My trip to Texas (April 2-4, 1999)
Back to Fabian's
At first this trip over the Easter break was supposed to go to Florida, but instead it turned out as a car journey through Texas. I went with a Dutch guy, Jelle, and a Croatian guy, Zlatan, in a rental car to Houston, San Antonio and the Capitol of Texas, Austin. Here is what happened.
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Houston
Friday 990402 I went to get the car at 7:30 am at Enterprise Rent-a-car on Pinhook Street in Lafayette. I took my bicycle over there and I exchanged the bike for a green Saturn, American car of course. I wanted to drive American since I am where I am. It was nice to drive again, even though it was an automatic. I went back to Voorhies to get the others and we left at 8:00 am. The first stop was Albertson's in lafayette because we needed breakfast and film for Jelle's camera. After that we were on our way towards Houston and Texas. Driving in America is kind of easy, the Interstate 10 to Houston had two lanes and it went almost straight forward all the time. The landscape is almost flat, a little hilly here and there, with trees and large fields. When we approached Houston the skyline could be seen in the Horizon some miles away from the city itself. It was a astonishing view, the sky scrapers towering towards the sky right out in the middle of nowhere it seemed. As we closed up on the city they grew in size and the Interstate went from 2 lanes to 3, to 4, to and finally to 6 lanes when we came into Houston. There where roads in several levels too to make it more confusing. We did not know where to go so we just went off the Interstate when we thought we were close enough to the sky scrapers. We first ended up in the ghetto, but we just cruised through it and parked our car on San Jacinto in the down town area. The first stop was a mall called The Park Shop, it had several levels and all kinds of stores and shops. We had lunch at a chicken fast food stand, very good. I had rice with fried chicken and vegetables and a hot sauce to go with it. Then we walked around in the mall. We found a drugstore and I bought post cards and we got directions to the Galleria. The Galleria is a huge mall in Houston, Jelle had been to that before on a brief visit to Houston and he wanted to go there again for the shopping, me too. We got what we wanted and then I went to a sports shop and found basketball shoes real cheap, they had a 50% off the prize sale. After the mall visit we went around the sky scrapers, they were mostly oil company officies and officies in general. There were not so many shops around in the down town area. We went to a park where a fair was in progress, but they wanted to charge us to get in so we went and sat on a bench in front of the City Hall instead. We talked about the war in Yugoslavia, AIDS and sexlife in Lafayette. When we walked back we found a Foley's store and I bought myself 2 pairs of Levis jeans in there. Everything in Houston is big, and we soon found out that size really does matter in America. After walking around for a while we decided to go to the Galleria. We took the car and followed the directions we had received and after a while of driving around we managed to get on the right street and find it. We parked beneath the building itself and walked up. Fisrt we went to Planet Hollywwod, a resturant with items from different movies hanging on walls and spaces around the resturant. We did not eat but we saw all those outfits, iteams, dolls, creatures, models and things used in movies from the past. The Galleria was huge, multilevel and several blocks big. We did not manage to cover it all. There were all shops and stores you can imagine, a shopper's paradise. I bought some X-pants at Structure and we ate dinner at a sports bar named Shuckers. At this point we decided that this weekend was going to be a basketball weekend. We stayed at Shuckers and watched Phoenix Suns take on Los Angeles Lakers. Lakers beat Suns with 91-90 after a late shoot by Glen Rice in the Fourth quarter. We talked to some guys that also had come to Houston for a good time, they were from Los Angeles. Father and son it turned out. Our waitress, Julie, was very nice to us. She gave us directions to a cheap hotel and to another sports bar. There were to be 2 games played on Sunday and we thought about coming back to Houston and watch those. But Shuckers was going to be closed for Easter Sunday, so Julie gave us those directions just in case. After the ball game we went to the hotel, but it was not so cheap at all, $80 per night. We decide to head westwards on Interstate 10 towards San Antonio and find a cheaper place in the outskirts of Houston. We did, Fairfield Inn for $60 a night with breakfast, TV and inside pool. We watched Portland Trailblazers take on Seattle Supersonics on the hotel TV. Blazers won easily with 107-95. After that Jelle and Zlatan went down to the pool and I wrote my post cards. That was the end of the first day.
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San Antonio
Saturday 990403 I woke up at 7 am and went up. Jelle and Zlatan stayed in bed for a while. I dressed and went down for breakfast. It consisted of muffins, juice, serial and milk, an apple and a croissant. Not very nutritious but it filled me up. After some time I managed to get the others going and we went to the car and drove for San Antonio. The road looked the same as the day before and we got there around lunch time, plenty of time to check out the city. We parked and started off on foot. The wheater was hot,suppressingly hot. We walked down the Riverwalk, a river running through the heart of the city with sidewalks where people sold all kinds of craft, art, junk, refreshments and things. In the river the city ran riverboats with guides all the time. There were a lot of resturants along the river and I wanted to eat. But it was expensive, we thought, so we went to McDonalds (!) instead, could not find a Burger King. Then we waled the streets and I found a drugstore where I could get more post cards, we bought ice cream in a ice cream shop. This was expansive but we wanted it bad because of the heat outside. We tried to make our way to the Alamo (the fort) and we passed a big mall called the Riverside Center. So we decided to shop again, I got myself a hooded sweater. Then we found a band from Peru playing in the center of the mall. We sat down for a while and listened to the music. Just relaxing in the shade. After that we tried to find the Alamo and we did. The fort was situated right in the middle of town and it was free to go in and see the insides of it. It is a museum and it displays the history of the fort and the Mexican-American war that took a turning point at that place. We later passed a wine store where we tried free wine for a while and then we entered a contest to win a Ford Mustang GT in the Riverside mall. The people was very friendly and we had a nice afternoon in San Antonio. The town was very pretty, with the architecture, the river, the atmosphere, a huge difference from Houston with its sky scrapers. The skyline of San Antonio was not by far as impressive as Houston's. Instead the building were more older and had distinctive features,it looked more like Europe then any other place I have seen in America. We went back to the mall and listened to the band from Peru again. At 5 pm we started back to the car,it was time to go top the Alamodome and watch the NBA game between San Antonio Spurs and Los Angeles Clippers live. This had been the main reason why I went on this trip and the expectations were high. We got there early and once inside we ate some fast food and then went down into the half of the arena where they had all kinds of basketball activities for everybody who wanted to play around. I tried dunking, shooting 3-pointers, measuring my height and jumping skill and at half time I threw a baseball and got my throwing speed measured (58 mph, the best of the three of us). The Alamodome was splitted in half, it takes around 70,000 people at once, but for the basketball games they divide it in half, on one side is the game with 35,000 spectators and on the other were the Fan Fiesta, where you could play around. Once again the Americans showed that huge is what counts. We had seats behind one of the baskets, a good view of the whole arena and the game. We moved from our seats to some that had a even better view when the game started. I was pumped with excitement, this was going to be my first real and live NBA game. I did not believe it, it was unreal, the teams warmed up and I went down and took pictures on the players in close up from the courtside. Just amazing all of it. Then the intro started with the starting line ups, it was loud, powerful, exciting, thrilling, fun and I had goose bumps all over my arms. They conducted the national anthem of America, everybody standing up of course. The atmosphere was amazing, you could feel it with all your body and I was in Heaven for 2 hours. The game started and Spurs took charge right away and stayed in control for the reminder of the game, it was not very exciting from a game point of view but I was thrilled just the same. 17,925 people watched the game and they made it known through out the battle for the win. It was an unforgetting experience and know I am looking forward to the next one, whenever that will be. After the game we tried to find a cheap hotel, and we did, $50 for the night but without breakfast this time. The guys wanted to go to McDonalds again to eat, but I stayed in the room and wrote my post cards. We went to bed and one of the huge days of my basketball life came to an end. Me at my first NBA game ever. Guess who is happy? [above right]
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Austin
Sunday 990404 I woke up late but before the others. The time had turned into summer time over night so we had lost an hour by that. I dressed and went to fill up the car and have something to eat. when I got back we took off northwards to Austin. Again the road looked the same, 2 lanes, but we were on Interstate 35 instead of 10. Since it was Easter Sunday there were not to many stores open in Austin. We parked and started off on foot as usual. We walked the city and looked for a place to eat, but we found the Capitol instead. We walked over there and went inside. This was a huge building with a similar look to it as the White House. Really impressive architechure. After that we asked for directions to a Burger King but did not get any good directions so we went down town again. We asked some guys that were just hanging out at a bus stop and one of them, Sean, joined us and showed us a way to a Hooters resturant. Hooters for all you that do not know what it is and do not whatch the Al Bundy show I will tell you what it is. This is the place that every guy dream about, they have good food, TV:s that shows sport and girls waiting the tables in mini skirts and tight tops. It is just the place to be. Our waitress name was Faith and she was very friendly, she talked with us and hung out at our table when she did not work with something else in the resturant. It is kind of hard to concentrate on the food in such a place. We stayed there for the reminder of the first basketball game. Indiana Pacers went up against New York Knicks and beat them with 108- 95. Sean, Jelle and Zlatan talked about Amsterdam and drugs. I did not find the conversation very interesting since I am against drugs. Later I drove Sean to a place called the Backdoor and after the basketball game we went over there. They had pool tables and we played a few games and watched the second game of the day at that place. Seattle Supersonics played Houston Rockets and Gary Payton had a huge game to lead the Sonics to a victory over the Rockets with 101-84. It was time to leave Austin and get back to Lafayette. We had a 6 hour drive ahead of us and I took the first run. It was dark and we had some rain falling down every now and then on us. We stayed at a Burger King outside of Houston to eat dinner. Then Zlatan took the wheel and I slept the rest of the way. We came to Lafayette at 2 am. Everybody was tired and we all went to our rooms around campus and went to sleep. That almost concluded the trip. The Capitol of Texas, it is in Austin. [above right] Monday 990405
At 7:30 am I had to bring the car back and when I got there I found out that we had overrun our milage and were forced to pay another $70 for that. Not a good way to start a day. I biked home and went to bed again. I woke up after lunch, had a crappy breakfast consisting of candy and water since money was running low. I did some mailing and worked on my homepage. Later I bought some dinner and watched another basketball game on my newly bought TV. Detroit Pistons battled Indiana Pacers and it turned out to be a tight good game which the Pacers won by 88-86. I think this is enough for this time. I had a really good time, spending money and watching basketball all over Texas and Lafayette. San Antonio was my favorite town of the three we visted because of its similarity to Europeen cities and the nice atmosphere in it. The live basketball game did its part too I guess. That is all. Fabian
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Jelle and Zlatan in front of our Saturn.
Me and Jelle in the park in front of the City
Hall of Houston. [above]
Jelle and Zlatan among the skyscrapers. [above]
A view over the Riverwalk in San Antonio [above, below]
More of that Riverwalk. [above]
Zlatan in front of the Alamo, the famous fort. [above]
Tiny Zlatan and Jelle in front of the huge Alamodome. [above]
The warm up before the game. [above]
David Robinson is practising his free throws. [above]
The Spurs are getting warmed up. [above]
The Clippers are also getting into the game. [above]
Game on! [above]
I just love these pictures, and the game of basketball. [above]