Texas: where a billboard advertisement for ‘work clothing’ features a cowboy boot, ‘y’all’ replaces ‘you’, and the trucks are as big as ever. So far so good, in terms of satisfying the cliche.
But there have also been some surprises. After being warned that Oklahoma roads would be bad, Texas has given us the noisiest and most pothole-ridden roads so far. Texas is known for being dry and hot, but now in winter it is not even warm enough to take off your winter coat. And I’m not sure the trucks are any bigger than the ones you see in California.
In Dallas we picked up my college friend, Susan, who has joined us for our Texas adventures. We toured the Dallas Arboretum, which featured a house with over 500 nativity scenes made out of every material you can think of: wood, glass, ceramic, wool, metal, straw, etc. I found myself wondering why my father hasn’t yet thought to start collecting these... Please, nobody give him the idea!
We walked through the hip district of the city, which was interesting, but the highlight of the day was by far the BBQ dinner at Pecan Lodge. Susan’s friend and Dallas local recommened the place. I asked him how he knew it. He answered that everyone in the city knows it. I can understand why. The brisket and pulled pork were simply fantastic. When you’ve had this one, no future BBQ compares. And I really mean that — we tried BBQ again later in Houston, but it just wasn’t the same.
2nd place in terms of Dallas food goes to the burritos at Freebirds, also recommended by a Dallas native. I’m ashamed to say I missed taking a photo of the BBQ, but please enjoy the photo of Andrejs halfway through devouring an enormous burrito.
I would like to say I got a good feel for Austin, but that would be a lie. We celebrated New Years there (Happy 2019, everyone!), with Susan and another two friends from California.
We did nothing particularly interesting for a few days, which was actually very nice. Highlights included really good vegan tamales, an Eastern European store that sold Russian nut cookies, and being gifted not one, but two pairs of socks! (Yay for friends who know I love socks.) Oh, and just talking with friends — that was a highlight, too. We also watched a Russian documentary called “The Road”, made entirely from dashcam footage. I recommend it to anyone interested in Russia or car crashes.
Arriving in Houston, it was obvious that Houston is a big city. It is in fact one of the largest cities in the U.S. in terms of area. Massive highways with incredibly complex crossings criss-cross the city. Whereas Kansas featured anti-abortion ads, the Texan highways overwhelmingly feature ads for injury lawyers. You also frequently spot enormous U.S. flags. After a while you realise they are always by a car dealership. It’s as if buying a car or truck is the most patriotic thing you can do, whether you’re buying an American brand or not.
I enjoyed the butterfly house, where I also admired an incredibly dainty, enormous spider. (No, I don’t want one as a pet.) The space centre was also somewhat interesting. I look super happy in the photo, but that’s because we were joking that I just had to think about the huge, cool spider that we saw earlier.
The Houston highlight, though, was definitely the basketball game. We went to see college basketball: the Houston Cougars vs. the Tulsa Golden Hurricane. It’s interesting to think that the game had all the trappings of a professional sports game— the national anthem before the game, a large stadium, over 20 cheerleaders, a band, mascots, flags, announcers and music — but these players are unpaid college kids. In return for a university scholarship, these kids must bring in the university quite a lot of money.
The other striking thing was how heavily the Tulsa team was denigrated. Each player of the local team was announced with much fanfare, but the Tulsa team players weren’t even named. Tulsa was booed, heckled, laughed at and ignored. This was taking home team favouritism to a new level that I have not seen before. At ice hockey in Riga, the visiting Russian team was definitely not treated as badly as this. In the end, Houston won with a decent margin (74:56), but both teams were quite impressive.
As our travels take us further east and into the Deep South, with Christmas well and truly over, we also took the step of de-Christmas-ing our car, Jack. The antlers are off and Jack is now just Jack again.
But since we keep spotting cars with antlers, I find myself thinking that maybe we should have kept them on all the way to Florida…
Having only been to Houston before, it’s been interesting to get a different view of Texas. Still, it feels like I have only scratched the surface of this huge state, such that Texas is definitely a state I would return to. And I’ll have to come back to Dallas for more of that BBQ!