USATourist Community

San Antonio is a very pretty city, but it is a small city. You can see most of the major sights in two or three days. One week should be more than enough time to visit San Antonio. If you want to drive from San Antonio to Santa Fe, you must drive for about 15 hours. It will take you at least two days...

Casey and I returned to Houston Saturday morning. She took me to what appeared to be a very normal-looking neighborhood. And then I saw the rocket ship trailer: After that I was pretty sure it wouldn't be a normal neighborhood. I was right, because next door was 'The Orange Show'. The Show...

I hung around Galveston during the day. It's a long, thin island with tons of beachfront. I wandered around to the pier and saw the beautiful old oil tankers and barges and cruise ships at the dock, and the fishing trawlers dragging nets back and forth through the bay. It was hot out and when Casey...

Steve went to work at 6:00 a.m., so I got an early start towards Galveston, Texas. I drove through Houston along the way, and decided to stop. Houston has an interesting and unique skyline that reminds me of Legos. I stopped and found a cafe and got some work done for awhile, then drove the last stretch...

I finally left Austin and headed towards San Antonio, where I had found a place to stay through couchsurfing.org. I arrived pretty late and had a low-key night hanging out with Chris (my cs host) and his friend Russell. San Antonio was hot. I went downtown to see The Alamo monument and it was so hot...

I got up pretty early when smelled food cooking in the adjacent kitchen. I'd slept on Catherine's couch and everyone was up very early making breakfast. They're all doctors and med students, so it's programmed into their circuitry to wake up very early no matter what time the night ends...

I stayed in Austin, writing and wandering around for much of the day. On 6th street I ran into this old hotel. I went to the Whole Foods store again to get some food and ran into Sy. Sy was born in India, but has lived in Texas for years working as an engineer and a teacher. He is a very friendly guy...

The next morning I wandered around downtown, checking out 6th street with all the bars, restaurants, venues. It's always interesting to get oriented in a new city. It's like plunging into a novel or a movie set. You have certain ideas of how it will be, but feeling the sidewalk, smelling the...

The next morning I made the short drive to Austin. Austin is known as the liberal heart of Texas, the music/art/intellectual heart of Texas, the coolest city in Texas, and other similar things. I drove there early and found a campsite at McKinley State Park south of the city. The ranger looked at me...

The cities of Dallas and Fort Worth sort of run into each other. They are often collectively referred to as Dallas/Fort Worth. Fort Worth is known as more of a 'cowboy' town, while Dallas is supposed to be more of a fast-paced business/oil money/sports/clubs/nightlife place. I went to the Crooked...