Detour

Still moving towards Austin, our GPS thing, which is currently directing us in the voice of Darth Vader, sent us on a weird detour into the countryside. We drove along on old dirt roads through dried up farms and plains for a good while, wondering what infact we were doing there. The smell of oil here was completely overwhelming to the point of becoming a stench but the landscape was pretty. We understood the stench when we saw an old fashioned oil pump on a field besides us. Soon it became apparent that all these farmers had pumps and some even refineries on their land. It seems to fit in with the whole idea of being as independent and selfreliant as possible. Texas...

One for Mom

On our continued trip towards Austin we took a little swoop around Houston. It's really quite impressive in an odd way, with all those shimmering monoliths... and I instantly thought of mom. When I was a kid, she and all other women present in our house were always plastered to the tv when Dynasty was on. These pictures are for mom :)

Daaam dadaaaaa ... Daaam daaAAaam dadaaaa ... daaa daAAAAA daaadaa daaaa, daam dam dadadaaaaa dadadaaaa... daaa daaaaaa ... dada daaa daaaaaaaa... dam dam daAAAAAa dadaaaaa damdam daa daaaa.... dididadidadidaa dididadidadidaaa dididadidadidaa dididadidadidaa .....

She watched Dallas too!

Driving through Texas

We had a very long drive from New Orleans, through the beautiful swamps in Louisiana and into Texas. It was an inspiring and fascinating landscape... poor Ivan who has to drive all the time couldn't look around as much as I, but I think we both enjoyed it a lot.

We figured we had probably entered Texas, when oil refineries started appearing everywhere around us.

The smell of it where in the air most of the time, now more than ever the smell of money. We drove far into the evening. Allthough signs became harder to read, it was a very pleasant time to be on the road. Less traffic and less of the crushing heat that bakes our brains during the day. And the refineries and highway bridges looked quite fantastic in the failing light.

When we finally parked for the night it had been pitch-dark for a long time. We dragged our bags into the LaQuintas Inn or something like that, just outside of Houston and collapsed into yet another pair of beds in a nondescript hotel.