April 4, 2007 – He thought he was the King Of America

False starts abound. Damn. I was going to leave last week. Then I decided that I had to stay to see Sean Lennon. (He was awesome, by the way.) So, I was going to leave the Sunday after the concert. That didn’t work out too well. Just nowhere near ready. Then Monday didn’t work, either.

So Tuesday it was. But I made the mistake of hanging out with Bart and Angela until 5am. Ok. It’s never a mistake to hang out with friends. But sometimes you shouldn’t hang out for so long. But something made me want to prolong the magic a bit longer. I wasn’t going to see these people for about six months! What else could I do?!

I was going to wake up around 10 and have a leisurely time packing and take off around noon.

Well, waking up at noon doesn’t really help that sort of plan. So there I was, rushing around trying to finish packing, showering and racing out the door. I had a couple of errands left to run, but those could wait. I had to get out of town so that I could get to Houston before traffic hit and I wasn’t able to see my friends.

But I still had to say goodbye to my grandparents! SHIT!!!

By the time I was ready to leave, it was about 2:30. I made it to my grandparents’ place around 2:45. SHIT AGAIN!!! They were at a dentist appointment!

Basically, I didn’t get out of town until 4:30. But I missed rush hour!

Luckily, on the way to Houston on 290, just outside of Brenham, there’s an old, nearly abandoned drive-in theatre. I had no idea that it was there! I passed it by. Then I thought about it. Isn’t this what this trip is all about? Finding bits and pieces of Lost America? (Ok, and finding bits and pieces of myself, too.)

So I turned around and took a look. I couldn’t get in to walk around the grounds. Apparently, it’s owned by an antique dealer or something. Here is what I was able to see.

This makes me incredibly sad. Drive-ins were once kind of considered in the same way as the old Movie Palaces. They were a place for families and teenagers to go see movies and be completely alone while they did it. (And, by “did it” of course I mean that many virginities were casualties of the drive-in.) They were fields of dreams not only for the people who ran them, but for the people who went there.

But now they’re just fields of decay. I see a place like this and I think about how cool it would be to try to start it up again. Other people see it as wasted space. And that’s too bad. It’s like a little piece of America died with this drive-in.

I can’t wait to see more stuff like this along the way.

Of course, I may have to shave my chest if this trip goes on as long as I think it will. The damn seatbelt is rubbing against my hair under my shirt and it’s REALLY uncomfortable. (Ok. Maybe not. That would just be weird.)

Now I’m in Houston hanging out at my uncle’s place. I’m not so sure that I could ever live in a town that takes an hour to get from one side to the other. I mean, what’s the draw? It’s huge, dirty and you have to evacuate once every two years. Not exactly selling points.

But I’ll hang out here for a couple of days and explore. Tomorrow I plan on taking a drive down to Galveston and checking out the coastline. I haven’t been here in a long, long time. Hell, when I was here last time, Astroworld was still the most fun thing in town. Now it’s a vacant lot.

I’ll let you know what I think of Galveston soon.

In the meantime, here’s a bit of Found Porn for you: