Day 152 – Austin, TX

Today was a big day.

I started out in Giddings this morning with my eyes trained on Austin no matter the hills or scorching temperate along the way.  I wanted to be there.  I stopped for lunch in Bastrop and got my first salad in a couple of weeks along with garlic knots and copious amounts of beer for carbs. The restaurant, Neighbors Pizza,  is nestled amongst a bunch of other shops in a little village just off the main road through town and along the bank of the Colorado River (the Texas one). They have a massive deck that overlooks the river. If you ever in the area check it out and ask for Nick. He just got married last Saturday and has some wedding expenses to attend to 🙂

The ride felt long and hot, but drier than the rest of the South. I could smell the familiar scent of evergreen trees and drier air and it reminded me of Washington State where I grew up. I was headed to Chris’s house in South Austin. I met him and his girlfriend Kierstyn in Apalachicola a while back and he said to look him up when I got to town. As I got closer he said I could stay with him so I arrived at 7:05 PM and was greeted with a jumbo shrimp boil simmering away.

A quick pop in the shower and I was stuffing my face with shrimp, cajun sausage, corn on the cob, potatoes and okra as Chris regaled me with stories of starting a sushi restaurant in Indianapolis called Naked Tchopstix. If you don’t want to buy a liquor license you can still buy and give liquor away for free apparently and that helped move a lot of raw fish and rice. After selling that business he eventually made it down to Austin where he is in the construction business – more on the furniture building and finishing work than house framing it appears. After dinner I slept in one of the most comfortable beds I’ve been in for a quite some time.

To top it all off their dog Pearl joined me for most of the night. How much better could it be for my first night in Austin.

Tomorrow I’ll be visiting Meglomedia to introduce myself to my post producer and start getting the lay of the land.