Backing Up A Bit...

Aidan was bouncing off the walls when I got to Chandra's to pick him up. On the way to Houston, he asked if the TV announcers in Houston would have Texan accents. I don't think he had been that far away from home before.

The long drive bored him, and he did fall asleep in the car.

I tried to follow the purple line that Mapquest put on that there map for me, but I must have got in the wrong lane on that there freeway, and wound up in the middle of downtown Houston, on the surface streets, in the rain, with no earthly idea how to get to LaPorte, where the San Jacinto Monument and Battleship Texas hang out.

I got back on the freeway, and got off when I saw a sign directing me to our destination. Once again, I was on the surface streets, miles from our objective. We bought one of those little atlases, and Aidan learned to read a map, in short order. He did very well, once I explained that the blue lines were freeways and the red ones were major surface streets.

Suffice it to say, we got there, and the Spencer Highway is very, very long. At least, Aidan now has a feel for just how big Houston is, which he probably would not have if we had stayed on the freeway.

Aidan enjoyed the hotel, but would have preferred one that offered room service. Slightly mollified by the breakfast served in the lobby, and by being put in charge of the door key-card, he eventually consented to stay there, and even (gasp) bathe.

It seems that I snore, and he does not.

Such are the things you learn.