Texas Part 2

            

         The VW dealer was good on its promise and I was out of Temple by noon.  Charlie and I drove through 5 hours of terrible rainstorm and atrocious Houston traffic and finally made it to Galveston around 6pm.  Now for those of you who have a very dear place in your heart for Texas, you can leave the blog now; I do not intend to be kind.  Ok so Wednesday started off decent enough with a nice run along the seawall followed by a yummy bowl of oatmeal (my choice breakfast).  I got on my bathing suit and grabbed Charlie and we headed down to the beach.  This is Galveston; we’re talking here, like on the gulf coast…so we trekked down waves only to be shocked to see “No Swimming” signs posted everywhere.  The beach was ugly and covered with trash and seagull doo-doo.  Confused (because I heard nice things about this beach) we walked a little ways to see if the signs went away. Nope, all along the whole beach, NO SWIMMING!!! By then (only 10am) the humidity was beyond stifling and I thought well, if I cant get into the water, then I am going somewhere air-conditioned, so I skipped ahead to my afternoon activity. 

I had read about a place called Moody Gardens which advertises itself as an amusement/educational park and my hotel front desk said it was a must see, and let me tell you it is not any of those things.  It has a half way decent aquarium with a cool penguin exhibit and I got this neat video of some sea lions.  I took a ferry which, takes you on a tour of a small patch of water (not a lake or a river, maybe a swamp) to see the wondrous sights of Galveston, such as parking lots, a freeway, a Home Depot, a McDonalds, as well as countless other dingy building and big box chain stores.  Oh what a sight…it was truly breathtaking… L Before I left I saw a 3D movie about sharks, which was actually pretty neat and informative (no sarcasm).

I know it sounds pleasant enough but the entire time I was constantly pestered by small children left unattended by their parents and suffocated by the overwhelming smell of people wearing too much perfume amplified by the humidity.  The water tastes like a swimming pool, there are waste baskets everywhere yet garbage is strew everywhere and I feel more than comfortable saying the food is absolute s***.  It is all fried, fatty, and foul.  Most of it is slathered in sauce or grease or both.  When I got some lunch, I ordered a shrimp salad but what actually I got were canned shrimp drowned in mayonnaise on a bed of wilting bag lettuce with overripe avocado on the side for which I was charged $15.  It’s a salad, on the gulf coast…are you serious?! Canned shrimp??!!I was less than pleased…

All the customer service people everywhere seem unamused, unhelpful, and to hate their lives (as would I if I lived here).  The drivers are needlessly aggressive and seem to pride themselves in jumping the lights, so allow me to give a quick lesson in “southern gentlemen” etiquette: just because you call me ma’am doesn’t make up for the fact that you flipped me off in traffic or blatantly starred at my chest as I was walking…jerk.  And for the love of God can someone tell Michelle Obama to double up on her childhood obesity campaign down here, cuz something ain’t working…

            Ok I think I am done now.  Moving on…