Austin, Texas

So we finally made it to Austin. 28 days and 1400 miles. The ride in from Giddings was tough. We got out early in the morning, but 75 miles in the heat is never easy. If you have an opportunity check the 10 day weather forcast for Austin. 10 straight days of 104 degree high, 76 degree low. Lets get back to the story, we pulled into the hostel around 1pm ready to grab a shower and a nap. Unfortunely, our reservation got screwed up and they had no beds for us. They did recommend this guy Dave who rented out a room in his house. We will get back to this character in a minute, but we couldn't get in over there till 3. So we hit up the Pizza Hut and then Judah needed to sauve up a little for his meetings with the Spanish Dept. here at UT so we head across the street for a haircut. I was skeptical of a haircut and shave for $8, but Fast Freddies cleaned him up nice. Here is my question, are people getting a haircut really interested in speed to warrant being called Fast Freddies?

Okay so back to Dave. This guy was just your typical crazy old dude who did a little too much acid a couple decades ago and never really recovered. He answered the door in just a towel. But the room was cheap and we got a nice cold shower. We got his whole life story, he has been in the bed and breakfast industry (if you can call it an industry) for quite some time. But Austin is getting too big for him, so he is just saving up some scratch until he can ex-pat to, you guessed, Costa Rica.

Got up yesterday morning, stashed the bikes here at the hostel and took of for campus so Judah could have his first meeting with the department. That went well and we headed back to the hostel to check in and cool off for the day. Unfortunely, right as we walked in we were semi-force to play 4 person chess with another crazy old dude named Rodger. This old coot could talk you ear off and loved this game. He told us the 7 things we had to remember and i'm pretty sure 3 of the 7 were exactly the same. I don't know why we seem to attract the crazys but we do, and there are a ton of them down here in Austin. This guy Rodger moved to Austin to try and become the 5th best 4 way chess player in the city. I know it is a lofty goal, but you have to shoot for the stars. He now claims to be the 2nd best player, probably in the whole town, but Judah took him down no problem. This guy plays in all night coffee houses and games apparently go all night. He invited us to go with him since we were so go, but we graciously declined.

After a dip in the lake out back, a quick shower and shave we were off to the infamous 6th Street last night. If you read my discription of Bourbon St., that tells a pretty accurate tale of our night last night as well. Got up early today to watch the Tour, mountain top finish, you can miss that. We both met with our departments, which went well for both. I head over to Mellow Johnny's, Lance Armstrong's bike shop here in town to check it out. Picked up a couple souviners. Anyway, we are recharging right now and are going to go check out the 10 million bats fly out from under the Congress St. bridge in a couple hours. Probably a little more 6th St. later and off to Barton Springs tomorrow morning. We are then head for San Marcos on Sunday morning.

Keeping Austin Wierd,
Steve