Ahh it feels good to be back writing (stretching fingers). This is a brief article or blog whatever you want to call it continuation of my solo travel to Texas. So for those of you who are new here, in my younger days (I sound like a dinosaur, cluck cluck… yeah dinosaurs didn’t roar by the way they actually sounded like modern day chickens and in fact… modern day chicken are descendants of dinosaurs… I digress). Back in 2019 I went solo travelling in the US and I spent about 7 days in Texas, Houston to be specific and in those 7 days I covered quite a lot of ground and done a fair bit of activities. Now I’ve already written an article about my Texas trip which was part 1 of this story but there were some bits I wasn’t able to write about due to time constraints for the blog as I wanted to keep things short and sweet. Here however I’ll be sharing some of those untouched bits wink.

 

Run Forest Run!

I can’t remember what day it was exactly but I do know it was early in my trip like day 2 or 3 or so and at this point I was starting to familiarise myself with my surroundings… or so I thought. One thing I learnt pretty darn fast in Texas is you gotta drive to live there. As a Londoner I was adamant on walking most places as I preferred to explore by foot mostly but this wasn’t the city for that.

On google maps there however were a few places nearby in Texan terms but not so much in London terms, meaning they were a shortish drive but a rather far walk. One of them was the tram station. It was at least a good 23 min walk from my place and because of that Texas heat, add a few mins on top. Here’s a video

On this particular afternoon after exploring parts of downtown I was walking back to my airbnb when I heard a few dogs bark. Now it wasn’t anything that I was alarmed by at first as I had been hearing dogs quite a bit during my stay but this one sounded a lot louder than normal. I turned around and lowe and behold it was a dog that was staring right at me and me and I at it, then in an instant it dashed towards me barking viscously. This was the point where the camera normally freezes and plays that narrators voice in your head “It was at this moment he knew he f**d up” but just as as had shown the dog my back pocket ready to leg it I heard someone shout in the distance.

“Yo don’t run, just stand still”. (Im paraphrasing here but the interaction was something along these line).

As I froze the dog came whizzing up to me and took a lunge at but I gently swerved my lower half of my torso out the way then the owner came dashing and grabbed the dog by the leash and started cursing it out saying.

“get yo ass back inside now, stupid dawg” he rotated and said

“my bad yo, I apologise… he be running at people when the is fence open”, I responded rather shakily “yeah no problem” and carried on back to the Airbnb. I remember texting my cousin about what just happend and he was in shock.

It was safe to say from that point on I wasn’t risking it taking many walks and started to rely on uber’s a hell of a lot more.

 

Fireworks all round

In my 1st blog on my solo trip I mentioned that I met up with a guy called Steve and his buddies for some pre drinks on the 4th of July celebration. I met him while I was solo travelling in Amsterdam the year before. As a Brit I was unaware of the festivities on the 4th of July as in the UK it’s just another day. To mark the evening we went to a place called dogwood where they had a good view of the live fireworks on display in an area not too far from the bar. Here’s a photo of me outside.

 

 

To warm up the evening I decided to start of light with a beer. Ordering some drinks at the bar I managed to come under investigation by these two girls who overheard me speaking to the bartender and started to interrogate me on my accent. We had a nice chat but they said they weren’t from the city and offered me a free shot as they were heading to meet some of their friends. The British accent is a form of social currency in the US and although I can do a pretty decent US accent I never quite understood the affinity towards it.

It wasn’t long after when I suddenly felt my phone buzzing. I reached into my jeans and discovered I had two whatsapp messages and a missed call . It was a +1 number, Alexa who I went on a surprise date with 2 days ago. I went outside and dialed back.

We spoke for a few minutes and then she asked if had any plans for the evening. I told her I was out with a few mates just about to see the fireworks and I remember her saying she had been meaning to go see some. Cut long story short I extended an invitation and she mentioned she will be there shortly as she was out already not too far away.

As I went back inside and briefed Steve and the gang I remember Steve saying “mann you smooth, you London guys are quick”.

I nervously replied well not really, it just happened organically and that I was not really looking for anything special with her or the night in general as I was leaving in a few days anyway and wanted to explore some of the nightlife the city had to offer and it’d be better to go with someone than go alone. At this point two people from the group were already leaving to go home (the couple) so it was just myself, Steve and Chad (his friend) at this point of the evening.

Not long after I got a call, it was Alexa saying she was outside. I went to get her and introduce her to the remaining group. We got the next round of drinks and I offered her one which she gladly took.

As the evening went on we got to chatting then finally it was here, the moment we’d been waiting for, the firework show. We saw some sparks go off in the distance, then another big one followed by a bang. I quickly whipped out my phone to try and capture the moment and although I had seen fireworks before at bonfire night, I dunno… there was something different about these US fireworks. They were bigger and better. As I recorded some of the moment I felt a gentle touch on my arm and it was Alexa gently holding onto it and resting her head on my shoulder. I didn’t really say anything as I was okay with it but crossing my mind was the thought of this being the first time she had touched me in that way. I managed to capture some of the fireworks and the song at the background Katy Perry was so fitting of the moment.

 

Not long after the firework displays we took another shot of tequila for the road and we stood outside and waited for Steve’s and Chad’s uber. Just before Steve got in the car he told me “have fun man and be safe yo”. And in fairness he was bang on. When solo travelling safety is your number one priority regardless of who you are with and how much fun you’re having. That sobered me a bit but it was what I needed to hear again. I’ve heard way too many stories of things going left because people were at the wrong place at the wrong time and I wasn’t planning on being one of those stories. I daped him and reciprocated the verbal gesture.

He recommended some places downtown for us to check. It was some swanky looking rooftop sports bar in the city. The drive wasn’t too long about 20 mins or so and I remember when we were in the car us having a nice chat with the driver about the city and what life was like in UK. The driver made fun of beans on toast and just couldn’t wrap his head around it. I was about to show him a picture but I didn’t want to cause a calamity on the road as I don’t know how he could have reacted. Once we arrived at the venue, it was to my surprise just how lively it was.

Here’s a short video of what it was like.

 

 

We spoke about her upbringing on a farm and her moving to the city when she was an early teen. She was doing most of the talking. She had a country accent and if I’m being honest I found it kinda cute.

I know I said earlier brits or at least I didn’t care that much about US accents. Southern ones I did find kinda interesting. She expressed her joys in nature and looking after animals and goes back every now and then. I couldn’t even imagine what that life was like, as the closest thing to nature I had were concrete buildings surrounded by parks and the main animals I’ve seen would rummage through your bins and scream at night when they shag (talking about foxes).

Mid conversation she touched my arm again but this time with a purpose, I know what that touch meant, shortly after we kissed for a bit. It wasn’t a sloppy one but more of a gentle one. It only lasted a few seconds and she mentioned she had wanted to do it before but not in front of company and I remember telling her fair enough. We laughed about it, stayed for a little longer then headed back midtown.

What is that?

 It was towards the end of my trip and I had started to put simply run out of clean clothes. I remember the Airbnb host washing machines wasn’t working that week and me thinking just my luck and he suggested a laundrette a short walk from the place. The place I was staying in I remember had a dog that was the quietest one I’d ever seen. Most mornings while planning my day the dog would be up and just chilling in the sitting room while I watched TV. Here’s a video of the dog.

 

I took my clothes in my rucksack (why am I sounding American for goodness sake, bag I mean) and headed to the place. I remember entering it and the interior being well… like any laundrette really, outdated design with big washing machines and this brownish interior colour. As I spoke to one of the people that seemed to work there on how to operate the machines I realised I obviously didn’t have any detergent. The lady mentioned I can use one that was above a machine she pointed to as sometimes people leave detergent for others to use. I chucked my clothes in the machine and just as I was finished pouring some detergent into the machine a slightly older man comes up to me with a mean look on his face.

Now again I’m paraphrasing here but the interaction went something like this

“Eyy player you didn’t see my shit there” (Starting off with swear words that early on was always a recipe for something).

“No it was empty so I used it”

“Yeah but I got my bag over there man you can’t just swoop in and take my spot player.” (It was on the machine next to it).

I remember him going on a mini rant and talking to himself and then out of nowhere I see a flash of a gun just under his shirt. I’d never seen one that close in my life. It looked so cold and heavy. I managed to deescalate the situation by offering to take my clothes out and using another one and he simply replied “nah just for next time ask a brother I can tell you ain’t from round ere”.

And indeed he was right about that. I wasn’t from around there and if I wanted to be around anywhere anytime soon I learnt a valuable lesson of although things are nice and everything can seem calm, in the USA everything is one trigger away from flipping out over the pettiest of things.

During this conversation nobody jumped in and for obvious reasons. He probably had enough ammo to take out the few of us in the laundrette John wick style and have a couple more bullets in the clip for spares.

I didn’t hang around for too long as it was on a quick wash so I went to grab some popeyes about a 35 min walk the opposite direction to kill the time and when I had finished my meal the cycle was done. Drying the clothes was easy as the Texas sun done it’s job in no time at all.

At this point I had my fair share of Texas and got the full display of all it had to offer. A vibrant nightlife, massive food portions, some of the biggest cars I’ve ever seen and the second ammendment being displayed live in the flesh. The next day was my last night and I remember not spending too much time out as I had an early flight the next day to NYC and just as I was at the airport I got a few messages one from Steve who said it was nice seeing me and one from Alexa who wished me a safe trip and how much fun she had. I replied to both accordingly and was soon in the air off to the big apple.

Dedicating this blog to my friend Naomi.