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Arrived in Houston at 10am, we waited in the bus depot for a taxi but it is labour day! So it's basically a bank holiday and nothing is open or if it is it's open Sunday hours and buses are running on a Sunday schedule. So we waited for a taxi however a lovely woman shouted over to us and said "oh baby, where you going? That sit a can that's a metro car you won't get a ride from them! Where you going? If call you a cab but I ain't got the numbers anymore" pure bread Texan with the Deep South accent, she didn't come up for air but she was lovely! She called a lad over and asked for a taxi number for us, she called a cab but when the taxi came he didn't come I to the bus depot so basically just drove passed which was annoying so we asked a police officer and she sent us around the corner to McDonald and there were two parked up. He took us to the hotel, which we realised when we got there we could have easily walked! It's was around 5-6 blocks away. Typical! That was a waste of $7! We was able to check in early; we definetly did not fit in here, it was full of business women and men in formal wear. Just two smelly travellers with backpacks on here! Haha.
We managed to catch the last of breakfast, so went and had some toast and scrambled eggs before going up to our room, it was a suite with kitchen (hob, fridge freezer, dishwasher, microwave/oven and breakfast bar) and then we had a sofa bed and one double bed, our bathroom was to the side with a separate sink. It was lovely! Ross pulled the short straw and had the sofa bed.
We went straight back out and got on a bus to north Houston to the George bush international airport, this took an hour (each way) google maps told us to get off the bus stop at 'wright road' so we did and all that was there was a Chelsea food supplier which we guessed were for Walgreens by the vans being loaded up, it was next to the airport; from here we had to get a taxi so off we trot into a food supplier, everyone ready to work in their high vis jackets, hard boots and hair nets and us pair in shorts and T-shirts asking for them to book us a taxi. They did happily enough, we sat and waited on the steps whilst all the workers looked baffled at us, walking in and out of work. We watched the biggest and blackest cloud we had ever seen come straight at us, I can tell when there's a storm brewing, the wind changes ;) haha. No, the wind gets cooler, even when you can't see a dark cold you know what's coming. The taxi took us out to the ranch which was not even 5 minutes up the road, we could have walked only it's illegal to walk up a highway which is sensible because us donuts would have walked it.
The ranch was a two story log cabin, there were horses everywhere in the surrounding fields. How exciting!!! We went around the side and found even more horses all saddled up, good job they had picnic benches under waterproof gazebos as the heavens opened and I mean it poured for a good 10-15 minutes and did not stop or calm down one little bit! We were preying it would stop for us to go out, it's typical the only time we are in the middle of nowhere and can't hide from it if it does decide to start raining and we have an inch or so of it!
Anyways, lucky us it calmed down, we went and chose our helmets, they stunk of sweat and damp and they were wet. Good job they were providing free bandanas for us, we put them over our hair for us to not smell as bad on the bus going back! The trail was gorgeous the scenery was very green and their were lots of little trails all of which had puddles and little streams running down them because of the rain we had. Our horses did not want to get their hoofs wet what so ever! Haha. Mine was Cally, she was lovely but didn't like any other horses behind her so I went behind Ross and the handler. She was very tame :) it felt good to get on a horse, I wish I kept it up when I was younger. Ross had kid star he was a gorgeous horse aswell, all he wanted to do was eat the grass and bushes around us! The handlers horse was white, named hollywood! He was a right pre-madonna he would do anything not to get his feet wet haha! And he didn't like going down trails he didn't know it wouldn't go passed cut down trees! He was funny. The trail was peaceful considering we were on the outskirts of the fourth biggest city in America! It went too fast, we done some trotting and 2 steeds uphill where we grab onto the horse's Maine (they can't feel anything because there are no nerve endings there) stood up in our saddle and lent forward to help the horse carry our weight up the hill.
After the ride we called the taxi man that we had on the here, we got his business card because it was easier than asking another taxi driver and them not knowing where to go because it was a little off the beaten track. He took us back to the food factory, we could see the bus down the road and we knew if we didn't make it it would be an hour wait on the stop for another one which we really didn't want to do!!
The taxi driver sped down towards the bus for us and pulled up right in front of it, there would have been a crash if the bus was pulling off!
Luckily he was on his break so we jumped on. Buses here are so cheap, it cost us $1.25 for a one way journey that took an hour. It costs around £4 for one way from pontypool to Cwmbran at home! We jumped on and felt the relief! Got back to the hotel and went straight to the pool, it was so hot! A different heat again compared to the other two cities in Texas. The rain had cooled the air but not enough! The pool was lovely, we got there in time for the sun to come between the buildings, the pool was green which was a little strange but we jumped in anyways and it was freezing! the jacuzzi was boiling though! We stayed there till around 8 and then went and got some food and beer and stayed in our suite all night and chilled, it was really nice not to go out and just relax in the apartment.
xox
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