A Lily Pad In Houston Is Where The Heart Is

Sometimes when traveling “unconventionally” and have been on the go since day one, you need to take what I call “laundry days.”  I remember this from my travels in New Zealand when I was in my 20s.  These down days when backpacking your way through foreign lands were a must.  I can’t remember exactly, but I think I probably had about seven days of clothes crammed in my rucksack, as my British travel mates would call it.  I traveled through both the North and South Island for about six weeks, so it’s not hard to do the math.  After about 10 days, everything was starting to get a little funky…!  And to be clear.  backpacking doesn’t mean that I was on foot, carrying a heavy backpack out in the wilderness camping.  Backpacking in this case was traveling with a backpack, and staying in youth hostels.  

An added bonus in New Zealand was the Kiwi Experience.  This was a hop on, hop off bus service in big green busses, that was a go to for travelers of all ages.  I even later found that one of my favorite people, Bridget Rohmer, also did the Kiwi Experience back in the day! You could stay on the same bus for a 20-day tour of the South Island, for instance, or you could hop on and hop off for a two-month tour.  Each day we would travel about two hours or so, see some sights along the way, and then stay in a different youth hostel each night.  I quickly became friends with many of the travelers who were on similar journeys as me, which made the trip even better!

A little more backstory:  Usually I would not use a service like this when I traveled back then, but because I broke my collar bone while “navigating a waterfall” during a hike on my last day in Australia, I decided it would be a much easier way to travel with my heavy backpack, and only the use of my left shoulder to carry it…  I believe I have told the waterfall story in a past blog post, so I’ll give you the short version.  I was hiking with a friend I had met while in Sydney, Australia a few weeks prior.  

She lived in Brisbane, so when I found myself up that way later in my trip, she offered to take me on a hike in the mountains above the city.  Everything was going well until she suggested I go stand under the cascading water that poured over the massive rocks of the river.  I saw some kids doing it, so I of course followed her suggestions.  After she took the picture, I started to make my way back to where she was standing.  But then, my feet slipped out from under me on a slippery rock, and down I went.  And I mean down the waterfall I went.  When I finally landed in the river below, I went to raise my hands as if to say, “I meant to do that,” but one arm went up, and the other did not.  After we hiked out of the forest, and drove about an hour on an agonizing dirt road to the nearest hospital, I spent the rest of my time in Australia in the ER.  Sigh.

Laundry days were good for spending some quality time at your youth hostel with new friends, or catching up with friends you had made on your journey.  Now, electronic communication at this time was nothing like it is today.  Cell phones existed, but US phones didn’t work outside of the US.  And I don’t remember other backpackers having phones either.  I just wasn’t a thing yet, so the only way we communicated with the people we met along the way, or with friends and family back home, was via email.  Some youth hostels had a computer you could jump on to log into your email account, but most of us backpackers went to internet cafes to communicate.  Internet cafes were everywhere.  Each cafe had anywhere from two, to a dozen desktop computers available for rent by the minute, or by the hour.  Many also sold coffee, so this became a thing for me. 

So where am I going with all of this?  Well, I needed a couple days to relax and catch up with family and friends, and definitely needed to do some laundry! And where better to do this then Houston Texas! I say that, because it’s just too damn hot outside to do anything else… And I now have my own Internet cafe in my hotel room!

The truth is, I have so much to say about my days in Houston, but I am going to have to save that for a future blog.  For now I will keep it short but sweet, because as mentioned above, my time here is precious...

If you have been following this blog from the beginning of my journey this summer, you know that I have been slightly winging it on this trip. Yes, I have made plans in advance for sure, but since I found myself in this unusual situation, where both kids are off in different states, one at camp and the other with family on Long Island, I have taken full advantage of my “me” time!

Just prior to setting off on this journey, my dear friend since we were teenagers, Mike Carmichael, contacted me and said that he was planning on going to Costa Rica for a week at the beginning of August. He would be joined by his cousin, Martin, and another dear friend from high school, Phill Minotti.

At this point, I had still been on the fence about meeting the guys, but since my dear “niece,” Lexie, is taking good care of our family pet, Jasper, and because work is slow this time of year anyway, I jumped at this once in a lifetime opportunity to go meet my friends!  Not only that, Costa Rica has been on my bucket list for years!

So my plan was to fly from Houston to San Jose, Costa Rica, and then at the end of the trip I would fly back home, closing out my midlife crisis summer of 2022…

I always fly Delta, so I started looking into flights. It literally took me three hours (mostly on hold) to work with a Delta agent to help me find my most recent flight credit.  I had a credit for my son’s flight to Minneapolis, which ended up being cheaper when we had to change his flight!  Winner!  What I didn’t realize is that I had even more credits on Delta from a flight I had to cancel during the pandemic, and a couple of other credits from other past flights. Awesome! This trip would be totally covered with flight credits, so I would be able to fly “for free!”  Well, sort of.  Friends, if you fly Delta, be sure to check to see if you have flight credits, called “eCredits,” as they do expire, and neither the Delta app or website make the link to your credits blatantly obvious. 

The next couple days in Houston were exactly what I needed. A little personal time to catch up with loved ones. Yes, I did get out and have some Texas barbecue, of course! I also went to an awesome farmers market, checked in with Mother Nature and did the tourist thing at the Houston Space Center.  As in “Houston, we have a problem…“ A trip to this city would not be complete without seeing the Space Shuttle on top of a 747. It’s pretty impressive!  A birthday, and gazing out into Galveston Bay from the Kemah Boardwalk on a hot summer day was particularly special.

I did have a few loose ends to tighten up on my last day before leaving the country for the first time since Barbados in 2019.  Knowing it would be difficult to send a care package to my son at camp from Costa Rica, I put together a few things that I thought he would like.  This task required going to one of the biggest malls I have ever been to, Target and Barnes and Noble.  Sidenote #1: The biggest Mall I have ever been to was the Mall of America in Minneapolis about six years ago. Sidenote #2:  I don’t like malls.  I much prefer the farmers market I mentioned above!  Most everything I got for my young camper was Los Angeles Dodgers or Los Angeles Lakers related, as you are not allowed to send candy or snacks.  I’m guessing they don’t want bears or other critters sneaking into the cabins to feast on Sour Ropes or Australian Licorice.  Wait.  Do they even have bears in Northern Minnesota?  Hmmm.

With the care package on its way to Camp Mishawaka, a box of souvenirs and extra stuff I didn’t need to take to Costa Rica on its way to my house, and a postcard home to my mom and dad, it was time to wrap up Houston.  I had to get up at 3:45 AM to make my 6 AM flight from Houston Hobby International Airport, so this would be an early night.

Good night my loves. You know who you are.  Thank you for your kind hospitality.  And peace out Houston!