Well, that's another great holiday over. We spent the day in Houston catching some of the local sites and doing some last minute shopping before we catch our plane tomorrow. The city is vast, but driving around it is surprisingly easy and stress-free (although I wouldn't attempt it without a GPS device).

We found the heat and humidity here today quite oppressive. It was 35 degrees C, but felt more like 40. We are told that the heat today is nothing compared to what it will be once summer really kicks into gear. We are glad we will not be here then.

One final thought about our travels through the US: we noticed that a lot of stores and merchants leave a lot of valuable stock outside when they close up for the day, particularly in smaller towns. Some flea markets just leave everything out, but cover it with waterproof sheeting to keep out the weather.

It is so common here that there can't be a lot of theft of the merchandise otherwise they wouldn't do it. Are they just more trusting than Kiwis?

Today we parked our car in the carpark of a large shopping mall and Vyv dropped her coin purse containing about $10 by the car. When we came back an hour and a half later we found the coin purse just where Vyv left it, with the money still inside. We were amazed. Maybe the fact that the purse was bright pink meant that no macho criminal would go near it.

After dinner tonight we returned to our motel. We picked up an extra towel from the receptionist and made our way to the room. Approaching the door it dawned on both of us at the same time... we were at the wrong motel. Our one was next door. Stupid tourists...