Shot Gun

            Lately we’ve had to learn the tough way to find a place to stay before you get to the big city. We’d left San Antonio and drove all day to get to Houston. Well, once again before we knew it we had passed all the outlying towns and found ourselves in downtown Houston late at night. After wondering around the rough parts of town we finally found a Kroger’s supermarket, as I usually do I went in and asked the store manager if it would be ok to sleep in his parking lot for the night and as usual I got a look of confusion and surprise. Although, this look and response was different, “If you want to sleep in the parking lot in this neighborhood, you go right ahead and good luck”. As I left I heard him say, “crazy white boy”.  The neighborhood did look a little rough and the Manager’s comments were a little disconcerting but it was late, I had driven all day and I was sooooo tired. On my way out to the motor home I spotted a policeman parked on the street and decided to ask his opinion.  He too seemed surprised but said that the “crack heads “ probably wouldn’t be out tonight because it was too cold, he then asked if I had a gun, I told him I had a shot gun it the motor home, he perked up and said, “ Oh if you’ve got a shot gun and its loaded you should be just fine….. Just make sure you tell them you’ve got a gun before you use it”.  I quickly got back in the motor home and we continued driving that night until we got to Galveston.