88:Austin, Tx:Everyone is Santa!!
Despite the cheap, as in free, beer I didn’t get too drunk and got up determined to do something fun. Josh is a big biker, as in he likes bicycles, he’s not a fat hells angel, so I asked him if he could suggest somewhere to buy a bike and he certainly could. Seems Austin has a place where the locals rescue, restore and redistribute used and broken bikes called the Austin Yellow Bike Project http://www.austinyellowbike.org/ hence the crazy guy I had seen the day before. We gave them a call to see when they closed and I ate some breakfast and made my way up there.
Tags: miriam, community service time, drinks, free beer, el paso, nice guy, sea, bikes, bad boy, yellow bike project, set, mistake, daniella, something fun87:Austin, Tx:Killed by cheap lager….
Ah, the bliss of a bed that isn’t wrapped in plastic like the one at the hostel. Josh had gone out early leaving me his phone number and his key. I hope he checked my references :p I took a shower, read for a bit and then found out where he was a drove up to join him. He was in some cool co-op supermarket/café near the University and on the drive up I decided I not only liked Austin, I could possibly live there. Would just have to get past the whole stupid American work ethic and I could be quite happy. Maybe I should see the place in the searing summer first though. It’s a major, MAJOR University town so the place is packed with students and the cool places they love to hang out in. It was a breath of fresh air after driving through the hick towns of the south and I got myself a Tempeh Burrito and coffee and we sat in the sunshine checking the local free paper for bands to see.
Tags: stupidity, set, having a party, decider, atm, afternoon sun, girls, locals, drinks, supermarket86:Austin, Tx:Guilty as charged officer!
Well doesn’t time fly. Only one month left on my US visa and still so long to go. After a night of catching up on my blog and then taking some fun long exposure photos I was back on track and ready to get a move on. Stupidly forgetting to set my alarm meant that I was up very late and as I sat eating my breakfast pancakes was collared by the park ranger who drove up in his big white truck. I saw the night before that the camping was going to be $5 entrance plus $25 to camp. Kinda crazy prices I thought. I considered telling him I had come in early but decided quickly that honesty was the best policy and promised to come check in (and then leave) when my breakfast was done. I was feeling more hard done by when I took a shower in a block filled with dead and dying bugs and felt the ‘no dishwashing’ sign was an affront to my personal diginity as I washed my dishes in the toilet block anyway. Where was I supposed to wash my dishes? Isn’t this a camp site?
I went off to see the place with the tracks again and found myself on the cliff over the river I was walking along the previous night. It showed some tracks in the water on the photographs but after climbing down the rather perilous bank I saw nothing after a good look. Some marks in the river bed were contenders but the tracks can freeze over and they slowly erode, nothing to see here, move along. I hauled myself back up the dirt slope using the abundant roots and thinking how much my nephews would love to come Dinosaur hunting with me down here one day. I swung by the main site but I could see nothing down the bank. Most of the best tracks now lived in the New York Natural History Museum I learned and wondered if they were on display when Renae was corralling me through so she could get packed up in time. Who knows. I had a thought in the back of my mind as I got in the car to leave, I would be able to make a choice when I got to the gate and I didn’t know what it would be. $30 or doing a runner? I’d spent loads in all these state parks and wasn’t really using the water and electricity. I wasn’t even staying a full 24 hours like most RV’rs, usually turning up after dark and leaving in the morning. $30 was horrendously expensive. I drove up to the office by the park entrance…. I saw one parked car, no Ranger 4×4 ….and… kept going…. I got about 100 meters and saw a flash of white in my rear view mirror. The Ranger pulled out into pursuit….
Tags: salsa, curves, choices, god, sun, gps, laugh, snacks, hunting, honesty, shopping, graphs, photo, beds, dirt slope85:Dinosaur Valley:65 Million years ago…
Fool that I was I didn’t put the ‘do not disturb’ sign on the door but it was still very annoying when they repeatedly tried to get in to clean. It was nice to have a proper comfy bed for a change but I had more miles to do. By completing the U I was nearly halfway through my task and despite the 300 miles journey of the day before I checked the GPS and found if I had driven straight across the top of the U on the I-20 I could have done it in just over an hour, 70 miles. I filled her up and got some coffee, which is admittedly growing on me since I started using my own milk instead of that cancer fat juice they give you to put in it. Today Dallas? I roared down the I20 and when I finally got a glimpse of the skyscrapers rising like monoliths in the scrubland ahead I changed my mind. I had a loop of the O to do now and would be back in Dallas when that was done so it could wait. Maybe until the weekend.
Tags: dishes, american, gps, camping, set, footprints, comfy bed, amazement, mexico, map84:Texas:Warm and wet campin’
I stopped off in Quitman on the way back down south to send a Christmas card to my Grandmother and my old UK sim card to Miriam who needed a European number for the business cards she wanted to make for her trip. I then settled back into the boring rerun of the 165 highway back down to Alexandria and then on to Fort Charles and *Texas*! I was going to go further south and follow the coast for a while but that would add another 150 miles or so and I was going to finish off this damn U today or die in the attempt. The latter very nearly came true. I took the chance at the Texas border to use the free wifi and pick up some maps, it didn’t take long for the receptionists annoying greeting to *everyone* to grate and I got out of there. I learned there was a CS meeting in Dallas that night and with that in mind got off the I-10 and turned back north.
Tags: checks, highways, locals, free wifi, sim, photos, texas border, cards, receptionist, huts, wisps, tarmac, maps, rerun83:Monroe, La:Cold Campin’
No frozen toes when I woke up today but could I get an early start? Nope. After a quick breakfast I hit the showers and was further delayed by the discovery of a frog under the shower outlet that needed to be photographed. I thought it was plastic until it opened its eyes. My camera then steamed up as soon as it got in the washblock but I used my reserved Pentax (which I can just run under the hot tap) to spend a happy half hour chasing another more exciteable green frog around as it jumped from wall to wall and futiley wait for my Canon lens to clear. I did consider liberating them to a more natural setting but then I figured the place was full of bugs and would be warm all year round so left them to it.
Tags: bugs, beds, highways, guitars, sleep, photographs, drinks, frog, camping, Travel82:Louisiana:Doin’ the U
Jeff was undoubtley gone when I woke up so I wish him well in South America, but he could be dead in a New Orleans ditch for all I know. I had stupidly left my laundry to the last minute and now checked out but couldn’t leave until it was done. I saw Meagan and she wasn’t talking to me still, looks like that’s another bridge burnt then. I was also told by reception that a ‘blonde guy’ came looking for me in the morning but I have no idea who that was. Maybe something to do with the advert on the board but I guess I will never find out, it was time to leave. I generously offered to drop a fellow guest off where he had left his credit card the night before and was rewardly by being taken by one of New Orleans famous graveyards. See how it all works out? I wasn’t going to be doing a huge amount of miles today it seemed but wanted to get to the upper left side of the U if possible and set off out of the city and back onto the open road once more.
Tags: cards, weather, stupidity, cars, quarters, faces, curves, honesty, camping, blonde guy, maps, ditch, laundry81:New Orleans:Don’t look down
I got up with a minor hangover and it been so long since I’ve been drunk I thought I might be ill! Just a mild case of not remembering to drink water before I went to sleep. needed to use the laundry but I guess it could wait for a while. Since Jeff was on his way to South America for 5 months I offered and gave him a copy of my Spanish Language class. I hoped he would make a bit more use of it than me since I was being rather lax in that department. It was usually so much hassle to connect up my laptop in the car that I just did it and set it playing whatever was random in the playlist and forgot to study some Spanish as a matter of course. I was coming up to a month left and knew it was going to be interesting when I finally hit the border with a tiny vocabulary and bad accent. Still, this wasn’t the time to worry about it and I should concentrate on enjoying my time in New Orleans since I was planning on leaving the next day.
Tags: dorms, hostels, atm, locals, falafels, laptop, vocabulary, mail