Houston to Norman -- May 2-3rd

Last day in Houston. Packed in quite a bit of quirky stuff to do. Angie had some errands and stuff to do, so I went out by myself. First I went and saw the 50 foot saxophone made out of vw beetles. It was in front of a now closed restaurant, so there was an overgrown palm tree right next to it, but still pretty cool. Then I went to a giant armadillo statue, then on to the beer can house. Some guy in Houston completely covered his house with beer cans that he cut up, and made the fence, garage, etc. the same way too. There were bottles as a fence, tabs as curtains, it was crazy. They had some really cool t-shirts too, but they wanted $25 for it, so I passed. The guy was very nonchalant about it forever, commenting he wouldn't walk around the block to see the house, and didn't consider himself an artist. Instead, he would just say, he just didn't want to paint the house or mow the lawn. There were over 50,000 beer cans, he and his wife drank them all. After that I ate at Jack in the Box, gross, but I get to cross it off the list now.
Next, I hit up the Houston Arboretum and Nature Center, a neat little preservation area with trails and stuff. I went on a hike for a little over an hour, and got a few cool pictures. I then headed home because we scored free Fleetwood Mac tix!!
Got home and Angie and I left for Carabba's restaurant. It's the original one in the country. The fare was fabulous, absolutely awesome. We shared some mussels for an app, and then I had a panchetta wrapped quail served on polenta with asparagus and roasted potatoes. I had a food orgasm, I think. That was my first quail experience, and it won't be my last. Prbably the tastiest bird I've eaten.
We had a little trouble at the ticket window, and we were a little late to the show, but we got in, and only missed about 4-5 songs. I wish we could have caught them, I heard we missed Rhiannon, The Chain, and Gypsy, but the rest of the show rocked. Stevie's voice sounded great and Lindsay Buckingham's guitar play was incredible for any 30 year old let alone being a 60 year old man. So cool. They went for about two and a half hours, including a 3 song encore and a second 1 song encore! Then Angie and I went to a bar to hang out, we got kinda drunk and watched a cool little cover band that did songs in kinda rockabilly style. They played AC/DC, Steve Miller, Sublime, Tom Petty, and were taking requests. Unfortunately, they didn't know Weezer or Nirvana, so I just had to make due. Very cool bar, though. The Abbey Pub, I think. They were having a pajama contest, the bartender were pouring shots into people's mouths while standing on the bar, and the crowd could have entertained us for hours, kinda hick, kinda biker, about equally black/white, very interesting.
After that we went home and looked at photos until we passed out.
Woke up this morning with a bit of a hangover, but said goodbye to everyone and made it out by noon, my projected leaving time. Drove to Dallas, first stop: SMU. Poked around campus and took pictures, then went to Arlington, where the new $1 billion stadium for the Dallas Cowboys is being built. I met an enthusiastic photographer also there taking pictures and hung out with him while we walked around the new stadium. Then I snuck through the construction gate and got really close. It's projected to be done June/July-ish, so it's still kind of a mess, but the facility is the coolest stadium I've ever seen. Can't wait to go to a game there!!
Then I went west to Fort Worth to eat at another DDD place called Fred's Texas Cafe. They're supposed to be known for their burgers. I got there and there was a 3 day music fest going on! No cover. Bands all day. The menu was extremely limited due to the fest, but luckily they were doing burgers, so I had one. It was good, not really anything special, but tasty nonetheless. I watched about 2 songs from a local favorite band. they were great. 2+ drum sets, guitar, bass and vocals, great energy, experimental type music mixed with jam band and a little electronica. And the ladies were smokin'. Good times. Then I headed onto Norman, getting pulled over on the way, right before the Oklahoma border. The officer was super cool and gave me a warning, and I got into a brand spanking new Motel 6 about midnight. I'm very tired, sorry if the blog was brief this time, but I need to crash.