The Day of the Best Decision ever: Leaving Lubbock

July 20

We woke up and immediately started talking about the hubbub of last night; very anxious to leave what felt like the grimiest and sketchiest campsite we have stayed in. We packed up camp at turbo-speed, and drove over to the showers so that we would look somewhat decent when we arrived in Austin later that day. Unfortunately, although we soaped and scrubbed our bug-bitten bodies, the showers we pretty nasty, so even at the end we felt like a very dirty-clean.

On our way out of the Lubbock campground, C jumped out of the car to ask one of the park workers about the person(s?) who had been rushed to the hospital the night before. The worker said that she couldn’t give out any details, but that everyone was okay (phew!).

On our way through the largest state of our trip, we noticed more country and state pride than anywhere else we had been. (But are you really surprised? We were in Texas…) Texas flags and “lone stars” hung from every possible place. We also noticed that the state flag was frequently hung at the same height as the American flag. We later learned that Texas is the only state allowed to fly their flag at the same height as the national flag – although Wikipedia says this is an urban legend.

When we arrived in Austin, we met C’s friend Megan (whose apartment we would be staying at) and her boyfriend Chris. After unloading our bags, we piled into Megan’s car to go get some tasty southern food. She took us to the Hills Café, an Austin hotspot, for dinner. C’s chicken friend steak and K’s chicken fried chicken made for some interesting dinner conversations. It was unanimously decided that we preferred the yellow gravy (with chicken broth) to the white gravy (without). The Hills Café had a great outdoor atmosphere including a stage where they had live music almost every night. It was singer/songwriter night when we were there, so a few different musicians serenaded us during our meal.

After dinner, we drove down to the Congress Street bridge to watch the bats fly out from under the bridge. This may sound like a strange evening activity, but it is actually one of Austin’s well-known features! Up to 1.5 million bats – the largest urban colony of bats in North America – live under the bridge, and wake up at sundown to search for food. As it got darker, more and more bats began to wake up and fly around the arch of the bridge, and it began to get smellier and smellier. K, with nightmares of the rabies shot still fresh in her mind, was grateful that the bats didn’t fly too close to her. It was a low-flying night for the bats, but still a very cool sight to see – “classic Austin,” as it has been referred to by locals.

Once everyone had seen enough of the bats, we worked our way over to 6^th Street, Austin’s late-night hotspot, filled with music and other activity. This street is also the home to the unofficial mayor of Austin, but unfortunately for us, Leslie the Transvestite was not wandering about the same night we were. We walked up and down 6^th Street until we found a place that interested us. We ended up at Pete’s Dueling Piano Bar, a small chain that we also passed by in Las Vegas! There we two pianos onstage, set up facing each other so that the pianists could banter with each other and the audience. As soon as we walked through the doors it was clear that we were no longer in Cooperstown. People were shouting, and throwing money, requests, and alcoholic offerings to the performers. We quickly found a seat so we wouldn’t get in the way SLASH accosted by the performers. It was a bizarre experience for the three of us because most of the songs they sang (American Pie, Proud Mary, Time of Your Life, etc) were ones we used to sing in our middle school youth group… although this time we heard them in a very different setting and with slightly altered lyrics.

Pete’s was fun, but 6^th Street was full of places with live music and no cover charge, so we moved on, and bar hopped down the street. We eventually ended up at a rooftop bar with more music and excellent view of the nightlife on the street. B & K just couldn’t kick their pizza craving from San Francisco (really, you’d think it’d be gone by now), so they crossed the street to get a late-night slice. Once they had gobbled that down, (craving still not quite satisfied) they returned to the rooftop bar to reunite with C and Megan. We all stayed a little longer there, dancing, talking, and hanging out, before returning to Megan’s apartment for the night.

States visited: Texas

Yellow car count:

C – 246

B – 231

K – 300

Megan – 3

Highs and Lows:

Group high – 6^th street

Group low – Waking up in Lubbock (but also a high since we knew we were leaving there)

C high – Megan! and Austin bats

C low – post-chicken-fried steak feeling

B high – Pete’s

B low – Unsatisfied pizza craving

K high – Dueling piano bar, Leaving Lubbock

K low – Being close to Bats