July 2001

ihana.com - big trip - diary - usa - july 2001

 

In the back of Heartbreaker Garys new truck

Mon 22 - Fri 27 July

We both had pretty negative preconceptions of the US before we got here, after 5 days here some of the things we expected are worse, some better.

The night before we flew out from London was a typically drunken affair with us ending up totally pissed and drinking cocktails with two of Barry's friends, Anna and Gareth, until it was very light outside. We made check-in by 4 minutes after snatching a bit of sleep on the Gatwick express. We flew to Detroit first on an old Tristar which was awful, we could see Greenland below for part of the flight which was awesome - huge glaciers flowing into clear blue lakes dotted with icebergs.

Things were far from icy when we landed in the concrete metropolis of Detroit, it was hot and humid and we knew Houston was going to be worse. The flight down there was made more interesting by the prescence of a stereotypically huge american college kid, who was so fat that the armrest of his seat wouldn't go down. He spent the whole trip drinking from a bucket of coke and playing his gameboy complete with a mini street lamp attached to it. A Colombian taxi driver took us from the airport so we got some spanish practice in straight away - he mentioned Columbia might be dangerous at this time of year!

On Monday, after a nutritious hotel breakfast of 'coffee' (sludge), OJ (additives) and the real cornerstone of the american diet - iced donuts, we called the import agent to see how the Landy was. It was already here, a day early, which was good news however its now Fri 27th and it still hasn't cleared bloody US customs.

Houston is a bit strange, no people around on the streets, very impractical to walk anywhere due to lack of pavements and the enormous distances between each landmark. So we set off walking to find a computer shop, got roasted in the heat, saw almost nobody (except in cars) and found no handy corner shops to stock up on drinks. We did find a drive-through cashpoint on the way to the computer shop, where we drew a blank but it was near a car rental place so we got ourselves some wheels. This turned out to be the essential thing to do - and we now had air conditioning too. There were two black girls in the hire place who were chatting us up and wanted to come with us to Mexico, we decided to decline the offer after one asked "do y'all got black people in London?".

We escaped Houston after experiencing the rocking Monday nightlife, but at least we found a good bar with a knowledgeable barman who served decent beer. We headed down to Galveston to be near the port for picking Landy up (optimistic), doing handbrake turns on the beach in the hire car and to check out the Gulf of Mexico. We bought a top digi camera and laptop for next to nothing for sorting the webby stuff, both of which work very well, and discovered Starbucks coffee houses are quite wicked once you've mastered the art of ordering your "tall latte with extra fat free foam". Things started to come together a bit better on Wed. when we were fortunate enough to meet some funky new friends - Wendy, Mad Manny and 'Heartbreaker' Gary - who have given us a much better impression of the American people. Manny generously let us stay in his place and we've been introduced to almost everybody in Galveston.

Thank our lucky stars (or is that the lone star of Texas?) that we met Manny and co or we'd be really in the shit. His apartment is a really cool place to be stuck, its full of mad antiques and huge animal heads sticking out of the walls!

So we're chillin down here in Galveston 'til Mr. Customs Man manages to sign the relevant bit of paper... although Manny says sometimes they just keep stuff if they take a real liking to it! We took a trip to Wal Mart today in a Caddy to stock up on beers and food.

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