I pity the fool who hails my cab!

Beginning the first week of August, if you need a flight to DC, it just got a little easier. Southwest Airlines is launching nonstop flight service between Hobby Airport and Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport according to a release. Recently, the airline began nonstop service to Pittsburgh (yay?) and Charlotte (yee haw?), and it will begin nonstop flights to New York's LaGuardia Airport in June.

Let me just say that while I personally hate to fly, if I am going to go somewhere I absolutely want to go nonstop. Layovers suck and a nonstop means one less takeoff and landing. They can sometimes be a necessity, but when it comes to flying to large airports around the country, there's no good reason to have layovers unless you either love airport lounges or absolutely must save every penny you have because that extra $20 you saved having a layover in Little Rock for four hours was so TOTALLY worth it, right?

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Whenever I think of U.S. 59, I think of constant gridlock from Shepherd through the 288/I-45 interchange, the flat, treeless drive to Fort Bend County and the piney woods of east Texas in all its glory. It is a unique stretch of road that runs from Mexico well into Missouri. Oh, sure, it changes numbers here and there. It's 59/71 in Arkansas, merges with 270 in what must be a lovely drive through the Ozarks, finds itself again in Oklahoma before weaving back through the northwest corner of Arkansas and into Missouri merging with 71B. Ultimately, it peters out when it becomes I-49 just south of Carthage, birthplace of Preston Lacy of Jackass fame.

For sometime now, the famed NAFTA Superhighway has been touted as a connection point between Mexico and Canada, after you drive through nearly 3,000 miles of U.S. territory, of course. At least in Texas, we are moving ahead with the numeric change turning good old 59 into the lurid I-69, and now we have the signage to prove it.

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Photos By Craig Hlavaty

A B-cycle at rest.

Houston's maiden foray into a public bicycle program began just weeks ago, with kiosks full of sturdy red Trek bicycles at B-cycle stations open and ready to serve Houstonians adventuresome enough to leave a car -- or more than likely, truck -- behind and embrace Bayou City life on a bicycle.

The kiosks are beginning to pop all up over Houston, with locations at the Downtown YMCA, Market Square Park. City Hall, the George R. Brown complex and in a parking lot in the Continental Club area.

A rep from the B-cycle office says the group is looking to roll out at least 15 more kiosks, with locations in the theater district, Midtown, Montrose and the Museum District coming in the next few months.

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Photos By Craig Hlavaty

As the Houston Texans buckle down for this weekend's do-or-die against the New England Patriots, just steps away, 3,500 yards of dirt are being fashioned into a monster truck course for the Advance Auto Parts Monster Jam on the floor of Reliant Stadium.

Monster Jam brings dozens of car-crushing trucks and thousands of fans into the House that Bob McNair Built each year. Last weekend's event was pushed back one week due to the Texans having to play the Cincinnati Bengals in postseason action.

This morning, Maximum Destruction and driver Kreg Christensen was up early doing press in advance of the show along with an assistant. His rig has a $200K price tag, and it's doubtful you could get an insurance company to insure you. The tires only hold about 20 pounds of pressure. My guess of 80 pounds was way off.

Max D's current incarnation has been touring the circuit since the 2011 season, but Christensen has been driving since 1992, starting out as a mud racer.

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The roads in Houston aren't exactly beyond Thunderdome, but they can be dangerous, particularly when they are wet and slick with rain, as was the case this weekend when nine people lost their lives in six separate accidents on the streets and freeways of Houston, according to multiple reports.

One batch of four accidents happened in eight hours according to Chron.com. Another fatal accident happened Sunday afternoon when a pileup of cars on I-45 at North Main caused a METRO bus to swerve and hit a person who had gotten out of one of the vehicles. I, unfortunately, happened to be driving the opposite direction on 45 when I saw the person being taken away on a gurney. Scary.

Finally, a reported accident killed four and critically injured another when a truck carrying five men hit a curb and rolled over on the Eastex Freeway early Sunday morning.

It is worth noting that several of these accidents happened before it started raining in the area, so, to quote Hill Street Blues, let's be careful out there.

Bob Olofson's sweet restored 1948 Dodge Power Wagon.

Cool cars and hot chicks. If that isn't how the Autorama is normally promoted, that is exactly how they should do it next year. As you can see in our slideshow from this past weekend's car-stravaganza, there were plenty of both, but especially the rides. They had all the freaking Batmobiles and the damn Mach 5! I'm not normally a car guy, but damn.

Also on display is the beautiful, fully restored 1948 Dodge Power Wagon, owned by Bob Olofson of Georgetown, Texas. Olofson took home the first of 15 Steele Rubber Products Master Builder Awards selected by the International Show Car Association and awarded to "one outstanding vehicle restored with little or no professional help," according to a press release.

Olofson's Dodge most definitely qualifies. Scan through our other photos from the Autorama for more eye candy.

Every day here at Hair Balls we get to see great, sad, and dumbfounding mugshots from around the state of Texas. We sure do have a lot of criminals in the Lone Star State. Makes me fearful of seceding in 2025.

REWIND: Sean Payne: Humble Man Too Drunk To Pose for His Mugshot

REWIND: Michael Jordan's Son Smiles Pretty For His Mugshot

The Houston Press even has a Pinterest page dedicated to the best and less-than-best mugshots from all around the state.

Dudes, don't worry, Pinterest isn't just for ladies that wear scarves all year long, you can visit the link too.

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Photo by Danny Lopez

The 12C Spider for those with discretionary income to spare

British engineering was on display at the Houston Motor Club in City Centre last night when McLaren was on hand to unveil its new supercar to the Texas market: the 12C Spider.

The Spider sports a unique single piece "MonoCell" body made of carbon fiber with aluminum trimming in the front and around the rear-mounted engine. She has a low profile, sleek body lines, and vertical dihedral "Lambo" doors.

McLaren dropped in the M838T engine, a 3.8L twin-turbo V8 beast pumping out 616 hp and 443 ft/ lbs. of torque. It's supported by a 7-speed transmission with dual clutch Seamless Shift Gearbox technology.

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Defensive driving.

Anyone who watched The Matrix and the other two craptastic movies that followed will remember that, inside the Matrix, the freeway was suicide. It was partly the reality of the movie's, um, altered reality, but partly a joke about the hazards of driving on any freeway system.

Driving around Houston, it is not uncommon to see people doing all manner of crazy things while driving. Since you guys keep doing it, it's time for a rundown of what you should not be doing out there.

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John Nova Lomax

Soon this could be one of hundreds of thousands of Houstonians having fun on a bike.

Tom McCasland has long believed that Houston is a sleeping giant of a bicycling city, and these days Houston appears to be waking up and stretching its legs.

Today Yale Law grad McCasland serves as the interim head of the Harris County Housing Authority, but even before he began his previous position with the Houston Parks Board, he was doing yeoman's work in improving the Bayou City's bike network. While his spearheading of a plan to to turn Houston's many miles of CenterPoint utility easements into bike trails came to naught at the last state legislative session, that dream remains a possible future reality for Houstonians.

In the meantime, other plans are afoot, and McCasland recently squired a distinguished cyclist around town, a visiting dignitary from no less a bike hub than Portland, Oregon. Elly Blue runs the cycling blog Taking the Lane, and she came to Houston as part of a nationwide tour assessing cities and their bike-friendliness and initiative.

Blue was impressed enough by McCasland's tour and talk to wonder the following:

"Is Houston the next bicycle capitol of the US?"

Yes, that's right. A cycling advocate from Portland has dared wonder publicly if this allegedly car-narcotized, Interstate-streaked, strip mall-obsessed Purgatory of rampant antipathy to bikers and hikers alike will soon outstrip not just Austin but also Seattle, Minneapolis and Chicago as the most bike-friendly town in America.

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