Gingerbread

Just when you think you have your travel itinerary all charted out, something comes up and throws another event in. Fortunately, our trip to Houston was pretty casual, and we waited until we got here to figure out how to spend our days. Good thing, because we discovered that there was a huge Gingerbread House competition going on not far from our hotel on Saturday.

Good so far . . .

Now this is no ordinary Gingerbread  House competition; it is put on by AIA Houston, an Architecture Association in Houston, so these houses should be well designed.

We walked down in the morning and got to see the beginning of the process. Everyone was checking their designs, and teams were cutting out pieces of Gingerbread and getting materials ready. Even at this early stage we could see that there were two distinct camps, those that made really fancy traditional Gingerbread houses and those that used gingerbread to make something really cool. There was Star Wars, Frozen, Disney Princes Castle, Shrek, Houston City Hall, The Titanic, and many others.

Under Construction

You could easily see that some of these teams were dead serious, with uniforms, team hats, or matching T-Shirts. The rules seem pretty simple; there is a set limit to the size of the base, gingerbread is provided, but teams could provide their own, all material must be edible, and nothing can be pre-assembled or pre-cut. After wandering around watching the beginning stages of the construction, we decided to explore elsewhere and return to see the finished houses near judging.

Cool, but not much Gingerbread

After a trip to an outdoor skating rink (Yup, skating in Houston at 22°), retrieval of a lost hat (mine, not Regis’) and a wine shopping trip, we returned to the competition. The world globe was sitting on the base rather than elevated on candy cane legs, and the Titanic had completely collapsed, but most teams were just putting the finishing touches on their creations.

Grand Hotel Budapest

My favorite was the Grand Hotel Budapest, because it was really a traditional Gingerbread house of extreme proportions, but the 1950 woody wagon with the Airstream trailer was an emotional favorite even though there was not a piece of gingerbread to be seen.

We did not get to see who actually won, but check out the website when it is updated with the 2014 winners.

Under Houston

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Under Houston

The first year I retired, I accompanied Regis on a “Business” trip to Montreal, and I discovered the lengthy underground tunnel system there. In Montreal, I can see the benefit, with four feet of snow and -20 C temperatures, so I was surprised to hear that Houston, Texas also boasts a tunnel system connecting most of their downtown buildings and attractions. Since our French Canadian friends must want to avoid the cold, I have to assume the Texans are using the tunnels to avoid the 35+ temperatures in the summer.

A walk up to the next block from our hotel took us to a building with access to the over 6 miles (Montreal boasts over 20 miles) of tunnels beneath Houston. An escalator ride down one level put us in the tunnel system.

This is a well-organized and well-designed system, with maps and clear directions. We were able to find our way to one end and then back underground to within a block of the pub where I heard a cold beer calling me for lunch.

Looking up at Houston

Most of the “tunnels” are simply walkways running under the streets connecting buildings, but there are also some sections that are relatively long. Most look like they were designed into the plans for the buildings and contain many restaurants and shops along the way, and all except the last section we explored were purpose built “Tunnels” rather than just opening and connecting basement hallways as much of Montreal is, and most are elegantly finished in tiles and brightly lit with built in lighting.

These tunnels are very well used and I was very rarely able to get photos without people in them. We spent the afternoon exploring this intriguing transportation option in Houston, and although you miss the blue sky and the 20+ weather of Houston in December, I can see the attraction in escaping the heat of August.

And it did lead me nicely back to that cold beer I had calling me from across Houston . . . . .   

Cadillac Ranch

Cadillacs in a Field

Years ago, I saw a piece in one of my automotive magazines about the Cadillac Ranch, where someone took a bunch of old Caddies and planted them in the ground. They were each planted slightly off perpendicular, with the front half under the ground, and the iconic Cadillac fins sticking up in the air. The cars were from the late fifties and early sixties, so they were from the hey-days of "big fins". The cars were complete, with tires, windows, and chrome, and were in original condition, as if someone just drove them into the ground.

Paint Job!

I'm not sure when I first read of this man-made automotive attraction, but it is probably 10 or more years ago. As we drove towards the campground in Amarillo Texas, I saw the Cadillacs sticking out of the ground off in a field to the left of the highway. The campground even had a RV planted front first with the rear wheels sticking up un the air.

On the way out for BBQ that evening we stopped so I could walk across the field and get some pictures of the Cadillac Ranch.

Classic Cadillac

The ranch really hasn't weathered the years and the human attention very well. The cars are still there, they still are planted in a neat row with the distinct Cadillac fins in the air. One car has nothing but the rear axle and trunk left, and there is no glass or trim left. The remaining tires are nothing but chunks of rubber hanging on the rims.

The biggest change in the paint. All the cars are completely covered with day-glow spray paint, vandalized and tagged by hundreds of visitors. As you walk towards the cars, your initial reaction is sadness That it had been "ruined", but as you get closer, you realize that rather than seeing it as vandalized, it has actually been changed into something new, different and interesting.

Cadillac Ranch

The cars are now completely covered in new paint from spray cans. This new paint it probably over half an inch thick in places. While I was there there were two groups of people painting their "tags" on each car and taking pictures of their work. As each person visits with their collection of spray cans, they paint over other tags, so the cars are constantly changing. It really has become a completely different attraction. Where before it was a static visual thing, it had changed into a constantly changing interactive piece of Automotive art.

A lesson learned; things change, keep an open mind and instead of getting upset at the change, embrace it and enjoy what it has become.

Rollin' cross Texas

Texas Rest Stop

This morning we left Amirilla and are rolling across that square part on the top of Texas heading towards New Mexico.

The land here is completely flat. Regis was given instructions to something, and was told to "Turn at the bottom of the hill.". When she asked "Hill . . What hill?", she was pointed towards the highway overpass. There are no hills (well, except for the ones from Nova Scotia) here except for the man made ones from the highway. As you look out, you always see way more sky than land - no wonder they call it the land of "Big sky".

It is dry and brown as far as you can see. There are very few trees, and they are grouped around the houses or towns. You see patches of green occasionally, but it is always agricultural land and you can expect to see the long automated irrigation machines slowly inching across the fields spraying a fine mist of water. Nothing grows here without being watered.

Texas Big Sky

We are driving on Interstate I40. We have been on the same road for two days, and do not have switch routes until sometime tomorrow. There is a local road running parallel to the highway on either side, and the exits and access to the highway are simply short roads leading to the local roads. The traffic on the local roads are supposed to yield to the Interstate traffic exiting or entering the highway, but we discovered they do not always watch for the Interstate traffic. Although, we always kept to these "official" exits, it is obvious from the tire tracks across the yellow grass on the road edges, that the locals do not bother with them. If they need to exit or enter the highway they just drive across the grass. There are no ditches, fences or barriers, just a slight dip in places. Even towing the trailer we would have no trouble driving off the highway over the grass.

I thought that Texas was the land of oil, but we have seen more wind farms than oil wells. This is a perfect place for these giant windmills, as it seems that a steady strong hot wind blows constantly.

As you drive through areas where humans have attempted to tame this land, you see the occasional "rust fields". Unlike back home, where the salt in the air and the roads along with the moisture completely destroy machinery, here it rusts more slowly, so fields gather generations of derelict farm vehicles and machinery, slowly rusting away, sandblasted by the constant wind. The cars and trucks look perfect, just old and rusty.

As we drive through this section, there is par hed brown land as far as you can see. It is fenced, and there are even a few cattle, but you can see no houses or signs of human dwelling. Who owns all this land?

Heat in the Heartland

Dry & Hot in Texas

I don't know what the weather is like back home in Nova Scotia, but it is HOT and sunny down here in America's heartland.

We had rain one night, and it rained when we walked downtown in St. Louis, but the rest of the time it has been sunny and hot every day.

Today we are driving through Oklahoma on our way to Texas at 9:30 in the morning, there is not a cloud in the sky, and the thermometer in the truck is reading 32. There is a steady strong wind, but the wind is so hot if feels like it is blowing out of a heater.

All day yesterday the temperatures stayed at 40, and for a while it got as high as 43. Regis went into a service station while I was refueling, and she made a comment about the heat. "Yup," the attendant replied, "We're lucky today, it was supposed to go up to 115, but it only reached 110."

Yup, it is HOT!

She was was buying some ice-cream bars for everyone, and the attendant looked at the strawberry ice she was getting for me and he said, "You know, I've never tried them berry ones; I think today is a good day to do that."

The warmest it has been was when the thermometer in the truck reached 46, but that might have been just because a big black truck tends to soak up the sun, and the temperature dropped to 43 as we drove a while.

Texas Rest Stop - HOT!

I love the heat, and dad doesn't complain about it, but the girls do not like it so much, demanding fancy drinks with lots of ice at the end of the day's drive, and Jasper is tending to take it a bit slower.

I wonder how hot it will be in Texas, or New Mexico when we get there. You tend to put things in perspective, so although 30 degrees is "sweltering" back home, we are getting to the point that we see 30 as a "nice" day.