Our last day here. Usually at the end of a trip, we spend
the last day at a bit of a loose end; not wanting to venture too far afield in
case for some reason we get caught out trying to get to the airport, but also
not wanting to go to the airport too early as there’s nothing more tedious than
hanging around an airport.
Our first task is to see if we can extend our check out.
Normally check-out is 12pm, but we wanted to see if this could be made a little
later as that will give us time to do a few things and not have to keep the
bags in the car all day. We were extended to a 2pm check out which was great,
so jumped in the car, fighting a reluctant GPS again, and headed back to the
Galleria Mall area.
There’s a huge fountain, about 3 stories high, built in a
semi-circle with water cascading down both sides. It’s quite a dramatic structure
(and very noisy & wet close up). It’s in a largish green park (say about
the length of a rugby pitch but maybe ½ as wide) in a very well to do suburb.
We took a few photos and then got some takeaway coffees to sit and ruminate on
the world going by. Fort a change it was a grey day and a bit cooler, but quite
pleasant to sit outside.
Not long after we settled in, a group of about 7 people
turned up, all African American and a mix of men & Women with three young
girls in tow, and they started to do some interesting walking around &
gesturing (all independently of each other) and seemed to be led by an older
guy. We were trying to think if it was a therapy session of some kind as he seemed
to gather them round occasionally, preach a bit and then they’d all go off in
different directions waving arms and talking to themselves. Fascinating the
things one sees.
We’d collected quite a bit of coins over our travels –as has
no doubt been mentioned, the ticket price for an item almost (depending on the
retail rules of the state or city concerned) never includes the tax, so getting
to the counter to pay for a $25.00 item invariably needs a total+tax amount of $26.60 or some such thing, leading to a very
large collection of scrappy coins. I’d tried to find a coin to notes machine
and we headed out to a Walmart super centre to give it a try, but unfortunately
it would only allow us to print vouchers to be used in Walmart, so we spent an
entertaining hour looking for something to get. At least it cleaned us out of coins though.
Then it was back to the Hotel to collect our things and go
to the Airport. It was 2pm, but we decided to leave with plenty of time in hand
(we needed to get fuel as well) and this was just as well, as the traffic
around Houston, which from our limited exposure seemed to build up and crawl
almost all times of the day, was doing just that and an expected 30 minute trip
ended up taking over an hour.
The skies had been growing ever more ominous and dark, and
as we finally made it to the airport and the Avis rental return, the heavens
opened and the rain came down in huge sheets. This lasted about 20 minutes or
so then just stopped.
The rental return area was huge in scope with each car
agency having it’s own huge garage area for returns. We followed the signposts
to the Avis garage and then got directed down one of several long narrow lanes
of parked cars, all returns. Our car was quickly checked by a guy with a portable,
um, car checking device, and then we were out of there. 2600 miles on that car
from Pensacloa to Houston, not bad mileage! It’s a pretty good operation though,
as shuttles take you from the rental garage areas to the main terminal area,
and there are lots of staff on hand to do the heavy lifting.
We’d arrived a bit too early for check in, by about ½ an
hour, so hung around for a while, and after a while a few more kiwi’s started
turning up as well. The check-in area seems to be shared by different airlines
and Avianca were in our spots (though by the slow progress of a family we were
watching, it looked like their checking in was all being done manually).
Eventually Air N.Z’s allotted time came and Avianca’s staff
all had to move along to a new set of desks, while still having to perform the
manual check-in. Not a task I envied.
We had an entertaining chat with our check in lady as she
wanted to understand what “sweet as” meant, so while she was loading our bags
into the conveyor belt we gave a quick 101 in kiwi-speak. Our two back packs
were OK weight wise but our spare bag was about three kg’s over the max limit,
however we also had one very light box of stuff, so she let us off.
Then it was hanging round. We found a bar and settled in
with a couple of glasses of wine, while our B.777 was manoeuvred into the gate.
When one is in far flung lands, there’s something about seeing that Koru on the
tail of an aeroplane that just seems to point you home.
There was a very boisterous crowd of Mexican men & women
in the bar as well, all having a great (and loud) time , fortunately they weren’t
on our flight as by the time they left the rows of empty beer bottles had grown
exponentially. I pity their air crew.
Before long it was time to board our flight although board was delayed by about 15 minutes. It seems that the traffic build up that we had encountered at 2pm, had also impacted the crew as they tried to get here in time.
Unlike our
flight over, this one was quite full, as according to our
check-in assistant, full flights are the norm not the exception. Fortunately we had paid for
allocated seats and down the back of the B.777 just before the galley, are four
rows of two seats only abreast against the fuselage side, so Deb & I could sit together without
having to deal with a third person. It makes for a much better flight.
So our time in America came to an end with another 13 hour
flight (plus an hour from AK to Wellington).
Our trip around the South was quite different from what we
had done before – there were less “wow” moments to have with stunning geography
and this trip seemed mostly urban with lots of city & museum time, and the
driving was over generally similar Interstate scenery (and so all up a bit
harder to write about). However we have seem historically significant sites
like Dealey Plaza, got to see the Blue Angels, and we found two places that were nicer than we
expected and would like to go back to one day; St Petersburg and Key West.
So that’s this blog all wrapped up, thanks to all who have
read and followed our travels as we’ve journeyed through the southern American
heartland. Its been a great trip and we will look forward to the next one,
whenever and wherever that may be.
Cheers y’all !
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