My Austin City Limits (Part III of My Road Trip 2008)

As I awoke in my sweet, sweet bed at the Tex Inn, I knew that I had plenty of time on my hands. My friend didn't get off work until 5:00 pm and it would only take me six hours to drive to Austin, so I took my time and cruised through eastern Texas and into the southern part of the giant.

One thing that shocked/disappointed me: it seems as though Dallas and the areas around it are just one giant strip mall. Am I alone in this thought? Am I alone in being disappointed by this? It's almost as if Dallas has opted not to clean-up/develop the inner parts of the city, but instead have allowed it to spread uncontrollably across the landscape, ruining what could be some nice scenery?

Well, luckily I escaped Dallas and made my way to Austin. On the way, I passed probably the town with the worst reputation in the state, if not the US in general: Waco, TX. Is there a town with a worse reputation? I mean, think about it: If you're a random cult or a little odd in the religious department, what better location than Waco!

Okay, enough Texas bashing (for now). I got to Austin with plenty of time and then walked around downtown a bit. I really enjoyed being in the city and being able to wander a bit. We had dinner that night and then walked around a bit.

Me and a sweet statue

The next night we went kayaking on the river with some International students, which was a lot of fun. The last time I was kayaking was in Egypt, so I enjoyed being out on the water again. We saw some sweet turtles and were yelled at by some serious crew teams (rowers). One woman even screamed, "You just lost me 40 seconds!!!" Hilarious.

The International crew

On Thursday night, we had a sweet game of footy with the Internationals. Now if I've every spoken to you about footy with Internationals before, you'll know where I'm going. Unfortunately, everyone wants to be a forward or to try and score goals, which can be very, very frustrating. That leaves myself and anyone else I can convince to play defense, which drives me nuts (because it turns out to be four of them vs. two of us....every time!).

Friday was to be my last day. I got up early and began my 13.5 hour trek to Albuquerque. A long, long road ahead.

Good-bye to the Capital of Texas.