19 March 2023, Houston, USA –

We had no particular plans for today, other than sleeping in, getting the flat tyre repaired, and doing a bit of souvenir shopping. The tyre repair guy said he would need the car for about 3 hours, so we left it there and set off for a walk. The sun reappeared, and we headed off on foot, to a book store that was about 3.5 km away. Pedestrians in Houston are not at all common, but at least there are footpaths.

Before hitting the book store, we spied a Tex-Mex restaurant, with a few gluten free options. You can’t come to Houston and not sample Tex-Mex, and this was really good; and plentiful. Much better than all the processed, plastic-looking food that we’ve seen a lot of.

Sated, and with new book purchased for Ian’s rapidly growing space literature collection, we hiked back to the car. We still had a wait, but we got talking to a young guy who was also picking up his car. Turns out Jack was from Fort Lauderdale in Florida, here in Houston doing an internship, working with Axiom on designing space suits – our second rocket scientist! Of course we got talking about rocket launches, and then Antarctica – we had plenty in common, and it was a nice conversation.

After taking possession of our car with its repaired tyre, we spent money on more space souvenirs – caps, Tshirts, patches and stickers – before heading home. We took a short evening stroll to check out the marina at the back of our apartment; it opens up onto Clear Lake, which looks like a pleasant place to have a boat. Then we retired for our evening – a restrained dinner after our huge lunch; choc chip cookie dough icecream for dessert; and the new season of Survivor on the TV. A very pleasant Sunday in Houston.