Heart of Texas Motel Austin

... well like I said it was a great show and we had good time. After the show was over we got a slice of pizza from one of those RV kitchen's on the side of the road (it was very good) and made our way back to the hotel.

Yesterday we did a lot more walking, saw the thing we missed the day before. We wanted to see the park where they have the Austin City Limits Music Fest, we were able to find it but they are refurbishing the lawn so we ...

... picture of George Strait, man I would have given anything for it. We also saw a major traffic backup on the way to the LBJ NHP and we noticed a hearse sitting next to us. It wasn't until we put all the pieces together seeing that charred car that appeared to rear end a suburban and the hearse backed up to the ambulance, that we knew what had happened. We later heard ...

Alaska Airlines I hear just started doing this direct flight from Seattle to Austin which is cool because it got me here in 3.5 hours. Another 20 min public bus ride for 75 cents and I was at my hotel. I spent the early evening walking around from 6th @ Guadelupe down to 2nd, as far east cas Neche, north to the State Capitol and a bunch of streets in between.

I did the game of count the ...

... guides have come in now along with plenty of other key books that are going to be so valuable to us. Lonely Planets all the way around along with Rough Country guides. Also, some wonderful rope working books such as "On Rope" and "Tree Climbers Companion". Spot on knowledge you can't make up. Good stuff.

For now, I hear some new shiny slick 11m PMI static line calling out to me from REI. Trip ensues.

-Cale Elliott

Thought that I'd post this for those of you that I haven't sent the itinerary to, plus it's easier to refer to this than to a long pdf attached to a forwarded e-mail. Sunday 24-May-09 Air British Airways. Flight: BA196. Aircraft: Boeing 777 Depart: Houston Intercontinental Apt at 7:55PM Arrive: London Heathrow Airport 25-May-09 at 11:05AM Monday 25-May-09 Air British Airways. Flight ...

... by a long silence, broken only finally by 1 of 3 responses:

1. The girl says she definitely wants kids and couldn’t date anyone who doesn’t, and in fact people who "hate" children (the way I obviously do) must hate themselves and mankind and Jesus. So I find out she wasn’t real thrilled about the first topic. And she’s ****** because she now realizes she shouldn’t have ordered a salad because it doesn’t matter if I think ...

... home, after only a couple of years abroad, she turned 1. To recap, my brother had a girlfriend a day before I left, then when I got home, he had a 1-year-old. Time flies.

Eric is basically just a giant teddy bear, so he's an awesome dad. Libby was tons of fun to be around and we caught her at an amazing age. In front of our eyes, in the few months we were back in the States, she went from crawling to standing, then ...

... through the same thing Diane was going through when she was on interferon( a treatment for hepatitis).  I meet Jamie a few more times and he even came to visit us for a week, in Westboro Jamie loved his new computer and scanner, and would love to take roll after roll of pictures, have them developed and scan the pictures on his computer. We tried to talk him into buying a digital camera, but with no success till a few years later. Jamie would would go off by himself for weeks at a time ...

... the oil every 4-5000 miles and checked the fluids every other day. We found the dirtier the car the less attention we drew to it. Through out the whole trip we averaged around 140 miles a day. 20,000 miles in 142 days = 140 miles per day The Shipping: My best advice is try to organize it before you leave or at least firm up some prices and dates while you are on the road. It will take anywhere from 4-8 weeks to drive from the US to Panama, so during that time try to give ...

... not have aligned better. This was to be the centrepiece of my time in the capital, and the highlight of my foray through Texas. What better crystallisation of the weirdness of Austin, then a vegan hot dog eating contest? A quintessential American idea - stuffing ones face with dogs - inverted and gone green, healthy, socially-responsible, maybe even ironic?! The Austinites turned out in force, and they brought their tattoos with them. The hobo-punks were well ...