Useless Phone

One of the things that bothered me at the first day of travel, after I landed in IAH and got my rental car, was that my telephone was not working! It was working but I wasn't able to make any calls! There was this stupid message on the top: " Emergency Calls Only "! My plan is a good one which enables me to call and text all across Canada and the US without any limit, for a little money! Now I was in the US and the telephone didn'r work! I went to my hotel and then from there I found an AT&T store clsoeby and talked to the guy about my problem. It appeared that a simple phone, with a handset would cost about US $75. I went back to the hotel and I realized that there was no long distanc call available!!!! I had never seen something like that! In fact when I was in Munic I had a similar situation, not quite teh same: There was no telephone set in the room! Anyway I got on a chat with my service provide through my notebook but he was not able to do anything.

A map at a local McDonald's shows the source of their coffee. I was greated in Spanish when I was ready to order and that was not the last time! Hispanics constantly mistaken me for one of their own! Had not seen the map before

The next morning, on the way to downtown Houston, I saw a T-Mobile store and stopped. I got a SIM card for US $45 and I got fixed for the rest of the trip! When I later contacted the service provide I was told that the roaming feature had been locked and I had to call before the start of my trip! 

(Photo, top: I stayed at Staybridge in NW Houston in my first night of my Texan trip, almost half an hour, if not more from downtown. I think I selected that because it was only 20 minutes drive from the airport. Not a bad hotel. It was more than half empty at the time!)