Texas - The Lone Star State
Archers Holidays, June 2014
Today we had to have bags out at 7.30am on the bus for 8.30am. We headed down for breakfast at 7.15am and were able to find a table. They had the usual stuff for breakfast, pancakes, sausage, scrambled eggs, breakfast potatoes, toast and bagels. Paul had some oatmeal but it was even thicker than yesterday so I gave it a miss.We set off at 8.30am.
Our first stop was at a truck stop called Buc-ees. It was a very large truck stop, with all kinds of food and snacks on sale as well as car stuff, camping stuff you name it. It was huge. In here - it's a miracle! - they had small stuffie shirts. Their mascot is Buc-ee the Beaver and he has his own t-shirts. They weren't great looking shirts but I did try one on as it's not often I find stuffie shirts on my travels. Unfortunately, I couldn't get one over my head. (Don't say it!)
Back on the bus we continued on to our lunch stop in Columbus. I'm not sure what's here - I know there's a college team called the Cardinals (dunno what sport) as Wal-mart were selling a lot of stuff with their name on it! We had eighty minutes for lunch here so we moseyed around Wal-mart and bought some bargain DVDs, some bargain Disney fabric and some bargain drugs (nothing dodgy!) Oh, and I got some cookies for the folks on the bus! It's traditional.
We were soon back on the road, arriving at the JP Morgan Chase Tower. This tall building was completed in 1981 and is 75 stories high. It was originally planned to be 80 stories, but the Federal Aviation Authority restricted this and future buildings as hazardous to air navigation. Eek!
The Sky Lobby can be found on the 60th floor, which is open to the public for great views over the city of Houston.
Then we headed underground, into Houston's tunnel system. These are subterranean, climate-controlled, pedestrian walkways underneath downtown Houston. We didn't really have time to explore, but it sounds like a great idea with so much hot weather.
We drove through the city to take a look at the medical district with all types of specialist hospitals and medical facilities.
They have a pretty silver light railway through the city.
On our way we caught a glimpse of the Houston Astrodome (below centre) and the NRG (formerly Reliant) Stadium (below right).
We continued on to our hotel, with the Galleria Mall being pointed out not too far away. We were staying at the Drury Inn and Suites near the Galleria, Houston.
The room was nice and big, with two beds, flat screen TV and the like and, of course, our Kickbacks! I graded this as four Teds in my notes, but can't remember why - just trust me!
We mostly stayed long enough for our three included drinks and a few light snacks before we set off to walk to the Galleria Mall and, more importantly, Cheesecake Factory
which was alongside. It took us twenty-five minutes to walk there, so we were pretty hot when we arrived. Fortunately, unlike many other Cheesecake Factory restaurants, there was no waiting when we arrived and we were seated upstairs almost immediately.
When we ordered it turns out they'd run out of veggie burgers! They did, however, let Di order a Portobello Burger - which is a giant mushroom on a bun - even though it's no longer on the menu. She had asked for it without mayo and when it arrived it had some on it, so she had to send it back to get it scraped off, but then it was okay. Paul had chicken samosas and I shared Dave's pizza with everything on it - oh and some of Di's fries, of course, which were very good.
The service was reasonable and friendly but the lack of veggie burgers and mayogate meant I dropped em a Ted. We decided to take our dessert, Red Velvet Cheesecake - chosen by my Twitter pal Dani @princessandtoad - back to the hotel as we were stuffed, but we figured this time we'd get a taxi, we didn't want our cheesecake (or us!) getting heatstroke after all. As we headed outside a taxi pulled up so we grabbed it and got in.
It was just a five minute drive back to the hotel where my cheesecake and I settled in for the night.