours on the long straight highway, it was time to find accommodation. Not paying attention to the timing of this trip, planning in advance for accommodation on the 4th of July was not our priority. After numerous phone calls to search engines entitled " Cheap motels in Houston ", a number of drive by's through areas that looked more dodgy than Point road Durban, as well as Meg receiving the ultimate compliment of being "handled" for a free room at a motel by a guest, who proudly announced himself as a gangsta from Cali.

We landed in our soon to be trusty source of the Motel 6 franchises, cheap, clean and safe.

 Here, we showered and changed and set off to the fireworks, which were to go off at 9:00pm, it was 8:50, we were on schedule. Driving into Houston, traffic was a bitch, highways go every direction, below and above, and all around. Bumper to bumper. Noticing cars pulling off to the side of all the highways, an obvious trend catching like wild fire. Curiously we wondered if they would possibly be stopping to watch the fireworks. Meg jumped out, skipped the foreign Asians and asked a local, and in fact yes, this was the place to be. Still clutching at what was left of our enthusiasm, we eagerly anticipate the largest fireworks display only to squint at the few sparkles in the far distance. Laughs all round, as we pass the disappointment and dive straight into " It's all part of the experience. " Thank goodness us three South Africans were together and could be chilled as any South Africa would be in a moment like this. However, as the show was deemed over we made our way in to the city centre and were treated with an unexpected final fireworks display directly in front of us, it was so overwhelming, we marvelled and smiled and screamed as we did in fact end up witnessing such a beautiful celebration after all.

 The show was over, and my trusty USA handbook, my gift from Cait, directed us to the next must see in Houston, Montrose District. Here, we got lost in the dirty smelly city, made friends with an Indian fella, whom informed us Montrose was full of homosexuals, which after declining his suspicious offer to follow him to a nice restaurant where he would join us, sounded refreshing.

We drove straight into "Slick Willies" parking lot, made a u-turn and ended up at a local place that looked so average we opted for a Jack in the Box and bed. Of course, being Houston, we were approached by our third strange character hinting for a lift home as he had just moved to the city and was lost, hmmm, that was enough. Houston, you left us with traffic, solicitation, junk food, heat and fatigue, thank you, won't come again. If only we listened to our Southern boys and skipped Houston, and if only we knew why we needed to be in Houston that night, stay tuned......