An Eclectic Day...

I guess we really liked Austin, as we didn’t leave the hotel until 11.30AM this morning! But maybe we were just too tired to do anything else!

Our final destination for the day was Houston, TX which only stands about 3 hours / 180 miles away from the “Live Music Capital of the World”.

The drive has been pretty smooth, some local highways through Lockhart, and other places I don’t remember the name, and finally I-10E where opposite to what I thought, the speed limit was only 70 mph, with some points at 65 mph.

As the title might suggest, today it was one of those days where we were longing for weird, crazy things.

We got the answer to our prayers in the person of Mr. Jeff McKissack, who spent his life, and his money on a project called “The Orange Show”.

He obviously had a special relationship with oranges, but he also liked orange as a color.

He spent about 25 years of his life to build this “house”, that he thought was going to be a great success.

He died three months after he opened the house to the public, without seeing his “creature” coming to fame. Someone even said that he died of a broken heart because of the failure of his project.

It’s all a different story now, as Mr. Jeff McKissack continues to live through “The Orange Show” and the foundation that has been created after his death, that takes care of eclectic artists from all over the world.

The Orange Show is also listed in the National Register of Historic Places designated by the United States Department of the Interior.

If you’re really in the mood for something eclectic, pay a visit there, the lady that let us in today was very nice, she gave us two postcards, and a questionnaire with weird questions Mr. McKissack himself formulated. For $1 each, you really have to come see it!

Because of all the colors, the place reminded me of a Gaudi project with a strong Picasso influence, I hope you get the feeling!

The second stop of the day has been the Beer Can House, something that you can find at 222 Malone Street. I can’t look into the future, but I know already what the first words coming out of you mouth are going to be: “Holy S**T, this guy is crazy!”.

I can’t imagine how many hours Mr. John Milkovisch has spent on his project, not too mention the amount of beer he had to drink before the he could finish the house.

I’m not sure how the inside of the house looks like as they only offer tours on Saturdays and Sundays, but I can tell you more about the outside. Everything from the walls, to the Mail Box, to some large flower boxes, are covered, or made out of beer cans.

Once we got there, there were already three people taking pictures of it, and now, keep in mind that this house is in a residential neighborhood with absolutely no signs to indicate where the house is, therefore, it is not easy to find.

Soon after we ended up our eclectic tour of the day, we headed to Mike’s, a dear friend of mine who has a beautiful house in a very nice part of the city that I’ve known for several years.

After a drink and a nice chat, we decided to try a Mexican place (since we both love Mexican), that is only about five minutes away from where he lives.

I knew Mike wouldn’t have taken us to any place that wasn’t at least superb, but this restaurant was out of this world.

I should have known we were up for a good time once we got to the parking lot which was absolutely packed. As soon as we entered the establishment I came to realize all the cars outside in the parking lot certainly had more than one person in them, but nonetheless, the hostess told us that it shouldn’t have taken more than 5 to 10 minutes to get a table, and she was absolutely right, we got our table in 5 minutes.

Hap and I enjoyed these gigantic hand-shaken Margaritas that were absolutely to die for (forget about those pre-mixed drink they serve in most of the Mexican Restaurants, this is the real deal, a bartender serving the customer a drink that comes out of a shaker!).

Our waitress was very knowledgeable and very pleasant, and I ended up getting one of the best prepared Mexican meal of my life. Not to mention their chips and salsa, again, out of this world.

If you really like Mexican food and you find yourself in Houston, the name of the restaurant is Pappasito’s Cantina, I’m sure that by the end of the meal you’ll virtually thank me for the precious suggestion.

Tomorrow we will leave Houston and continue to head East towards Florida.

We’re currently planning on stopping in New Orleans, LA for the night, check out the French Quarter, and overall see how the “Big Easy” is recovering from the devastating hurricane of 2005.

Now it’s time to get some sleep and try to digest the Mexican food (I’m sure the Margaritas will help!).

Good night cowboys,

Nico.