..... After staying the night at the noisest motel 6 we had encountered we weren't in the mood for the 7hr, 400mile drive we had in front of us, particularly as the clocks were going forward an hour when we crossed the border into Texas. This drive only took us to Del Rio, a small unmentionable town where we slept for the evening, then it was off to San Antonio early the following morning. San Antonio was a further 180 miles, we were originally going straight to Austin, but had a few days to play with so added it to our itinery. There we visited the Alamo, got lost, as the roads were more complicated than a Oxford PHD Maths test and dined out at a place called Sam's which was a pleasant hill billy, tin built cafe.

Day 40 ( 20% into our trip) we drove a pleasant 80 miles to Austin, where we booked into the first hostel we had been to in a while, (we not that good at this backpacking malakey). We had a bit of a nothing day, as we planned to stay in Austin another night and were a bit gutted when we woke up the next morning with it poring with rain. What else could we do, if it was raining but go shoping, so we located the nearest mall and spenty quite a few hours spending money, (mainly on christmas presents for everyone else, not gifts for myself- well maybe one or two).

Heading back to the hostel, we decided we were going to join the guys who we spoke to briefly the previous evening, in the hostel, on a night out. There names were Dan and Ed, both seemed like nice lads, Dan was quite fit but had very bad hair and was a typical American ass and Ed was quite funny in a non PC type of way. The night started off well but, when two welsh girls challenge 2 Americans to a drinking competition, you would have to expect it to get a bit messy. Both the boys were drinking water by 10:30pm (typical American) and Dan made a ass of himself, as he tried to come on to both Kate and I and when we both cottoned on to the fact, he got shear welsh hell. Being proud of our heritage we were still knocking them back until the early hours and most details about the evening are a blur.

The morning after the night before, there are hangovers and then there is close to death, both of us tipping the scales to close to death. After myself and the toilet bowl had had an intimate chat for half hour I was informed that I tried to get into the wrong bed the night before and therefore woke my roomate (oops!). Despite the hangovers, neither of us felt close to being sober and had to check out in less than an hour. Turf out time came, and 2 now very sober welsh girls left the hostel minus any stomach contents and attempted to move to our next destination. Problem was we were supposed to be headed to Galveston which was at least 150miles away and 10 mins down the road we pulled over and lost what ever remained of our stomach lining in the local park. If it wasn't obvious before,it was at this point, we were no way going to make it to Galveston, so Kate somehow managed to get us to the nearest Motel 6 (still in Austin) where we slept for a further 3hours, (an adventure I certainly didn't plan on repeating).

When we eventually awoke, the sun was blazing. The only sunny day we had experienced in America since California and we had spent it in bed. So still slightly worse for wear (did I explain we were close to death), we were determined we were going to salvage what was left of the day and go and find Barton Springs and soak and sunbath our ailments away. One stop needed on route, McDonalds. Good, honest hangover food and if we could keep it down all the better. The McDonalds bit was easy (including keeping it down) but finding Barton Springs proved more difficult. So after getting lost for nearly an hour, in the blazing heat and still not 100% we headed back to the motel. It was by then nearly 6pm and we got stuck in rush hour traffic, so by the time we got to the motel we grabbed a jacket (as the sun started to set) and headed straight to Congress Bridge, hoping we would be there in time for the emergence of millions of bats. What a sight, literally millions of bats emerged from under the bridge forming what looked like one giant sheet of black cloud which was very noisey and extremely smelly - awesome. It lasted merely 3 or 4 mins so as we had some new found enthusiasm (or simply were now awake) we attempted for the second time to find Barton Springs.

Barton Springs is a natural spring that flows into a swimming pool complex, so you get all the comforts of an outdoor swimming pool with natural spring water rather than chlorinated pumped in water. I'm making it sound nicer than it actually was. Natural spring water, brings nature, this includes, spiders, mosquitoes, plantlife and freezing temperatures, not to mention it was dark when we got there. So a quick dip and photo moment to say we had experienced it then a quick bite at Denny's and back to the motel, to bed, so we could put a close on an eventful day.

Not so early the following morning and feeling on top of the world we drove through Austin, to the State Capitol Building to take some pics and contiued on to Galveston. We drove through the city of Houston on route and instantly knew when we had reached Galveston as it was like visiting the seaside. We checked in to a quaint beachfront hostel and as we were the only ones there we had a twin room for the price of a dorm. We drove up and down the seafront to get a feel for the place (and to show off with the roof down on our convertible) and had a bite to eat in a really groovy little eaterie called the spot. Then we spent an hour putting all our pictures on CD so you folks at home can peruse and went back to the hostel to use the internet so we could update you folks at home.

Next day the sun was shining and we decided we were going to stay another evening. We found an American greasy spoon called the Dutch Kettle and devoured a cooked breakfast and pancakes to top it off, (theres going to be a whole lot of me to love when I get home - diet what diet?) Second on our agenda was a bit of culture, so we visited 1 of 3 mansions that did guided historical tours. Its name was Bishops Palace and it was famous for its award winning fireplaces. It was a big house with lots of fireplaces, old furniture and magnificent architecture.

As one can only take in so much culture at once, we went for a walk to absorb all our new found knowledge on fireplaces and strolled down the strand. Obviously as the strolling involved moderate excercise, it lasted about half hour until we turned on our heels and headed back to the hostel to enjoy the sunny day by the pool. Apart from a quick jaunt to a Chinese buffet for dinner most of the evening was spent writing postcards and watching TV. Good job it wasn't a late night as unbeknown to us the clocks went forward and instead of a nice 9:30ish lie in it was a 8:30ish early morning, which we didn't find out until the car was loaded up and we were on the off, so no going back to bed.

To start our 200mile drive to Lake Charles (who the hell has heard of Lake Charles), we made a detour to Tiki Island to drool over the fabulous, unique houses on sticks, which housed the mooring for their boats underneath (one day !). On arrival in Lake Charles it dawned on us that we had no idea what there was to do (if anything), so headed for the visitor centre. It was closed, so with no map (not that I think Lake Charles is even on any map) we navigated our way to Downtown (just incase anyone is panicing at the moment, we had already found our accomodation for the evening). On first look the town looked deserted and the only place we could find open was a bookstore, so to kill some time we went in. When inside we were told that we hadn't actually reached downtown yet and there was a mall and cinema further along (phew! I thought my evening was to be spent in the bookstore). Instead of trying to navigate our way back to the motel then back out again, we decided to have an italian (for dinner) and catch an early film, ready in time to get back to the motel for the evenings episode of Law and Order (only joking, it wasn't planned, it might have been though if it was CSI). However, we did almost miss it (god forbid), as they closed down all the exits of the mall and it took us half hour to find the bloody car. With all this excitement and excercise, it was off to bed as soon as Law and Order ended..........