Houston Texas 2011 (3/4/11)

This is Houston. Check out those four lanes of traffic. This is when I told Robert I wanted to find the famous "Houston Shopping Outlets" 

"Robert, they are meant to be huge!!" I said

"I can't come here and not go to them!"

"How hard can they be to find?? Seriously"

"Look!! Sam Houston Tollway....snap that for my sister....they must be around here somewhere...."

"Hmmm....look at this road....what does the gps say??"

"There is too much concrete.....the gps says nothing!!! This is worse than LA!!!" 

I don't see any outlets.....

So we go one way.....and under, and over....and back again.

So I decide to take photos of trucks.....nobody drives cars, or sedans in Texas. Well, they are few and far between. Everybody drives trucks, so we feel very small in our sedan. Look how wide they are. 

Still no outlets....

We finally found the outlets after Robby went into a little store and asked somebody....it was about 45 miles down the road...oops, a fair little hike from our motel and.....

....after a day of shopping all around Houston at the Outlets which, let me tell you,are nothing like Outlet stores here in Australia. They are AMAZING! They are like real stores, but at bargain prices. Everything is tidy, organised, and they have every size. I had a ball, and bought way too many things.

Then it was time to party with John Mellencamp!!!!!!

Now first off we got dropped off at the concert and I had little flats on. Hmm, then everyone else had boots on. Nobody wears flats in texas to a concert. We are in Texas you know, everyone wears boots. So then we caught another taxi back to the motel so I could get my boots on. Plus I was cold....more to the point.

Then after the concert, we were lucky enough to meet the band. Robert & I have been fans of Mellencamp for years. Our first conversation when we met was about John Mellencamp, so it was pretty cool to actually meet members of the band on our trip. The photo below is us with Miriam Sturm who has been with him for years and plays on all his albums. She was lovely.

This guy loved us Aussies and has also been with John Mellencamp for a long time, Mike Wanchic is his lead guitarist, also a pretty cool guy.

We had a great night, well worth the trip to Houston.

So after a little sleep in, in our groovy motel room, brekky with bagels, coffee, fruit and yogurt. Off we go in our hire car to our next State.....Louisana. Looking forward to that.

Houston, Texas. USA State 8 (2/4/11)

Our next journey was a flight from Rapid City, South Dakota over many states to a short stop over in Dallas, Texas while we jumped on another plane for a short flight to Houston, Texas. Now, I have always wanted to go to Houston, for no real reason other than my maiden name is Houston, my sisters name is Sam Houston, my dad loved everything "American" & "Houston-ified" and the fact that dad has passed and he never did get to go to Houston, and he wanted to go ever-so-bad. 

We also, just happened to have tickets to see John Mellencamp in concert in Houston, so we were very excited. The only down side was, we hadn't booked any accomodation in Houston, just like everywhere else on our trip. (except for our first week of course) so as every other night we were just "winging it" 

We had had such good luck with motels so far, we couldn't see any point in booking ahead this time either.

When we caught the shuttle from the airport to the hire car depot, the driver told us there was a huge premier league basketball competition on in Houston that week so we would have no chance getting a room. Ooops, maybe our luck was going to change, we best get a nice car as we may be sleeping in it.

As it turned out, our handy little Hertz Nav man lead us to the closest motel, in I went and we got the last room for around USD$95 per night, expensive compared to what we had been paying but look at the room! It was huge, and hilarious!!! 

Everything is painted on, the pillars, the curtains....

....the pots, the flowers, the blue sky...not Roberts head though!!

And mirrors everywhere. Even a huge spa bath, all you can eat breakfast, unlimited internet, 100's of tv channels and a king bed All for USD$95 per night. We stayed for two nights :)

Oh, and it was clean, the bed was comfy as. You don't get motels like these in Australia for so cheap! Look at that blue sky!!

See you at the concert tomorrow :)