I've been home for nearly a week now and I'm back in the groove!!
So I thought I'd add a little postscript to my trip to Texas!
The Roads: We moan like hell here about the odd pothole in our roads, but by our standards the roads in Houston are absolutely shocking!! You need a massive 4x4 just to get around!!
The Interstates, freeways and main highways are OK, but the general suburban roads are atrocious, made of concrete which generally has broken or shifted making a bad driving surface!
Apparently, Houston was built on marshy ground and has a high water table, so the ground is fairly unstable.
Driving Standards: Pretty bad!! The general theme seems to be that big vehicles have the right of way, so the sight of a big Dodge or Chevvy pickup cutting up smaller vehicles or forcing their way through is fairly common!
Another common sight is people reversing back up an exit ramp to get back on the freeway after they've come off at the wrong exit!!
Drink driving seems to be tolerated, unless you are paralytic. I felt that people had no problem with having a few beers and driving home!
Texting and driving! This is a common sight as is people driving with their mobile clamped to their ear! The Texans obviously know that mobile use while driving can be dangerous as bizarrely there are signs in school zones saying
'The Use of Cell Phones is Prohibited!' Beer!: I imagined before I went that there would be 2 or 3 varieties of freezing piss weak lagers available along the lines of Coors, Miller and Budweiser. Wrong!!
The local had around 20 different draft beers both light and dark. Micro breweries have become common in the US and so many of the beers were local. It took me a while to find one that was any good though, before settling on a pint of 'Lawnmower' which was OK!!
People were moaning that the big breweries were snapping up the more successful Micro breweries and were churning out their products industrially with the inevitable consequences to quality!
Guns: I went to a gunshow as reported which was interesting and strangely had a friendly atmosphere of a village fete!
However I popped into a gunshop just for a quick looky-see and lets just say that the clientele weren't exactly Houston's finest!
There was a 'bargain bin' which was full of old bolt action single shot rifles on sale for $199. One of the salesmen had a lightweight assault rifle slung over his shoulder which I assumed was loaded and was for a fast response!
I didn't feel comfortable and left fairly quickly!
Texas is as flat as a pancake!! With little or no old buildings there is nothing of character and while driving around it all looks very much alike where ever you are!
However most of the people I met were very friendly and hospitable. They seem to like us Brits!!
So a great holiday and I'd like to go back some time! A big road trip around America in a big Yank Tank V8 would be great!!
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Topic: US of A!! (Read 7493 times)