When Ordering An Expensive Bicycle, Hire A Professional Photographer To Document The Moment

Never Trust Others To Take Your Pictures For You
Hooray! The day has finally come. Monday morning I officially ordered my new bicycle for the Around The World adventure. I wanted to post a quick update about that and the reason I have been a little out of touch lately.
I ordered my bike from West End Bicycles in Houston, Texas. The staff there took the time to listen to my wants and needs and have not tried to just sell me on product. Being quite an event for me I wanted my daughter Lexi to document the measure and such so she took the camera. When I returned home I realized she had gone all out with a grand total of two pictures.


One image of the shop cat. No I didn't get
the cat's name as we barely spoke.. Get it, 'spoke', as in bike spoke.


One additional image of a grubby me (that's what an unemployed, homeless biker looks like) and the coffee loving cat. That crazy cat's eyes followed my coffee cup everywhere the cup moved, and when allowed would lick the sides of the cup of tea Lexi had.
Anyways, expect a slew of posts in the coming days about all of the equipment coming in and my experience shopping for it. I am NOT a shopper at all, so it has been an mix of pleasure and dread for me to assemble the stuff... bike, tent, sleeping bag, stove, and a hundred little odds and ends. Much more to come, I promise.
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Terra Cotta Soldiers From China Visit Houston, Texas

Alan Around The World readers will remember that recently I visited an incredible miniature replica of the Chinese Terra Cotta Soldiers in Katy, Texas. Forbidden Gardens is the name of the attraction and I was highly pleased with the exhibit.Strangely coincidental, the Houston Museum of Natural Science is hosting an exhibit of 20 of the actual soldiers so my friend Sari and I decided to check it out.

Let me state up front that once you reach the main hall of the exhibit it is stunning and well worth any hassle or inconvenience. The statuary is over 2,000 years old, full-size soldiers rendered in amazing detail, all formed from terra cotta. The faces of the soldiers are each unique with varied beards and clothing. A terra cotta horse with delicate flowing hair on his mane and detailed saddle work will take your breath away. To look into the eyes of these men and realize that they each actually lived, were real men with wives and children and the brutal, sometimes short, lives of soldiers, it was just amazing.

Unfortunately the museum allows NO photography. I am sure if you asked they would say something about flash photos damaging the exhibit but I believe it more likely would damage the sale of books and postcards and calenders and such. So for your enjoyment I offer the above cheesy Andy Warhol rip-off print from the lobby and the extremely well done replicas in these two photos. Not good enough but it's the best I could do.Keep in mind, like all of the Natural Science Museum's exhibits it is outrageously priced at $28 per person. The show is extremely oversold, the hallways crowded, like being at a concert in the front row. As usual one wonders if the air conditioners are on and the museum smells of body odor. (Houston is one of the fattest cities in America, so be prepared to get cozy with obese, sweaty wannabe cowboys and such.)

Still, though the Science Museum falls far short of our excellent Fine Arts Museum in style and professionalism, I have to say to go see the exhibit. Unless like me you happen to have plans to see all 6,000 of the real soldiers in China!Hopefully next year I will have a better story to tell about these amazing artworks. Hopefully the Chinese allow me to take photographs.

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Kayaking the Buffalo Bayou. Houston, Texas.

Why You Should Practice Getting In Your Kayak While In Shallow Water!

It took me more than a little convincing to get my friend Ovidiu to commit to taking the kayaks down a slightly unorthodox waterway. Rather than drive a few hours to the crystal clear waters of the Comal or Guadalupe Rivers in the hill country, I convinced him it would be fun to course down the twists and turns of the murky Buffalo Bayou as it winds it's way under major interstates and past huge skyscrapers in Houston, Texas. Here's Ovidiu before we put the boats in the water beneath the Waugh Street bridge on Allen Parkway.

It was difficult making our way down a steep, grassy incline to the concrete beneath the bridge. At 8:30 AM the heat was already creeping upward. July heat in Texas was the main reason Ovidiu was not on board 100%, and he was correct. It was stifling. Still, we managed to get down to the water and scout a suitable launch site.

It required two trips to make the very short portage as the hill was steep enough to require teamwork carrying the boats. At the base of the hill we made sure the water bottles, vehicle keys, and camera were all safely in plastic bags and well secured in the hatch. Entering the kayak took a bit of skill and a lot of nerve and balance. In the image it appears that the water rides up to the concrete but in reality it was a drop of a foot or more, so we stood on wobbly concrete blocks just past this bridge support to enter the boats.As one of us held our kayak steady and moved out over the boat the boat slipped away from the docking area and that certain person basically did a one-way trip into the drink. (And drink this water you DO NOT want to do!) Scrambling on the rocky surface below the water, spewing the brown liquid out of his mouth, this person had the unfortunate task of climbing the slick stones and finding the strength to pull a water filled kayak from the bayou for a second attempt! Darn.Now I don't want to tell if it were Alan or Ovidiu that took a dip but I will confess that the clumsy oaf's name begins with a vowel!
The Rest Of The Story

It actually is rather worse than you have so far imagined as I must also confess that we decided to enter the bayou beneath the Waugh Street Bridge. Readers of the blog should remember that this bridge harbors 250,000 bats beneath the structure, all crammed into the expansion cracks... living, loving, pooping.Look back at the above photos and notice the brown coating on the concrete below the bridge. Bat poo. Guano. Great fertilizer. Not so great when it coats the very rocks you are trying to scramble upon to get out of the tea-colored water that has been infused with the crap of a quarter-million bats!
This little fellow had a worse spill than me. Nearby signs warned 'Do Not Handle Grounded Bats'. I like that, grounded bats. Like I had to be told. They had no sign warning that swimmming in a bat crap soup would be a bad idea so I suppose I am OK.The worst part of the ordeal is that the camera, though sealed in a plastic bag and seemingly totally dry, would not function. Somehow the tiniest drop of moisture killed it. So while the views were stunning I have nothing to share.
How To Cool Off After Swimming In Warm Guano Soup
Worst of all we have no pictures of the even more outlandish happening later in the day. After several hours of kayaking the temperature had soared to perhaps 100 degrees, the sun beat down on our skulls, and the water bottles ran dry. So we docked at Sesquicentinnial Park in downtown Houston, built in 1986 to celebrate 150 years as a state. Getting the kayaks up the hill was hot and difficult, especially after I... I mean one of us, had fallen in the bayou.Lugging the kayaks up a ramp to street level I told Ovidiu "I hear a fountain". This area of Houston is incredibly lovely. Across the bayou the Aquarium Restaurant with it's waterall and ferris wheel can be seen. Skyscrapers tower above the streets a block away. Bayou Place and fancy theaters surround the park, which also features an amazing series of waterfalls from street level to the bayou walkways. Cold, clear, running water. "I'm getting in there", I warned Ovidiu. For a moment he looked at me dubiously but before my tennis shoe had touched the bottom of the pool he was in too. We found a spot where the water fell several feet, cool and pounding on our hot necks and heads, and we lay back and relaxed. The only nearby person, a homeless man, looked at us, smiled, and strangely he took out, of all things, a cell phone. He snapped our picture and called a friend to tell them of the crazy men in the fountain, all the while lending support for the idea with a thumbs up and a cheer.So picture us, two grown men, lounging in a fountain as a hundred feet away traffic speeds by on Bagby Street, fancy women in expensive dresses enter restaurants, theater managers sit in their office scheduling upcoming ballets and symphony performances.I don't really mind the dirty dip, but the day was tinged with regret over the camera debacle. Like all good pain in the butts, as soon as I arrived home can yuu guess what the camera did?It stuck it's tongue out at me, said "Nana nana boo boo", and whirled to life.I hate you Kodak!

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Forbidden Gardens of Katy, Texas. Terra Cotta Replica Chinese Soldiers. June 20, 2009

Forbidden Gardens of Katy, Texas is an amazing replica of the famous site in China where Emperor Qin buried over 8,000 terra cotta statues replicating his army for the afterlife.

Here I sit (in the Texas sun) in front of the main pit. There are several thousand 1/3 scale fiberglass raplicas here and it is quite amazing to see.

A little seen view from behind the Emperor as he surveys his army. Since nobody was around I figured it was OK to scamper around the hillsides a bit for some different views.

The detail was amazingly individualistic and precise on each of the men.

Also on the site is a huge miniature Forbidden City, thankfully fully covered and in the shade!For many more larger images and a lot more detail see the photos page.

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Topiary Garden In Houston, Texas. A Huge, FREE, And Little Visited Attraction!

We recently visited a free Houston attraction that most people just zip by as fast as possible, maybe saying "Hey kids, look at the animal plants", never thinking how cool it might be to slow down and smell the topiary.On Buffalo Speedway (which is actually a residential street, not much of a speedway) there is a small nursery named River Oaks Plant House. On the center median of the street they have planted and maintain a HUGE assortment of beautiful topiary figures. An excellent free attraction and great advertising for the nursery.

Nephew Brecken getting crazy on a baby elephant. Hmmm, did they want kids riding these? Well, there were no signs saying not to!

An elephant herd ambles down a Houston street.

Sister Merry, Brecken, and Niece Tiffany.Who do they think they are, a rock group or something?

A baby elephant balances on a ball. Cool.

An entire block of topiary animals are there to enjoy, Be careful of the always-in-a-hurry-don't-they-realize-Wal-Mart-is-open-24-hours traffic!

A winged horse or dragon attempting to rise up from old Terra Firma!

Did I mention the bargain prices. Magical gardens take one of two things. Lots of money or lots of work!

This topiary golfer looked very bright and charming in the distance but at this angle he seems to be a crazy killer intent on clubbing me to death!Click here to check out much larger images!

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Beer Can House, Houston, Texas.

The Beer Can House in Houston, Texas was created by John Milkovisch starting in the late 1960's. John began saving beer cans before anyone else thought of recycling them, but instead of selling them he covered his entire home with the aluminum cast-offs. He also cemented the yard and turned it into a mosaic of art details. When questioned as to why he did this he said “I got sick of mowing the grass.” As a teenager who despised grass cutting in those same years this man whould have been, to me, the perfect father.

Here I am in a shot that looks like I am the visionary creator of this artwork. This is the photo of me that would appear in some weekly alternative newspaper celebrating the genius of my vision. I have always thought it would be very cool to be the cranky old man who makes some odd folk art house and sticks his finger in the eye of the art world, but every time I start to cover my apartment building in aluminum cans the property manager calls me with angry words!

Located at 222 Malone in an otherwise sedate, even a bit high-end neighborhood, near Houston's fabulous Memorial Park, you can drive by at anytime. The sign says there are visiting hours on the weekend and the home is maintained by a local art foundation so it probably isn't going anywhere. Very cool.

Like many of these folk art creations the details of a life of creation are too numerous to take in all at once. Beer can tops linked together create the front gate to the home and provide one of endless photo opportunity details.
For many more and much larger images of the Beer Can House visit the Alan Around The World photo page!

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Bats! 250,000 Mexican Freetail Bats Beneath A Houston, Texas Bridge! With Video!

250,000 BATS!Beneath the bridge on Waugh Street that crosses the Buffalo Bayou in Houston, Texas lives a large colony of Mexican Freetail bats. Each night at dusk, every night of the year, the bats stream from their home beneath the bridge and spread out over Houston to devour millions of mosquitoes and other bugs. With so many mosquitoes out at night I shudder to imagine the city without this and other colonies that exist in hidden nooks and crannies.

Here my family walks beneath
the bridge to the best viewing area on the west side of the bridge. You might want to walk over the bridge at dusk as the bats are becoming active and there is a good chance of getting droppings in your hair.

Bat guano, as the poop is called, coats the angled concrete beneath the bridge. The bats make a home in narrow expansion joints that exist in the concrete beneath the bridge, hiding above and behind the rusty reinforcing mesh. A safe home for one of Houston's best assets.Guano makes excellent fertilizer they say. Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico and other caves were mined for years to supply bat poop to farmenrs.

The bridge is easly accessed as it is just off of Allen Parkway, the same road that hosts the Art Car Parade. On this night there were two dozen people with wine, cheese, the kids, and blankets spread on the grass. The city even constructed an overlook platform for easy viewing, though most folks go down the Bayou's banks to get a closer view.As the sun sets Houston shows off a cotton candy colore sky.

Believe me it's hard to carch good bat pix with a 90 dollar camera. This shot shows them pretty well as frenetic blurs in the darkening sky. Folks stand on the bridge and watch though staring down into the darkness is not the best view.Watch this 90 second video for a better look at the swirl of bats. They all head west as if an invisible tunnel, a seemingly endless stream of black streaks in the sky. We left after a half-hour. There are only so many bats you can watch before you decide it may never end!

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Dollar Store Shopping In Houston, Texas!

Some people fly to Paris to shop for the latest fashions but Houston offers those on a tighter budget somethhing special - a huge number of stores selling things for about a dollar. Believe it or not when my family came to my daughter's recent graduation one of the things that was high on their list of things to do was a visit to the .99 cent store. If you haven't been in one do not jump to conclusions. They do have an astounding assortment of things for less than a buck and it's hard to walk out without a full cart. It's amazing how a dollar here and a dollar there turns into a large bill at the cash register.

Tiffany looking fancy in her new .99 cent sunglasses. One thing I noticed was that this store used to sell everything for .99 cents but now it's actually 99.99 cents, a miniscule increase in price that must become meaningful only on a huge scale. That extra almost penny adds up if you sell a hundred million of something!

Brecken is totally .99 cent cool in his new shades. Check back in coming days to see much more interesting Houston attractions such as the amazing topiary plants on Buffalo Speedway, plants that are grown to look like horses, dragons, elephants, and much more.
Sister Merry must have footed the bill. Look at that receipt. It's full of dollar stuff.Other upcoming posts will show the famous Beer Can House on Malone, my daughter's graduation, and 250,000 bats with video, all leaving their home under the Waugh Street bridge as they do every night. Very cool.Come back often and read these "practice" travel-around-Houston posts before the trip begins.

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Art Car Parade. Houston, Texas. May 9, 2009.

It's still a couple of months before the most likely starting date for my around the world trip but it seems I am already trying to live more like a traveler. Today Houston, Texas hosted the annual Art Car Parade, a huge three day extravaganza of folks taking their creativity out on their vehicles. It was a perfect day, a bit hot, and Lexi and I enjoyed the artistic labors of over 200 projects in the parade near downtown Houston.

Yes, it's the Batmobile, and I mean THE Batmobile! This is the actual car used in the movie, the one actor Michael Keaton sat in. The lady with the company that owns the car alluded to the fact that it gets the most ooohs and ahhhs but she said it "ain't nothing under that shell".

Yes, that's me next to the car wanting to be a superhero.


A classic type of art car with over-the-top ornate detail.

'Venus Hairse'A hearse filled with ladies dying for a good time.

The cars are always more amazing when you get in to see the details.

You would not want to be in front of this scary creation.

The Blues Brothers, and they actually were pretty darn good. Funy too.

This car was completely covered in mirror shards. Look close and you can see my white shirt and jeans, even my eye in one of the pieces. (By the way, note to travleling self, jeans... HUGE mistake in the heat!) The reflection of legs and red on the right would be my daughter Lexi.

Grand Marshall of the parade was Kinky Friedman, writer, recent Texas gubernatorial candidate. marketer of salsa and cigars, and all around unique human. He seemed to be wildly popular with the crowd and also to be having a good time himself.Kinky's car was decorated with steer horns, pistol door handles, and the inside was covered in silver dollars. Kinky, Texas style.

It's hard to tell from a photo but this creepy monster had animated head and mouth and snarled it's way through the parade.

In the past I had seen this car at Houston's Art Car Museum. One of those incredibly ornate art cars it is set apart by the huge and bizarre beast attached to the front end!

An evil easter bunny. And yes, this is just for you Charli in Cambridge, MA, we both know how you like bunnies.

The very portable porta-potty. Believe it or not this laid-back gent drove this crazy car all the way from Waco, Texas to Houston at 4 miles per hour!Enjoy the Crapper Mobile short video below.



Silly rabbit slippers come to life as art cars.Sorry Charli.

Yes, he did crow, often and loudly.

Small balls on springs bounced back and forth as the car moved but the coolest thing about this car is the strange shadow it casts.

These cars with hydraulic lifts almost seem like they are out of control. Very popular and very cool. Check out the short clip below.



Brass this, that, and everything else covered every square inch of this entry.

I am going on an expedition, how did they know? It's more of a peace of mind expedition though.

Some folks can't be bothered to get out of bed on parade day.

Red horses. I don't get it either, but I like it.

Houston has a few giant cockroaches but this is the only one that has a horn that plays that classic tune 'La Cucaracha'!

Cute dogs are popular art cars. This panting pup was one of several in the parpade.

Very dramatic, and titled the Onaminivanapeida.

Wow. Silly singing fish and harmonizing lobsters were totally animated, lit up, and incredibly, sang the most unlikely tune... Handel's 'Messiah'.Here are the vocalizing sea life on video as they passed.



Even the police patrooling the parade played along as they rode on their Art Horses!

TP! I may be looking and wishing for that in foreign lands.

Surprising to me as I thought it was all cars but there were walkers, skaters, and a wide variety of odd and unique bicycles.

High handlebars.

A chopper. There also was a woman on a bike with a cage around her. I tried to get the shot but she was fast! I hope my bike doesn't start to feel like a cage.

Tail plumage opens up on this peacock car just as on the real bird.

All of this took place on Allen Parkway (nice name, spelled wrong) which abuts Eleanor Tinsley Park, a wonderful strip of green in Houston stretched between the road and the Buffalo Bayou. (I'm from Louisiana and we say By-you. Here they say By-YO. What I am saying is that they say it WRONG!) Nice park though, great for skating, biking, and an incredible view of the Houston skyline.Thanks for stopping in. I will be posting more about my trip preparation, some snippets from e-mails I have been getting, and how the plans are firming up and coming together.Hope to see you somewhere out there on the road.
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