I spent a bit of time driving around the 9th ward and other areas devastated by Katrina. It was crazy to see all the half standing houses still being lived in while the rest of the neighbourhood had moved on and had their houses demolished. I was really pleased to see that Brad Pit had started a project to rebuild whole areas with state of the art eco friendly houses for people that lost their homes. The houses all looked different yet kept the same weatherboard look that that you see all around that part of the world. Lots of writers had visited there and there were a lot of places to paint. I didn't have a lot of time on my hands but it seemed pretty chill and there were no shortage of spots.
We decided to spend a night in Roswell, the strange town with a so called Alien sighting in the 40s. What a weird place. The have really overdone the alien thing. We went to the alien museum which was more like a school project. Half of the buildings in town were boarded up and the other half sold dusty alien souvenirs.
We also went to Banderra, Texas which is the cowboy capital of the world. It was good drinking in the pubs with the cowboys in the 20 gallon cowboy hats and checking out the local rodeo. In the pic below there is a platform in the background that they make a pony walk up and jump off into an overground pool. They call it Aqua Pony. I think the animal rights people would have a field day.
If there is one city you should check out in Texas it has to be Austin. There is a really good music scene there with free gigs in most pubs in town. The bars are packed every night of the week, there is great food all over town and a general good vibe.
