Our 7th

In the midst of packing for yet another stretch of our US coast-to-coast, we decided to commemorate our 7th anniversary (time flies, sheesh!) and Tesla-drive we went to a nice, little restaurant in an old palace in the village where we live.

Inevitably, conversation ended in the usual:
"Would you believe we'd be here seven years later?"
However, this year there was a twist to the also usual:
"No, I wouldn't but I'm so glad we're here."
The twist was, as it had to be on a year so obsessed by Tesla (and no this is not a Tesla Motors sponsored blog):
"No, I wouldn't and neither would I imagine we'd be making conversations about Tesla all the time..."

Cheers, mate! You know I love you even when and if you talk Tesla to me.

End of Part I

Epic! Astounding! In the summer of 2015 we came on a roadtrip to fullfil one of those bucket list wishes, in our case a US coast-to-coast which we would make in three parts, this one being the first. In the end we (he to be more accurate) made the decision that on getting back home, a Tesla Model S would be the car to have. We kept the roadtrip going as we had planned but tried to coincide stretches with finding super-chargers just for the fun (his) of it. I went along not knowing a few months later I would create this blog of Tesla-related adventures.
We started out in Miami, went all the way down to Key West and up again to the mainland, across Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana to get to Texas. On getting to the airport in Houston, this was the total of our trip: 4600.8 kilometres, some 2858 miles. Next year, which is this year, we'll travel the second part of our roadtrip. We'll start where we left off in Houston and will, hopefully, go all the way to crazy Las Vegas. Actually, as I write this it's 24 hours before departing from Portugal but as you read, we'll be somewhere in wildest Texas, Big Bend National Park maybe, or lost somewhere trying to find cowboy forts or whatever else we might be doing...

Houston, no problem here but...

Growing up I wanted to be a scientist. My guru was, and is, Sir David Attenborough and I was equally fascinated by the wonders of our natural world as I was with the mysteries of outer space. How vividly I remember watching the launch of spaceshuttle Columbia on TV. How excited I was the first time I touched a tiny, little piece of moon rock in the Kennedy Space Centre in Florida. We, by means of of course, could not be in Houston and not visit the Johnson Space Centre. Absolutely not!

 I did touch a tiny, little piece of moon rock again. But I don't know, the mystique was somehow not there anymore. It was all far too Disneyland to me. There's something more real about the Kennedy Space Centre in Florida that I did not find here in Houston.

True, it was time well-spent but... It's the but.

San Felipe de Austin

The funny thing is that when you read this, we'll be back in Texas and it's one year later. Ah, the joys of blogland! We'll be somewhere south in the great State of Texas, deep, deep, very deep south. But when these photos were shot it was 2015 and we were in San Felipe, the legendary urban centre of the Stephen F. Austin colony.

It's a quaint little place; tourist-staged on the site of the old burgh. I don't mind the tourist-staging thing if it's elegantly done as is the case in San Felipe. The other nice thing is that we were actually the only tourists there (as we were the day before in Washington-on-the Brazos). So nice to get out the beaten track...

For a moment I could almost see Laura Ingalls running outside the little house on the prairie. Tough times, brave people who settled the West when the West was wild. In San Felipe de Austin we learned another chapter in the rich history of pioneer land.

And so we now know how and why Austin is called Austin.

Lord, won't You buy me a house in Galveston?

He found out there was a destination-charger on the island of Galveston and I said the usual "Ok, let's go". Little did I know that I would fall in love with the place...

Those houses by the sea: lovely. All of them.

I remember feeling something similar the first time I went to Florida, to St. Augustine, and being so smitten by the place I went to open houses just to imagine what it would be like to be there. I didn't go on a house hunt this time but my heart told me I wouldn't mind coming back. The only thing that still strikes my European gaze as odd, is the cars by the beach. We have never developed that habit...

And what if those were Teslas?

Washington-on-the-Brazos, TX

Who would have guessed that Texas was once a (sort of) independent nation? Well, one has to come to Washington-on-the-Brazos to learn just that.

Interesting to notice what utopias can accomplish. Marvelling at the centenarian trees and the replicas of the houses of when Washington-on-the-Brazos was the heart of independent Texas does make one's thoughts drift back in time.

In this 21st century of ours is now easy to guess what was the result of the simple yes-no referendum... 

In Houston, Texas

48 hours before going back to the States and resume our coast-to-coast roadtrip, time to rewind and go back in time to the moments when the decision was made to welcome Tesla to our lives.
It was here at the North-Houston Tesla Service Center and Store that the features of the Model S were chosen.

I mean, I didn't choose anything. I remember being asked about my preferences and it was all geek jargon to me until they showed me the colours the Model S comes in.
- Solid white - I said and I guess it was the sole contribution I made to the Creature that would arrive a few months later. The road, always the road, the open wide road was my main interest. After all, what's a roadtrip without the road?