December 16, 2003
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December 2003 Houston, TX
From the air, Houston is flat and currently brown. As you approach the Hobby Int’l Airport, you fly over lots of mobile homes with scads of junky cars and car pieces strewn about their yards. A couple of Jeff Foxworthy jokes come to mind. What’s odd is many people in the suburbs have a swimming pool in their backyard. What’s wrong with the ocean? Is it that far? Or too full of industrial pollution and cargo liners that might squash you?
Austin, TX
Austin is a lot greener. More trees. If you are on a budget and don’t want to rent a car call (512) BLUE-VAN and they will take you to and from your hotel for <$20/roundtrip (pre-scheduled return trip).
On the way to the hotel, I got a quick introduction to the current state of Austin. The shuttle bus driver explains that Austin is at the center of three terrains. To the north is “rich black dirt.” Good farming soil. To the west is a hilly area, which our shuttle driver likened to “Virginia.” New luxury resorts are being built in this area all the time. Unfortunately, the ground is actually a thick bed of rock, so any construction involves blasting the rock. Also, dirt is exported from the “rich black” north and used for landscaping in the west. The area north of Austin used to be expensive land because of agriculture, but now the land to the west is more expensive because of the resorts. It’s always nice to know people got their priorities straight. To the east of Austin is an area that a “glacier carved out.” This area is full of pines.
My ex-boyfriend picked me up at the hotel (Doubletree Club Hotel near MLK and 15th St.) and we drove around the state capitol. I got some gorgeous pictures of the inside of the capitol building, and some pictures of the tower from which some guy sniper-shot a bunch of college students in the age of “peace and free love.”
Austin has a lot of funky bars. Not my thing. It’s way too college-towny for my taste.
Free internet access at the Doubletree Club Hotel. The hotel smells strange too. Not bad. Just strange.
Jason didn’t know what those bells were for.
Comments (2)
travel log?
i was born in Midland although we didn’t stay long enough for me to remember it. dave and i drove through dallas to get to fort-worth where his kids live. i was suprised to see how nice dallas looked, much better than miami, which is mostly slummy.