"Texans or Cowboys"

Sunday, 09.22.2013

Taylor's (baby sister) 20th birthday. Wish I could have been there.

Arrived in Austin by 4pm. We paid for a hotel last night and I got a lousy 5 hours of sleep. Quickly met the host who is super busy with school and had just moved into his new house but was still willing to host us. We head out to wander. I found parking on Congress which is one of the main roads. 

It's Sunday and pretty empty, everyone is watching the games or recovering from the weekend. We start to wonder what team Austin actually roots for. As we are walking Chris decides to randomly ask someone who is walking down the street. We stumble upon...let's call him Bob.

Bob is from Chicago...has no idea which team is the correct answer. We start talking and boom yet another awesome encounter. My absolute favorite part of traveling. We all get a drinks at Shotguns which is located right downtown on Sixth Street...the "dirty six" apparently. So here is some insight into Bob's life; he originally worked in the market trade business world, Wall Street and everything...stuff I do not even wish to educate myself about. Some crazy points in his life were...buying a blimp and later selling it to some shady character who met him in a deserted field in Indiana (may have been another state in that vicinity) and exchanged the blimp for cash, a lot of cash. The blimp was being taken to a ship and transported to the Dominican... Another was when Bob left everything behind and hiked the Appalachian, something I feel that everyone needs to do at some point in their lives even if just for a few days. No cellphones, alone... 

After drinks we head to the "bat bridge." On Congress crossing the river is a bridge at which bats fly out like maniacs at sunset. Something I have never seen before. I wish I had some pictures to show but the fancy iphone 5 wasn't cutting it. Just imagine thousands of bats flying around as soon as the sun sets. 

*tons of tourists on the bridge 

*boats underneath with a cool view

We head to Sixth Street east of I35. I had great recommendations from Cheri, an awesome girl who lives in Austin but unfortunately wasn't around at this time. On our walk over we find out that Bob also has the best/worst tramp stamp tattoo from losing a bet. This guy not only is awesome but has some pretty crazy and amazing stories as well. 

East Sixth is a whole different Austin. We find Cheer Up Charlie's. There are also awesome food trucks all over Austin which are pretty awesome. Naturally, the guys eat at one before we head in. They both got a Philly cheesesteak...hmmm

We head into Cheer Up Charlie's, a very cool bar. Grab some beers and head to the outside area. We get into more conversations through out the night. "Bob" now works for McDonald's and not like "hello, may I take your order" but the corporate end. We later learn that McDonalds isn't a bad company like most people think. They even require their corporate employees as well as people who want to buy a McDonalds to work for a certain amount of time in the actual restaurant without pay I believe. I thought that was really interesting, would have never known that. The next day Bob also left coupons for us for free food to help us out on our adventure. 

  

Bob says goodnight and we start walking back. We get back into dirty sixth and stop to check out another bar. The bartender welcomed us to Austin with some shots and we hung out a bit longer. For the first time we were dreading going back to the host's house because of the sleeping arrangements. It wasn't in any way his fault because he had just moved in but we had been so spoiled before with beds and our own spaces. We try and find batteries for the air mattress but that doesn't happen. I end up on a couch which is basically a chair and Chris on the tile floor. This turns out to be two back to back nights of barely any sleep. 

Can't really complain...it's a house. 

*the sofa

*apparently people like to put bread on your car 

Monday, 09.23.2013

Wake up and go check out a local hike near Lost Creek. And that's exactly what it was, a lost creek. It gets so dry here that by September a lot of the water is significantly lower or completely gone. 

*where the creek should have been

Driving around Austin was beautiful with the Colorado river and the hills. We pass through Barton Springs Park which is another beautiful area. We then head over to Secret Beach. Even the river here was so low, you couldn't even swim. I wish I knew that before because I probably would have went and swam in the Barton Springs Pool. It was still all very nice to see. 

We then go back downtown to get coffee and look through the shops for some postcards and I needed a bracelet. Everytime I travel I like to collect something, mostly free or really cheap things to remember the place. This trip I chose bracelets. Downtown shops aren't anything special so we go check out this amazing Art Wall. The art wall is composed by local artists spray painting on concrete walls. Unique art with many quotes, mostly inspirational. We then go across the river to SoCo, South Congress. Down here the shops are very unique and definitely more of what I was into. Wander around and then head out to catch the sunset at Mount Bonnell. 

*downtown Austin

*artwall

*a lot of cool street art as well

*SoCo

*art gallery

*SoCo has some pretty awesome artists featured in their galleries 

We get to Mount Bonnell and it is beautiful. You climb up a good amount of stairs and end up at the top overlooking houses along the Colorado River. A great view of Austin. There are people everywhere sitting, reading, hanging out waiting for the sun to set. It's a great spot.

Austin was pretty cool in my opinion. I would love to spend more time there. After the sunset we make the decision to start to drive to New Mexico. We are both exhausted and have been getting a bit moody with each other. We grab the coupons from Bob's hotel and leave Austin. Bob was truly a cool, down-to-earth, awesome guy. I wish him the best and hope to keep in touch. We drive two hours and get a cheap budget inn room in Brownwood, TX. We almost ran out of gas along the way, the roads are very desolate for many miles. However, amazing stars come with desolation...I even saw a meteor. 

Albuquerque, New Mexico the next day!!