Day 9: Houston, TX to San Antonio, TX

This morning I posted a request on EliseTalk asking for some things to do in Texas. Lo and behold someone responded saying that there was a LOST (Lotus Owners of South Texas) meet about 10 minutes away in 2 hours time! We got our stuff together and headed over. We knew we were on the right track when a black Elise appeared behind us, and arrived in a three car convoy.

LOST are a wonderful bunch of people and welcomed a couple of outsiders warmly (I suppose that made Jared and I The Others). There were a good dozen people there driving mainly Elises, with a Seven and a couple of Esprits too.

From 2007 USA Elises

They had their meeting and we convoyed over to a British pub for lunch. The drive was quite fun. Most of the time I was following the V8 Esprit which sounded phenomenal. I captured a ChaseCam video of it, but am still scuppered by the faulty CF reader so how it turned out will be a mystery until I get a new one. I am praying that the card itself hasn't gone bad as I have taken a lot of video so far that remains stranded on it.

The food was good and the company even better: "Everybody say warranty"

From 2007 USA Elises

As we were leaving someone noticed that Jared had a sizable piece of metal sticking out of his rear left tyre. We had to make a stop at a repair shop and after the usual lecturing on how to correctly jack up the Elise they removed the offending item. Thankfully it hadn't punctured the tyre and we were soon on our way.

The LOST crew had given us some good tips on how best to cross Texas, including one suggestion that we should 'drive to Houston airport and catch a flight to New Mexico'. Reassuring stuff indeed for the days ahead, but we also managed to collect some terrestrial tips and updated the route once more. Today's plan was shortened to a relatively short drive to San Antonio where we would stay tonight.

From 2007 USA Elises

The weather was cooler today; a welcome change from the hot and muggy last few days. Storms were threatening in Houston but towards San Antonio it was really pleasant. We arrived in the city in the tourist section which is a really nice area. It's refreshing to see a US city geared towards pedestrians. We visited the Alamo:

From 2007 USA Elises

It reminded me of the joke the late, great Brian Glover told in An American Werewolf in London:
There was this aeroplane over the Atlantic on its way to New York, and it was full of men from the United Nations. So halfway over the ocean the engines run low on petrol, so they have to lighten the plane. So they heave out all the baggage, but it's still too heavy. So they chuck out all the seats, but it's still too heavy. Finally, this Frog, he steps up, shouts "Vive la France", and leaps out. Then an Englishman, he steps up, shouts "God save the Queen", and he leaps out. But the plane is still too heavy. So the Yank delegate, from Texas, he steps up, shouts: "Remember the Alamo", and chucks out the Mexican.

Hotels in the city were pretty expensive apparently due to a boxing fight, so we traveled north for a while past the airport and found a really nice, quiet place for a more reasonable price. As we were arriving at the hotel we finally saw our first other Elise driving around. It only took almost 3000 miles, 9 days and 13 states!

We couldn't pass on a good old Texan meal. I almost made it through an enormous chicken fried steak and some nice large margaritas (I made it through the drinks, just not quite the food).

From 2007 USA Elises

More Texas to come tomorrow...

Day 8: New Orleans, LA to Houston, TX

New Orleans by day and New Orleans by night are so different they are, well, night and day. The older one gets the more enjoyable the days are over the nights., at least for me There is always something going on but we really struck gold as the New Orleans French Quarter Festival started on Friday. Music and food all over the place.

From 2007 USA Elises

From 2007 USA Elises

Here is a little video of a jazz band playing.

We milled around there for a couple of hours, eating different dishes and listening to some great live music. One thing is for sure: the cities following New Orleans are going to have to do pretty well to match that. I actually experienced the first bit of sadness leaving New Orleans as we were leaving when a great event was starting. Also I had been there less than a year ago for the wedding of some good friends of mine and a wave of nostalgia for that great time swept over me.

But...nothing gets you over the last like the next, and we headed onto Houston. The drive there was made to feel longer than it actually was due to another thunderstorm but more so by the awful road between the two cities (I10). Not much happened during the drive. After entering Texas I was expecting to see more adventurous food, but was still a little aghast to see a big sign advertising a "Human Buffet". After some scrutiny I realised the M was just a really poorly crafted N.

Regarding the itinerary, we have decided to not go to Dallas. We played with the idea of taking the long trek through south Texas to El Paso, but after gathering a number of opinions we will do one day in San Antonio, then take the hill roads to Austin, and then go north west through Texas, staying in somewhere like Abilene or Lubbock, and then onto Santa Fe.

Some people have been asking where the in-car footage is. I have taken quite a bit of it, but the compact flash reader I bought in Panama City has stopped working already, so it is all stuck on the card still. I am not taking any more for fear of overwriting the earlier clips. As soon as I get a new way of retrieving the clips I will put some up.

From a technological struggle to a triumph: I have started using my phone to record little voice memos to myself when on the road as reminders when writing the blog. They are extremely handy, especially given my awful memory. Since learning this Jared suggested I do one day's blog as a podcast. It's an interesting thought, and if I can stay eloquent and interesting for sufficient time I may do one. Every voice memo I have recorded so far starts with "also..." which is really starting to annoy me, so I would have to fix that first :)