As I’ve always said, baseball is the perfect excuse to get out and travel, and see places that I never gave much thought to. I’d never been to Texas before in my life; it’s not that I’ve never wanted to go to Texas before, but I’ve never really had any excuse to go prior to the pursuit of baseball parks. I don’t know enough about the areas and cities, and there’s never been any sort of event or occurrence in any Texas that has drawn my attention to demand a warranting trip (that I’ve been able to make happen). But thanks to wanting to visit all the baseball parks, I have reasons to visit Texas, when the opportunities present themselves.
And as my schedule revealed, I had the opportunity to make a day trip to Houston over the weekend. First time visiting the state of Texas, seeing a city I’d never been to before, and take in a ballpark that makes me one ballpark closer to having visited all 30 Major League teams. I didn’t spend a tremendous amount of time in the city, since I had a few small objectives, and with a baseball game, there wasn’t a massive amount of free time to simply explore and wander too much, but for what it’s worth, I had a pretty decent afternoon in Houston.
My impressions of Houston overall are somewhat favorable, because for the longest time, I’d only ever been given the impression that Houston was a shithole, and not necessarily a very good representation of the state of Texas. I’d heard that there were lots of ghettos, crime was high, traffic was bad, and it was “too urban” and even some comparisons to Detroit. The Detroit comp is what probably sunk my expectations to next to nil, but it did put the city in a position to pretty much do nothing but pleasantly surprise.
I’ll agree that being in Houston didn’t really feel like I was in the state of Texas; I’m not entirely sure what that really should have been, perhaps more cowboy crap, or at least more Hispanic or Western kind of feel to the place, but when I was sitting down and taking in where I was, I’ll admit that it felt like that I could have been in just about any nondescript city in America. I had to remind myself that I was in the state of Texas a few times.
But yeah, it does feel like somewhat of a city with an identity crisis. Based on commerce alone, it felt like there was tremendous influence from Cajun country out east, as well as Mexican-American down south; and not like in any elaborate fashion, we’re talking about giant clusterfuck shopping centers offering creole seafood or Mexican cuisine. Now if this is what real Texas living is like, then I’ve truly, truly been way too influenced by television and movies about the kind of place Texas really is. But I have a suspicion that it’s more a Houston thing, than it is Texas.
The roadways scare me, though. Driving on the litany of winding highways and twisting ramps, it’s no wonder that Houston always ends up on the country’s worst traffic cities on an annual basis. It doesn’t help that the roads are in abysmal condition too, and I guess if there was one Texas stereotype that felt reinforced, it was probably the sheer number of massive pickup trucks, everywhere.
Either way, my time in Houston was short, but not bad at all. It didn’t really feel like I was in Texas, but thankfully is also didn’t feel like I was in Detroit. I can’t say that I’ve got an innate desire to come back to Houston any time soon, but I do know that this won’t be the last time I’m ever in the state of Texas.
