Gail and I drove to Houston Texas last Saturday morning to
visit with some friends we had not seen for a year or so; Anna and Rene. They are the folks I wrote about in my Nov,
2011 posting titled “Birthday Extravaganza,” which you can read about in my
blog archives if you are interested. As
usual, a day with these two people is anything but ordinary. They both looked the same and Rene, although he speaks perfect English, was still vexed by the inability of his I-Phone to respond properly to his Puerto Rican accent!
The day started out with an introduction to the City of
Houston and its amazing population of Doctors and nurses. It seems that Houston is built around a core
of health care professionals that has caused it to become the most populous
city in Texas, and the fifth-largest metropolitan area in the U.S. with over 6
million people. Houston’s crime rate is
amongst the lowest in the U.S. and only New York City is home to more “Fortune
500” companies. Houston is also home to
NASA’s “Mission Control Center.”
The introduction to Houston was followed by dinner at
Maggiano’s where Anna worked her magic to get us seated ahead of a “standing
room only” crowd that had arrived well ahead of us. We were delivered to Maggiano’s by a South
African taxi driver who, I am sure, was specifically selected by Rene to
provide our pre-dinner entertainment.
The short trip to the restaurant was an “E-ticket” ride that I will
never forget. Our driver raced through
the crowded, narrow streets of Houston at speeds that would have caused heads
to turn at any motor speedway. He
jockeyed for position with the agility of the gazelle’s of his home country of
Africa where, I’m sure, he learned this talent.
We had not traveled far before we were all tightening up our seat belts
and looking at each other as if it was going to be our last visit together.
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