Jan. 17: Showboat, Hockley TX

Posted on by

It’s Day 17 of my virtual Drive-In-a-Day Odyssey, in the middle of a stretch of fairly long drives. It took about three and a half hours to drive down from Tyler till I made it to Texas Highway 99, looped northwest of Houston to the Showboat Drive-In in unincorporated Hockley.

I’ll admit that I’m a little envious of Showboat patrons. When I lived in Houston, the last nearby drive-in had died just a couple of years before I arrived, and the Showboat didn’t open until 2006, well after I’d relocated Carload World Headquarters to Denver CO. Then again, maybe it all worked out for the best. The lack of nearby drive-ins led to the creation of Carload, which led indirectly to what you’re reading now.

I was also a little envious of the Showboat patrons who had turned out last weekend to watch one of two double features, both with early movies I hadn’t seen. But since this was a Tuesday night in the offseason, the Showboat was closed.

Miles Today / Total:  202 / 1935 (rounded to the nearest mile)

Movie Showing / Total Active Nights: dark / 11

Nearby Restaurant: For a Houston suburb, Hockley is really out there. The Showboat is closer to a nature center than any restaurant not starting with “Mc”. Eight miles south in Cypress is a great little Mexican restaurant called Las Mananitas. Great soup, great frozen margaritas, and very good food.

Where I Virtually Stayed: If I thought decent restaurants were a long drive from the Showboat, decent hotels are even farther away. I ended up swinging 10 miles east to the Hampton Inn in Tomball. The Hamptons are starting to blur together, but in a good way, with good wifi in the room and good hot breakfast in the morning, but with that Hampton Inn symbol everywhere I look.

Only in Hockley: A KHOU investigative team learned in May 2016 that the French teacher at the nearby Houston Independent School District’s Energy Institute High School did not speak French. He was hired to replace a long-time French-speaking teacher who was reassigned after a dispute with the school’s principal.

Next Stop: WesMer Drive-In Theater, Mercedes TX.