6 10 pm 7103 Ml pm rm 4:08 pm 79(9 4:12 pm S471 4:30 pm 2:30 pa pm 436 pm 5 55 pm 4:37 pm :45 pm :30 pm. On Time.

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Alexia Avis Ford
5 years ago
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1 s u m m e r j p. C I S 8 Around the World on Beltway 8 S»nJoM. C» S> 18» SwJou.Cr A 1103 «" Sn Lul Pott*»» «" S»n Lu Potol ft 2229 S.nP.droSuta ft 1*9 m S.n Salvador ft 627 m Setta/TcwM ft 43* Sejttle/Teoma ft 1492» Shnmport ft 2837 ShrtKpot ft 2637 St Lous $ 2169 TamMSl Pel* ft 1C07 m Tamp/St P«e... & 1707 equrq.l.s ft 1117 ««6 10 pm 7103 Ml pm rm 408 pm 79(9 412 pm S pm 230 pa pm 436 pm 5 55 pm 437 pm pm pm C t* Dtlavel o OnTma On Tune Arrtvlnq OnTrot EH B83 B70 C-tt C J I IV3 l.u ' ' ro BELTWAY BY L A R R Y A L B E R T You can fly almost anywhere tom the a r p o r t. but why bother? So much of the wotid revolves around Houston already. 1.vent shot T n7 tor shoes at DSW Shoe Warehouse. DSW stands for Desgner Shoe Warehouse. It's n an I t a l a n shoppng center past beltway 8, on the sde of the 1-45 freeway. 3 I asked the store manager where the Italan slo-'s.-'. Ihey weren't ofjanl/ed by eoun- Uy, she told me. "You'd have to loov.a t each par to see whee they came fom." She sad there wasn't any connecton between the desgn of the bulldnos and the shoes nsde. "It's just a strp," she sad. I'hs tfl Jfls especally comfortable. '. thought they were fom Italy, but when I jot td the checkout I notced a ta^ that sad MADE IN BRAZIL. h Afterwards I walked down to the end of the Shoppng center. to a bar called buffalo Wld Vlnus. I ordered some Carbbean Jerk Buffalltos, whch turned out to be chcken tacos. nbojaptukboofr j ^ askelball fnals were on TV, alorrr wth a NASCAR race called the "tood Cty 500." There was a war on, too. It was n Iraq. ^^r rmss m 1 K1 pt^l I played a crame on NTN, the Nat lonal Trva Network. lre questons were 1 OS ted on some o the TV screens, rll, ' I punched mv answers nto a rrameset. between rounds, bref news headlnes flashed at the bottom of the screen. "Iraq Campagn Dents On-Ar Advetsnu," one of them sad. I dd pretty well for a whle, but I messed HI on.! r-sto o n!, v.hi's l OS Bnd ended up n ffth place.

2 Cte " I 1 o o t s u m m 29 * r There were moe TVs on n Conn's when I wandered n, but most of them were tuned to the food Channel. A salesman named Gary told me they weren't allowed to show the news whle the war was on, because customers mrht rret u;set. /.leady that day, 3ary sad, a mother had complaned when her chld wandered over to a TV that showed some women dancng n bkns, Outsde, at the front of the shoppng center overlookng the freeway, I found a statue of a woman wth no arms, stuck on top of a vol?. Sculptures were planted all over. Hs one on top of Oshman's Super sports USA looked knd of famlar. It was a man wearng a br fg leaf. r^ntu* MetroNatonal Umnu-* FALL 200) In the mddle of the shoppng center, n front of a store called Country Clutter, was a bn; fountan. Two hary men were tryng hard to hold up the Eath, whch was wet and drppng all over them. The horses around them looked upset about the floodng Sometme later, whle the war was stll cronrr on, I passed ths scene of destructon outsde Memoral Cty Mall. It was a new lanet In Oreenspont, I stopped to take a pcture of a bg metal buldng that had a lot of flags out front, A sgn sad t was the Harvest Tme Church, and that Shelon bady was the bshop. A man n a Range Rover stopped and asked me what I was dong. He turned out to be Shelton bady. He sad the flags represented all the dfferent natonaltes of hs congregaton. He sad they were stll mssng a few. He had just come back fom a l to Honduras. bshop bady sad he thought t was mportant to try to understand dfferent cultures, and that he wanted to use that understandng to expand others' concept of God. "You can't know Qod and be dstant," he sad. after a whle, we sad r.-oo-.uye and I went across the street, where there was a travel.r am-.s"s---, a! ae ; r,.; supermarket parkng lot. I watched two kds gel off a rde called Paratrooper. but just as they landed, one of the kds trpped over a cable, hurt hs leg, and started cryng. Hs mom ted to comfort hm by sayng she'd take hm to get some chps and salsa, but he wanted to rde a^an. Later, I ate dnn at IHOP.

$30 s o m m» r I 2 ) ) I C I e \ Have you been to j-orbdden Gardens? A man named Tom? reeled me at the front zate. Tom sad he lves n Scotland and Norway. He was (?ettn«ready fo a trj to Alaska.$

3 30 s o m m» r I 2 ) ) I C I e \ Have you been to j-orbdden Gardens? A man named Tom? reeled me at the front zate. Tom sad he lves n Scotland and Norway. He was (?ettn«ready fo a trj to Alaska. Tom ushered me nto a room to watch a move about the 1-obdden Cty and the lomb of Emperor Qn n Chna. The move plays contnuously, he sad, so t ddn't matter when I walked n. After the move betran to repeat tself, I went outsde for the tour. Our tou qude, Elzabeth, told us that Ira Poon, the man who bult forbdden Gardens, chose to buld t out here n Katy because the land remnded hm of hs hometown, Koncr Konz, and also because the land was much cheaper than n Houston. I \ / V Elzabeth showed us the tombs of Emperor Qn, who ruled Chna n the thd century B.C. He bult an army of 8,000 terracotta soldes to protect hs body after he ded, a They were set up just as f they were real solders n battle, but underground. 1-orbdden Gardens had a recreaton of hs rraveste, and authentc replcas of the soldes, at one-thrd scale. Elzabeth sad that some of the solders had lost ther heads because vandals had broken them. Tre solders orgnally had wooden spears, too, but many of them had been broken o stolen, so the rest were removed. 1» Ht % After a short tour of the Weapons Room, we rot to see the forbdden Cty. It was under a b(? shed roof. m* Elzabeth sad there were very few trees n the 1-orbdden Cty, because the emperors were afad of assassns, and assassns could hde n trees. In the Archtecture Room, she told us the efflperor'9 dream about a watchtower. Ke called seven archtects, but klled s* because he ddn't lke ther desgns, lre seventh not the watchtower rrht, because he pot help from a frend who bult canes for crckets. TT After the tour, I found some more buldlnzs st tne; n crates, out on the srass. Another tour rude told me they were for exhbts that hadn't been set u\ yet. They looked lke they had been sttng out for some t me. ehnd the crates and over a wall was a new ubdvson. * & On my way out, I dscovered why t was called forbdden Gardens.

$C t e < H I 2 n (» I s u m m e r 31 * v l a \ ft A month o so l a t e r, 1 went to the Alamo.$

4 C t e < H I 2 n (» I s u m m e r 31 * v l a \ ft A month o so l a t e r, 1 went to the Alamo. Ths Alamo was part of Northwest toresl, a conference cente n Cypress run by the company that sells Kwk Kopy franchses. They hold sales meetngs there, but also rent t out to people. f- "tmlmt -(.( Insv, vjests a r r rng fo a reddng the ne*t day. Jttt A!! to < N Along the balcones on each sde were guesl sutes, where people could stay overnght, Each one was named after someone who had been klled at the real Alamo, Outsde, a barbershop quartet was reheasncr. I met Jm, who sad he would be offcatng at the weddng. Ke sad he was a mnster n Ukrane, but he flew n for the weekend because he's known the brde snce she was lttle. behnd the Alamo Ma a strng of small, cartoony stoefronts. There was a general store, fl town hall, a saloon, a barber shop, and even a prnt shoppe. Somethng about them looked strange. OVTR ) - M I As 1 was lookng at the stores, a woman named Rose drove up n a golf cart. She opened up a sldng door on the sde of the storefront buldng and started to drve n. I asked her f I could go nsde, too. It was a laundry room. On my way out, I look more pctures of some of the sgns they had. - r F f " ' * n H < fsoa,. H I thought the sgns were funny, but I knew they meant busness, because I had already seen ths cente off Hghway 290, closer to I own, There wee a lot moe Alamoes here. And a lot moe ^aa^e doors, too.

$32 u m m e \ o o t l e s K V ^^.^-tjp-s.--p. FFl It -jas a hun;e amount of space fo lease, but most of t was empty.$

5 32 u m m e \ o o t l e s K V ^^.^-tjp-s.--p. FFl It -jas a hun;e amount of space fo lease, but most of t was empty. A bxochue n a box by a sales nale lsted only t-o tenants so fan jod and Kkkoman Behnd Mfttno Co.s.s.t? I found lluee buldngs of townhomes unde constructon. The one on tke left was just wood. The one n the mddle was covered Wth Styofoam. The one on the rght was covered wth brck. It was lke the Three Lttle Hes. I wandered nsde the Styofoam house. behnd, the sun was setln, and t made the wall rrlow a bllant blue. * In Sutherland, alonz the Southwest [-leeway, there's a bank that was bult to look just lke Thomas Jefferson's home, Montcello. There's a copy shop nht next door to t, too, Ths s the front porch, but you can that way. I t ' s paved wth crass. t tro n Later, I went back to the bank and used t ATM n the drve-thru. It was nce, but nothng lke the /.'I'M n ths?as staton off 296. You've jot to «;et out of your ca to use t, but t speaks to you n a Brtsh accent n a Wal-Mat parkng lot some statues fo sale hey seemed to have some the heads too.! nn Moe statues wee wrapped up n crates, wat ns to be sold. t remnded me a lot of frorodden Gardens, except thee wasn't any fraden, just a ner lot The parkng lot looked lke t had some hstory to t. Lnes had been panted and covered ove and then moved and panted acran. but people could stll fmre out whee to put the cas.

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