Galveston: I went there because of a song

AFTER the Space Center, which lies just off the Gulf Freeway south- east of Houston, I carried on down to Galveston, which lies a few tens of kilometres south-east of Houston on a sand-bar bar island just off the coast. I found it hair-raising getting back onto the freeway the first time, since I was used to driving on the left and everybody seemed to be going fast in what was, to me, the wrong direction. Do you choose the right lane or the left lane? Quick, quick . . . best just get under the sign that says Galveston! I had wanted to go to Galveston because of the famous 1969 song by Glen Campbell, which my father used to listen to.

On the way into Galveston, I noticed some amazing residential housing areas, perched right by the water’s edge.

On the side of the island that faced the rest of Texas, there was an oil port. There were tankers tied up, but nothing was moving, apparently because they weren’t making enough from the oil to warrant drilling at that moment in time.

The residential neighbourhood near the port looked sparse and abandoned. I wondered whether a lot of the old houses had been blown down in the last big hurricane to hit the island, in 2008. Galveston is quite bit more gentrified and rebuilt on the other side, which faces the open sea and isn’t so industrial; though the port district also has its run-down and seedy charms, including those of the nearby historic downtown area.

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Made from solid materials, the historic district mostly survived the great hurricane of 1900 which otherwise destroyed the town and killed thousands, because there were no proper warnings in those days. The fact that the island became a backwater thereafter means the historic district survives pretty much as it was in 1900, frozen in time like a fly in amber.

I walked around by the water. Galveston was an excellent place to walk around, with the same tight grid of square blocks as downtown Houston. At Pier 21, the touristy part of the port, I found that I could go on a dolphin cruise for $10. I asked around about that, and it pretty much everyone said that was the water was dirty, there were no dolphins and that was why it was so cheap!

I supposed the dolphins must have died or moved on because of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig blowout in 2010, which also put a crimp in the livelihoods of small fishers and boat operators in the area, and was apparently still doing so.

I went and took the boat anyway and I met a young couple that had just got married in Dallas. It seemed to me that Galveston was a popular honeymoon spot for young couples from the mainland. Perhaps that’s how Glen Campbell got the idea for the song.

We did see dolphins in the end, and we also saw some military bases on islands along the coast.

I went to a place called Flea by the Sea in the historic downtown area; an amazing bric-a-brac market, exactly the sort of place you’d expect to find in such a place.

I had lunch somewhere and the food was amazing, I had succulent prawns wrapped in crispy bacon. Absolutely yum. There were a lot of palm trees around Galveston which made it feel somewhat tropical, if it hadn’t been for the cooler breeze, you might think you were on a tropical island.

Galveston is quite an old town. It is named after Bernardo de Gálvez, who at the time of the American Revolution was the governor of Louisiana, ruled in those days by Spain, which also controlled present-day Mexico and Texas.

In the end, I got in my rented car and drove back to Houston afterward (there is a causeway linking Galveston Island to the shore). I found it a worry driving, not just for the reasons I mentioned before, but also because there were so many one-way streets, and my GPS wasn’t working because I had a New Zealand SIM in my phone. I almost turned right into two one-way lanes, got pulled up by the police, and I got a ticket and an official warning. I was pretty shaken by this stage and stopped for an almond cappuccino, which was really nice and setting, before driving on.

When I was on Galveston Island, I’d spoken to this guy who I thought was exaggerating about the risks of driving in the USA. I’ve since found out if you kill someone in a car you are liable to face more serious criminal charges than in New Zealand, so you have to be careful (as you should be, anyway).

So, I drove all the way back to Houston that evening feeling a bit ruffled. I had to drop the car back off at the Hilton before seven a.m. the next day, and I was over driving, so I dropped it off early and then had a beer at the Hilton before getting an Uber taxi to a new Airbnb place.

This Airbnb place was a worse disaster than the last one! After I left, the woman running it accused me of stealing a painting. She tried to claim

$500 for the allegedly missing painting and said she was going to call the police, which sounded like a scam. It was so bizarre because I had no use for a painting. How was I going to cart it all around the States with me? I was driving while at the same time of being accused of this.

As she was texting me and threatening me, I decided I had better switch off the phone: but then my phone seemed to somehow stop working altogether. All this was stress I didn’t need, that was for sure.