"So, how do you like College Station?"

[rebeccmeister]

I got really lucky last night - when I called to make a reservation for the shuttle van that runs between Houston and College Station, I got a voicemail recording that told me that the office would be closed through the rest of the weekend. You're supposed to call in to make a reservation if it's less than 24 hours from the time when you wish to take the shuttle. When I then checked the online reservation schedule, all of the shuttles for Sunday were booked. I tried adding myself as a standby passenger, and kept my fingers crossed that I wouldn't have to wait in the airport until Monday morning to catch a shuttle home.

There were two shuttles on Sunday night that could have potentially worked out. My flight was scheduled to arrive at 7:50, which meant that timing was a bit close for the 8 pm shuttle. As luck would have it, our flight arrived at about 7:15. Of course, the flight was full, so I'd volunteered to check my second carry-on bag, which meant an additional wait at the baggage claim. Makes a person slightly nervous. I grabbed my bag at 8:01 and went out to the curb to look for the shuttle van. No van in sight. A few minutes later, it pulled up. And lo and behold, there was a lone free seat for me.

I sat in the front row of seats, next to a woman carrying a small dog and a man from India. The question came out fairly early in the conversation, "So...how do you like College Station?" People ask this a lot in Phoenix, too, and for a long time I was always surprised by the instant "I love it!" reaction that others often expressed. My initial reaction to Phoenix was, "Well, it's a giant suburb..." In contrast, when people ask about College Station, about half of the time it's a loaded question. It came out pretty quickly that neither of my two seat companions particularly cared for College Station, and their gripes were similar to my own - it's hard to get around in Texas unless you drive. It's especially hard to get to parks of any considerable size. There are no mountains. This half of the state is mostly privately owned land. I've heard this same complaint from many people by now. My mother is considering a touring trip across the US, and is thinking about visiting Big Bend National Park as part of the trip. My brother says it's nice. It's on the other side of Texas, a full day's drive away. That's a lot of travel time for a quick visit - if I were to go to the trouble and expense of going that far, I would want to go the rest of the way to Phoenix.

I am remembering that one of the things that made Boston difficult was the fact that one couldn't easily get out to parks there, either - at least, I could never figure out a way. Just endless countryside, which isn't the same.

At this point, I don't know how things are going to go with the research I need to get done this year. That makes it difficult to plan any expeditions anywhere. One of the best things about living in Arizona was just how easy it was to go out and have adventures - one can even leave from one's front door on a bicycle and get out to places to camp. Plus, I had a better idea of how to structure my time there, without feeling compelled to work constantly.

I spent this "holiday season" in a cabin at Lake Tahoe, then at my parents' home in Seattle. Not exactly an adventure. I am hoping that I can convince myself that riding bikes around here is enough of an adventure. Gotta suck it up, Clark, and make some adventures happen.

Comments

[scrottie.livejournal.com]

"I sat in the front row of seats, next to a woman carrying a small dog and a man from India." ... Teehee at the mental image from the literal reading =)

[dichroic.livejournal.com]

Big Bend is awesome; when we lived in Houston we used to go there for backpacking for a 3-day weekend. Leave work a bit early no Friday (say, 2PM), arrive at 2AM, sleep in or on the vehicle until the ranger staion opened, get permit, hit the trail. The really sucky part about it, though, is that you have to carry your entire supply of water in. No streams to get water from, and drinking Rio Grande water is not advised even if it's been filtered.

I don't think it's possible to get there without a car.

I totally agree

[(Anonymous)]

Big Bend is AWESOME! I mostly only drove through it and saw the sights, but it sure made me want to do some hiking there! It's beautiful. We camped there one night and in the morning were greeted by a javelina that came to inspect our campsite :)

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