Above: Our dinner.
Houston IAH was very quiet for our lunchtime arrival. Immigration and customs was an absolute breeze unlike our previous experience some years ago. There were absolutely no queues for either. And that’s for us visa holders. It gets even easier for people who are on ESTAs.
Coming out, we rang the Red Roof from the information desk and were collected by their shuttle some 20 minutes later. We managed to get our room straight away. Despite me having about 5h light sleep and Kim 3h deep sleep, we both napped for an hour plus before chilling.
Around 1700, we took the hotel shuttle to the airport to get to Avis but we managed to get ourselves dropped at the car rental centre instead. We asked around to check if our pre-booked car was a good deal. Most rental companies were busy and the ones that weren’t were sold out. We had done the right thing pre-booking!
We headed back grabbed dinner around 1800 at Al-Wadi Mediterranean Sandwiches next door to the hotel. There was very little giveaway that it was Middle Eastern place apart from a small sign in Arabic. There were pictures of Greece! From the little bit of what I’ve seen around the airport, the place felt like any other part of the US. I wouldn’t have known it was Texas for there were no cows, cowboys, desert or cacti 😉
Around 2200 we thought we needed a little precautionary snack. We had no biscuits or similiar as we didn’t feel like patronising the Shell service station which had no prices on nearly anything.
Subway next door was handy and very good. It turned out to be a wise move; I dozed from around 2330 till 0100 when I woke feeling hungry and wide awake. Bloody 7h time difference taking its toll. I had half a cookie before taking half a sleeping pill and slept till after 0800.