End of the American road

I sit in a hotel on the waterfront at Galveston, near Houston, reflecting on the trip to Texas and beyond, and preparing to head home tomorrow.

After leaving New Orleans on Wednesday, I spent most of Thursday on the road to Tennessee, driving for hour after hour on open roads through Louisiana, Alabama and finally Tennessee itself. For me, it was heaven - I love to be able to drive with my ipod and spend time going through all the podcasts I have been downloading but not had time to actually listen to.

Then on Friday morning, I awoke at Sonny's family's place - owned by his Aunt Linda and her husband, Bobby Joe. We had a big breakfast, as Sonny's family was with us too, and it felt really good to be welcomed in by them all. Later we went on a boat trip on a lake which was just huge. The afternoon was taken up with shopping, food and music at home as Sonny's highly talented nephew, Alex, strummed away on the guitar.

Saturday was not so great - I woke up sick as a dog and unable to join the planned family picnic. A pity - 57 of Sonny's family were due to get together (his mother is one of 9 siblings) so it would have been a fun event. Instead I started to head back South.

And after a full day's driving today, I reached Galveston. On the way, I passed along a coastal causeway which clearly has been very damaged by the hurricanes in recent times. The houses are built on stilts as protection from the weather, and as there is plenty of space, they are all built with space between. It means you drive for miles of causeway, seeing house after ruined house. When you think of the optimism behind the building of those places, how people must have imagined summers and weekends by the beach - it is heartbreaking to see that ruined.

Galveston is, I think, the most Southerly place I have seen the sea, and it made me realise how many interesting places I have looked out over the ocean. Tel Aviv, while working for Canon. California a couple of years ago on holiday. Corfu, while visiting my father. Westward Ho! in the South West of England, where my Grandparents took us at Summer. And Castricum, on the West coast of Holland. Something about the sea makes me reflect and feel something deeper than words.

It's been an amazing trip, full of interesting places and characters, and I learned some more about America, and myself. Even the illness has been a learning. Not exactly sure what it was, but I couldn't eat anything since Friday and I came to the conclusion that I simply ate and drank too much. My body just said "enough". Time to take a bit more care of myself.

And now this first trip of the year is over, and I look forward to the last days in the office, the chance to start the book from beginning of May, and other trips already booked to Spain in May and Greece in June and July.

PS - just as I finished this piece, I got my first bug! A huge cockroach crawled out from behind the fridge in my hotel room, ran mazily across the wall avoiding my swats like Cristiano Ronaldo, and hid behind the fridge again. Coward. I guess it won't be the last bug I see in the coming year...