I'm originally from Houston; with any luck, I might combine a trip home with a trip to Bogies in late October.
Bogies is very close to the main Houston airport, IAH, about 10 minutes from Bogies to the rental car lot. It's far from Hobby, but you probably have to fly into Hobby if you take Southwest.
Humble, the Woodlands, and Kingwood are all nice places not too far away to get a hotel. That's if you have a spouse or other person with you. If not, there must be tons of motels along FM 1960 that are cheap and probably don't have bedbugs (they'll have roaches, though; welcome to Houston, where even the Four Seasons will have some roaches!).
If you do bring someone with you, it wouldn't be crazy to stay downtown and travel up the Hardy Toll Road to/from Bogies. 25 minutes with no traffic, maybe an extra 10-15 with traffic. Houston's dowtown used to be a graveyard after 6:00 but I understand there's a lot more to do there nowadays. Restaurants, wine bars, shows, etc. The Galleria area would also be nice, but it could be a *real* pain to get from there to/from Bogies during rush hour. Westheimer, 610, 59, I-10, Memorial Parkway are all options, but all will suck during rush hour.
I had a flight delay last time I was in Houston and went to Bogies for a few hours. There were three 9' Gold Crowns right by the bar and one or two 9' Diamonds off to the side. Spacing between tables was pretty good. A bunch of bar tables in the back. I played an old timer some 1P on a Gold Crown. The table played great, maybe a little faster then a typical Gold Crown. Overall, I liked the room. Beers were something like $1.75 or $2.25 -- half the price in the DC area!
Cory
P.S. LSJohn: in Texas, 20 miles is not "a long way", it's "just down the road."
