Houston we have a problem ...... but only a little one

So here we are, 4 days after arriving in Houston, but still waiting for Foot Loose Lucy's ship to come in.

 We have had a hard 3 months of it, completely decorating the house from top to bottom and removing all our goods and chattels into storage, this alongside all the travel and shipping arrangements, not forgetting insurances for every possible eventuality. Three days before departure we had the pleasure of meeting our new tenants, who are moving down from Scotland with their 3 delightful children and Labrador. The main selling point was undoubtedly the zip wire, tree house and secret hidey holes!

 The flight was uneventful but there were questions asked at a very senior level as to why we were flying to Houston via Istanbul. Alan justified it on the grounds of price, it was a couple of hundred pounds a ticket cheaper, but had to admit that, as we were looking at the map monitor on the Turkish airline flight about 7 hours after we set off from Heathrow and it showed we were passing over Bath, he had probably dropped a bit of a brick. Sue was uncharacteristically restrained and didn’t go on about it for more than about 10 minutes.

 We managed to time our arrival just ahead of a massive electrical storm which went on all night. We woke up to a complete power cut which meant that the shower didn’t work, the flush on the toilet didn’t work, the water in the sink didn’t work and when we went down to breakfast there were only cold hard boiled eggs and some unidentifiable cereal and, of course, no tea or coffee. So, far from our night in a hotel being a bit of luxury it turned out to be a little bit like being in the third world. The rain continued to fall in stair rods and we realised from later news reports that Houston was experiencing a major flood event, 17 inches of rain falling in less than 24 hours

 We did think that probably our adventures would start once we get across the Rio Grande in Mexico but it appears that fate has decided otherwise.  The bad weather has resulted in the ship docking late and a massive backlog at the port. Regular updates from our import agent have indicated that we are unlikely to get Footloose Lucy back before next Monday, leaving us with several days to kick our heels in Houston.

 Meanwhile, we have spent time with some genuinely nice and friendly people who have gone out of their way to help us. Howard was our taxi driver on Monday and we all immediately got on. When he picked us up at 7 pm to take us to a restaurant, he wasn’t in his taxi, he was in his Lexus with his wife, Argo, and they had decided to take us out for supper. They took us to a delightful Italian restaurant where we had a very good meal and two excellent bottles of wine and before we knew what was happening he’d picked up the tab and that was that!

 The first half of Tuesday was a catalogue of exasperation and frustration whilst Alan phoned about 14 different insurance companies and brokers in the quest to try and get some vehicle insurance for the few days that Lucy and we are going to be in the USA. Towards the middle of the afternoon we finally came across an insurance broker called Tim who said he could help. So we jumped into a cab and went off to his office to go through all the procedures and then he announced that he was going to pick up a couple of steaks and he was going to take us home to have a barbeque with his wife! Tim's wife, Anne, whilst being slightly bemused as to why he should bring two complete strangers home for supper, rose to the occasion and we sat and chatted until about 10 o'clock at night and then they drove us back to the hotel.

 So, that was the second day running that a complete stranger has stood us dinner. This is something that one would not expect in UK. Now that is what we call a hospitable country!

 Yesterday, Wednesday, we took a long taxi ride to spend some time looking round Galveston. One of the main features of the Galveston sea wall area was the pelicans, American brown pelicans we think. Anyway, they are the ones that fold their wings and dive bomb like a gannet onto fish in the sea. You’d think that they were going to break every bone in their bodies, being great huge cumbersome things as they move and dive headlong into the water. The day finished with another supper out with Howard and Argo at a great Mexican restaurant, providing us with the opportunity to return their hospitality.

 We end this post with our moral of the day which is that it isn't just in the remote third world that you can rely on the kindness of strangers, but also in downtown Houston!