The Return

I TOOK THIS PICTURE

Early this evening I returned from a 6 day sojourn to Austin to visit my very good friend Bendy and his wife, Shannon. Perhaps, if we're friends on Facebook, you've seen the pictures I've been posting incessantly, and annoyingly, throughout the trip. It was mighty fine to take some time away from work and get to know a city that is almost universally raved about. I may make a longer post out of this, but here are a few random thoughts.

- Austin struck me as a city of opposites. Privileged hipster and deprived homeless. Wealthy executives and legislators, and hippies who never gave up the dream. College students, traditional gun-toting Texans, and standard suburbanites.

- In spring, it is an incredibly verdant area with lush and omnipresent trees, beautiful parks, and bounteous opportunities to be outside. In my 6 days in Austin I did more social things outdoors than in the past 6 months in Missouri. The weather helps.

- El Casino El Camino, a biker-esque bar on the famed 6th Street, may have the best burger I've ever had. And Whataburger isn't bad for a fast food chain.

- Speaking of 6th Street, from my one visit it felt to me a bit of Bourbon St. in New Orleans. Then again, I was down there on a Wednesday evening, so I'm guessing as to what it would feel like when full of crazed celebrants and revelers.

- I was spared much interaction with my stereotyped "crazy Texan" (aka Rick Perry), but I did see a house with a rather large, if miniature, Statue of Liberty in its front yard.

- In other food news, I learned that great food can come out of a trailer and people are willing to wait for it. Quite a long time actually.

- I did not fulfill my goal of killing a scorpion. Probably for the best. I did see a lizard,but didn't kill it. It was cute.

- I'm told that Lonestar is the official cheap beer of Texas. I drank plenty of it, to be sure. Too much maybe.

- I-35 through Austin is a bizarrely busy freeway; its constant congestion lacking any sort of rhyme or reason.

- The liquor stores have to close at 9pm. Well, that's idiotic.

- The Rangers Ballpark at Arlington is a nice place to watch a ballgame - once the evening sun has settled below the horizon. Easy to find seats, plentiful concessions, and cheap ($5) parking. Also: the Royals suck. You know what sucks worse than the Royals? Trey Hillman. You know what sucks worse than Trey Hillman? Dayton Moore. You know what sucks more than Dayton Moore? Yuniesky Betancourt. You know what sucks more than Yuniesky Betancourt? NOTHING. Unless it's Dayton Moore paying him $3 million a year.

- Baylor University has an incredibly underwhelming campus. I expected more, I really did. I guess the Baptists aren't into ostentation. Cough.

- It's comparing apples to oranges, but the Dr. Pepper museum in Waco has nothing on the World of Coca Cola in Atlanta. Yes, Coke is by far the superior "brand" and its mecca is in a much larger metropolis. Yet the DP museum could gain quite a bit just by offering patrons one (ONE) free hand pulled Dr. Pepper from the soda shop. Just one. Coke gave me enough free soda to collapse a person in diabetic shock.