🇺🇸 New York, Texas and Louisiana 🚘

My first time in New York. After five days in the Big Apple, we joined some friends for a road trip from New Orleans to Austin.
A real American road trip, visiting amazing cities, stopping at gas stations and eating at local fast foods. Read more

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🇺🇸 New York, Texas and Louisiana 🚘Leonardo Floridia
We spot our first Buc-ee’s. 🦫
August 16, 2025 in the United States ⋅ ⛅ 31 °C
Just outside Houston, in Baytown, we spot our first Buc-ee’s. It’s a gas station chain which operates many gas stations mainly in Texas.

Outside, there are 100 (yes, 100) gas pumps. Once inside, it feels more like a shopping mall than a gas station. You can also find dozens of products with their iconic logo (a beaver wearing a hat). Too cool not to buy.

The one in Baytown was just the first of many Buc-ee’s where we stopped to eat or refuel during our Texas road trip.Read more
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🇺🇸 New York, Texas and Louisiana 🚘Leonardo Floridia
Buc-ee’s brisket 🥩🔥
August 16, 2025 in the United States ⋅ ☁️ 31 °C
We try the famous Buc-ee’s brisket. Simply delicious.

Brisket is a cut of beef taken from the cow’s chest. It’s usually smoked, braised, and then slow-cooked. Every time a piece comes out of the oven, the Buc-ee’s cooks shout “Brisket on the board!” and start slicing it up, generously coating it with barbecue sauce.Read more
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🇺🇸 New York, Texas and Louisiana 🚘Leonardo Floridia
We are in Huston, Texas!
August 16, 2025 in the United States ⋅ ⛅ 31 °C
We’re in Houston, Texas, and we’re welcomed by a man on horseback in the middle of the street! 🐎🤠
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🇺🇸 New York, Texas and Louisiana 🚘Leonardo Floridia
Non solo fast food!
August 16, 2025 in the United States ⋅ 🌙 29 °C
To escape the summer heat, after dinner we decide to try an ice cream shop.
We’re surprised by the quality, it was really good, and very similar to Italian ice cream.

Houston, however, has a big problem: cockroaches🪳. While eating ice cream on the street, we noticed them happily crawling on the sidewalk. In the garder of the place where we had drinks it was a full-on invasion. Definitely, the hot and humid weather doesn’t help to get rid of them!Read more
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🇺🇸 New York, Texas and Louisiana 🚘Leonardo Floridia
The Space Center Houston 🚀🛰️
August 17, 2025 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 33 °C
If you visit Houston, a stop at the Space Center Houston is a must.
It’s located about half an hour from the city and is very large, packed with models, explanations, and simulators.
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🇺🇸 New York, Texas and Louisiana 🚘Leonardo Floridia
Inside the Space Center Houston!
August 17, 2025 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 35 °C
The museum is really beautiful, interesting, and interactive.
There are many vehicles and spacesuits, as well as various photos, videos, and moon landing memorabilia.

What’s curious is that the museum is very interactive and kid-friendly.
There are games to see the effect of gravity on weight, monitors showing the extreme temperatures of planets, fun shows about life on the space station, and more.Read more
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🇺🇸 New York, Texas and Louisiana 🚘Leonardo Floridia
The main attraction: the space toilet 🚽
August 17, 2025 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 35 °C
Inside the museum there is an area that shows the life of astronauts aboard the International Space Station in zero gravity.
There are examples of the freeze-dried food eaten by both Russian and American astronauts, and above all, there’s the space toilet!

It’s a suction system that removes human waste, preventing it from floating around the space station due to the lack of gravity. The collected urine then becomes… perfectly purified water, drunk by the astronauts.Read more
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🇺🇸 New York, Texas and Louisiana 🚘Leonardo Floridia
The Saturn V and Space Shuttle Tour🚀🌕
August 17, 2025 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 35 °C
At regular intervals, a shuttle departs from the museum to show the outdoor areas and takes you to a huge hangar housing the Saturn V.

The Saturn V was the historic rocket used for the Apollo missions that took Americans to the Moon. It’s truly enormous, about 111 meters tall, the same height as the Statue of Liberty.

Inside the hangar, there is also a statue depicting the arrival of the Apollo 13 astronauts on the USS Iwo Jima after returning from the mission. The mission was supposed to land on the Moon, but was aborted due to an emergency on board.

The tour ends with a visit to the historic Space Shuttle, which you can actually go inside and explore.
It was a reusable spacecraft, used by NASA between 1981 to 2011. It could fly multiple times and was connected to external fuel tanks. This is the most iconic NASA space veichle and completed over 135 missions, including the two missions that tragically ended with the loss of two shuttles (Challenger and Columbia) and its crew.

The tour was incredible, despite the nearly 40°C heat!Read more
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🇺🇸 New York, Texas and Louisiana 🚘Leonardo Floridia
Freeze-dried ice cream🍨
August 17, 2025 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 35 °C
Inside the museum there is a shop where you can buy various gadgets — all incredibly expensive!

Among the gadgets, there is freeze-dried ice cream eaten by astronauts in the space.
It’s a completely dry ice cream (with the texture of a biscuit) that can be stored for months without the need for a freezer.

We tried it, and the flavor actually resembles a Cucciolone, even though the texture is much more crumbly and dry due to the absence of water. Not bad!Read more
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🇺🇸 New York, Texas and Louisiana 🚘Leonardo Floridia
A free car wash 🚗💦
August 17, 2025 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 35 °C
In Houston, we were offered a free car wash at a brand-new, fully automated car wash.
The most curious thing is that while you’re in the wash tunnel, images are projected onto the car’s windshield, a really unique experience!Read more
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🇺🇸 New York, Texas and Louisiana 🚘Leonardo Floridia
The street art of Houston🎨
August 17, 2025 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 34 °C
Houston is famous for its huge, colorful murals, symbolizing the city’s vibrant atmosphere and local culture.

Many organizations fund these works to promote culture and to enhance and revitalize different areas of the city.Read more
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🇺🇸 New York, Texas and Louisiana 🚘Leonardo Floridia
No, we weren’t arrested!🚓
August 17, 2025 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 34 °C
In downtown Houston, at the headquarters of the police, there’s a museum dedicated to the city’s police force.

Weapons, uniforms, motorcycles, and even a helicopter, all telling the story of the police department over the years.Read more
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🇺🇸 New York, Texas and Louisiana 🚘Leonardo Floridia
Houston: the biggest city in Texas!
August 17, 2025 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 33 °C
Even though the capital is Austin, Houston is the largest and most populous city, home to over 2.5 million people. The city is also one of the most important economic centers in the U.S., especially in the energy and aerospace sectors.

We walk through the streets, admiring the glass and steel skyscrapers. It’s very curious how the tram passes right through a fountain!Read more
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🇺🇸 New York, Texas and Louisiana 🚘Leonardo Floridia
Weed for animals
August 17, 2025 in the United States ⋅ ⛅ 32 °C
In a store in Houston, we saw cannabis for pets for the first time, an interesting business idea!
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🇺🇸 New York, Texas and Louisiana 🚘Leonardo Floridia
Houston combo: Whataburger, Chipotle, In-N-Out
August 17, 2025 in the United States ⋅ 🌙 30 °C
Texas is famous for its local fast-food chains, so we had to try them all!

- Starting with Whataburger. Honestly a bit disappointing, nothing more, nothing less than a McDonald’s. But the Coca-Cola was bigger than my face!

- The next day for lunch, Chipotle: The concept is really interesting: a taco or burrito, you choose the ingredients and build it however you like. Here we realize how obesity is a huge issue in America, when we saw the heaviest lady I’ve ever seen in my life. She entered, on crutches and supported by someone else, ready to order enormous portions.

- Finally, In-N-Out. I really loved it, placing it just behind P. Terry's (which we’d later try in Austin). Absolutely delicious. Here we also notice the genius of fast-food operations and how many people work in a small fast food located outside the city.Read more
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🇺🇸 New York, Texas and Louisiana 🚘Leonardo Floridia
The Trump burger: not the usual fast food!
August 17, 2025 in the United States ⋅ 🌙 30 °C
Houston is home to the only Trump Burger in the world, a Trump-themed fast food.
At the entrance, banners support Trump, and the menu features burgers like the “Ivanka Grilled” or “Trump Tower Burger”.

The most curious thing? The “Kamala” burger costs $51, and the cheddar in the burger even mimics Trump’s hair!Read more
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🇺🇸 New York, Texas and Louisiana 🚘Leonardo Floridia
New Buc-ee’s, new high-calorie menu ☕🍩
August 18, 2025 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 31 °C
Breakfast at Buc-ee’s has become part of our travel routine.
What’s better than starting the day with a medium coffee (which is an extra-large in Europe) and a glazed cinnamon roll topped with pecans?!

We also fill up with gas. Only $2.75 per gallon (about €0.70/L), incredibly cheap.Read more
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🇺🇸 New York, Texas and Louisiana 🚘Leonardo Floridia
Arriving in Dallas!
August 18, 2025 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 36 °C
We arrive in Dallas, the 3rd-largest city in Texas by population (after Houston and San Antonio), famous above all for being the city where John Fitzgerald Kennedy was assassinated.
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🇺🇸 New York, Texas and Louisiana 🚘Leonardo Floridia
The American Airlines Center of Dallas
August 18, 2025 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 35 °C
The American Airlines Center is a modern and iconic arena hosting the basketball games of the Dallas Mavericks and the hockey games of the Dallas Stars, as well as concerts and live events.

In front of the arena stands the statue of Dirk Nowitzki, the legendary Mavericks player considered one of the greatest of all time🏀Read more
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🇺🇸 New York, Texas and Louisiana 🚘Leonardo Floridia
Walking among the skyscrapers of Dallas
August 18, 2025 in the United States ⋅ ⛅ 36 °C
Like other Texan cities, Dallas is full of glass-and-steel skyscrapers towering over the downtown streets. Despite the scorching heat, we take a walk through the city center.
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🇺🇸 New York, Texas and Louisiana 🚘Leonardo Floridia
The site of Kennedy’s assassination in Dallas
August 18, 2025 in the United States ⋅ ⛅ 36 °C
From the 6th floor of the building, on November 22, 1963, Lee Harvey Oswald shot President Kennedy.
After his death, Lyndon Johnson became president, whose library/museum we would visit in Austin a few days later.

Honestly, compared to other Texan cities, Dallas has the least to offer.Read more
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🇺🇸 New York, Texas and Louisiana 🚘Leonardo Floridia
Fort Worth: like being in the Wild West 🤠
August 18, 2025 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 38 °C
The city of Dallas borders Fort Worth, but the downtown areas of the two cities couldn’t be more different.

We step into downtown Fort Worth and it feels like jumping back in time. Hat shops, cows, saloons, stores selling boots, murals of horses and duels… despite the heat we wander through the streets and it feels like being in a Wild West movie.

On the day we went, the cattle parade was supposed to take place, but unfortunately it was canceled because of the extreme heat.Read more
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🇺🇸 New York, Texas and Louisiana 🚘Leonardo Floridia
The symbolic animal of Texas: the Longhorn🐂
August 18, 2025 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 38 °C
A short distance from the parking lot is the Fort Worth Livestock Market, the historic cattle market where Far West ranchers used to bring their animals to be sold.

In front of it we see a Texas Longhorn, the symbolic animal of the state. It’s a breed of cattle famous for its extremely long horns.Read more
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🇺🇸 New York, Texas and Louisiana 🚘Leonardo Floridia
The John Wayne museum
August 18, 2025 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 38 °C
In Fort Worth, on a street parallel to the Livestock Market, there’s a small museum dedicated to John Wayne, the legendary American actor from the early 1900s who is an icon of Western cinema.
He is a symbol of the heroic and patriotic cowboy, representing the values of the American Wild West. He also won an Oscar 🏆 and is listed among the top 100 American actors of all time.Read more
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🇺🇸 New York, Texas and Louisiana 🚘Leonardo Floridia
The biggest honky tonk in the world!
August 18, 2025 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 38 °C
We visit the largest honky-tonk in the world. It’s a typical Southern U.S. saloon/bar where live music is played, and people can dance, eat and drink.

The place is really HUGE, but that day at lunchtime there were fewer than 10 people, it was almost empty.Read more
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