Legends of the Road

Back in the early days of my American adventure, I was joined by a couple of Brits to undertake the first annual road trip. Since then I've taken the whole road tripping idea quite seriously, travelling with Allison down to Utah, and taking in some of the Northeast, solo. But we all knew the time would come for a second installment with the same crew, and a few weeks ago, it happened. In the South.


It all started in a little town called Dallas. Actually, it started in next-door Fort Worth, with which Dallas shares an airport. But whereas Dallas was all grassy knolls and ten-gallon hats, its neighbour felt surprisingly like an American Croydon, replete with mega-pubs and hen nights. Fort Worth was however notable for one thing in particular: the first one-armed waitress of the trip. We saw only the one one-armed waitress last year, but this early sighting gave us a lot of hope that we might set a new record this time out.

From DFW we headed South, to the college town and state capital, Austin. (Do you know your state capitals? Some surprises in there.) Brilliant city, though it was disappointing to've missed Henry there by just a few months. Luckily, he left friends behind, and S guided us to some decent food, local beer (Firetruck 5? Fireman's 4? I don't think I ever mastered it) and superb country music. But it turns out that Austin's not just about country music, and is somewhat well known for its indie scene. Here I am in front of Daniel Johnston's landmark:


So, yeah. Texas was going well. And I should mention that thanks to William Shatner and Priceline, we'd been for the first two nights staying in some pretty swanky hotels. You might even say the best hotels.

That was all to change in Anahuac, TX.