tasks, however when you are travelling for 13 weeks you cannot avoid all
trappings of everyday life. On this occasion the task was to find a tailor to
patch Emma's increasingly obscene jeans, a job that we thought could easily
be accomplished with leather chaps. We were in Texas after all so finding
someone to do the work did not seem an overly ambitious goal.
First we enquired at the local visitor information centre. Here we
received a very cagey response of 'oh, not sure...try the concierge at your
hotel'. Why the secrecy? It was not as if Emma had asked for drugs or a
prostitute...though she did gesture to her crotch so perhaps this is where the
confusion came from? Next stop the market area of town, a seemingly fruitful
source of crafts-people. Here we found dozens of stalls selling leather goods,
but none who could patch the jeans. We also saw loads of stalls with hats for
sale - bizarrely - with huge signs saying 'No photographs', even more bizarrely
but obviously aimed at the Japanese tourist market. Our journey across town
was not entirely wasted however as we found a place to email for free.
Following our failed shopping expedition we headed to the river walk
area, where restaurants and shops line the water and you can take lazy boat
rides. A truly scenic place...except in January when we were in town.
This is the time of year when the waterways are drained to be cleaned
- we were there for the nearly empty smelly stage. An annual mud race takes
place – probably to try to make up for the smelly messiness and probably fun,
but we just missed that too. We did see a live crayfish fighting for breath in the
shallow water left behind in a hollow in the riverbed however, something that
we soon learnt was an edible delicacy in Louisiana.
We did also find a nice restaurant for dinner, The Republic of Texas,