Big Agnes Emerald Mountain Tent Arrives. It's Hot And So Is The Tent!

My New Home Arrived Today In A Small UPS Box

I chose a three person, three season tent called the Emerald Mountain, made by a company with the unlikely name of
Big Agnes. As with most tents the three person rating means the three people best be real comfortable together. Lots of legroom to stretch though, ample room for gear, and very highly rated by actual users. What else would you expect from Big Agnes?The pic above shows the inner mesh fabic before the rain fly is put on. Three season?

Typically a tent is put up at dusk and taken down in the morning. Mid-afternoon Texas July makes it a most hot prospect and turns the tent into an oven. For me 95 degrees usually beats 15 degrees. Striving for a target date to leave on the 26th or 27th. We shall see.

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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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