Travelling through Houston on the freeway
We had chosen to go "up market" and give a resort RV park a go. At $40 a night we were hoping by paying more we may get better weather to go with it? No such luck it rained as usual but with one advantage, it was warm! Warm by American standards, not warm as we know it back home but anything over 12 Celsius is a bonus!
The Park View from on top of our trailer
Our first day was met with flood warnings for Houston. This area has been in drought for quite a few years so the rain would be a welcome relief for them. We were glad we could oblige and bring the rain with us! We had planned to go to the city centre of Houston but with flood warnings present we opted to do something more local and visited an historic place called "Old Spring" just 5 miles down the interstate.
We arrived and it was wet, yes wet,wet, wet. Will we ever see the sun again? So we jumped flooded gutters and visited a few of the standard shops - you know the ones women love and men hate. A fudge shop, now that's new, oh look a doll shop, never seen one of them before? And of course there was a candle making shop and a shop with all that expensive tacky crap you don't need. We flicked them and make a bee line for the German shop. Rose and I have a tradition where each Christmas we buy a hand blown glass bird for our Christmas tree each year. It's a German thing. So we went in and asked the lovely German girl about them. She knew exactly what we were talking about and dragged them out of the stock room where they had been put for next Christmas. I am sure she never expected to sell any more of them in mid January.
Rose holding a select item from the German shop
We headed for the Amish shop and ended up talking to the owner and his assistant about the USA and Australia, in particular the Australian gun laws. The slim 22 year old assistant packs a .38 in her car as well as owning several other firearms, now we are amazed. She told us a story of being pulled up by the police, no worries she said, put your hands in the air, declare you have a gun and the police are happy, just no sudden moves and all will be ok, just another day for a citizen of Texas.
Next stop was the "Jailhouse Saloon" - can't not stop at a place with a name like that! The Saloon had a heavy wooden door and was dark with no windows inside. We were made welcome and every time someone new walked in we were introduced - Aussies in a place like this was obviously not a common event. We met some really lovely people including a couple from Missouri who we may catch up with later in our travels. The bar maid came from a place called "Hell", and she was very proud of that fact. There was also the resident cat called Harley who slept on the Harley Davidson bike which was placed high above the bar. This bar is quite unique, it is called an "Ice House" which means that the licence they hold enables them to sell beer and wine, but not spirits. A customer can however bring their own liquor into the bar and pay only for the mixer and the ice to go with it. Got to love the USA.
The lovely people we met at the Jailhouse Saloon, John and Adele (centre) and the barmaid from "Hell" in the state of Michigan (left)
The storage room is the old cell
The resident cats name is "Harley" and she sleeps on the Harley atop the bar
After a few inexpensive rounds of drinks we headed home, excited that sunshine was being predicted for the following day.
- Posted by RnR on their IPad
Location:Spring Creek,Spring,United States
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