Day 14: San Angelo to Austin (Don't mess with Texas or whiskey)

Hello? Is there anybody out there?

Supposedly this blog is getting read as I get comments from random people that I didn't think would read the blog, but we haven't received any comments in a long time. This makes me a super sad panda and if you are reading this right now do a pathetic indian man a favor and leave a comment.

Today we woke up a little bit pissed off at Motel 6 for their blatant and outrageous lies. I feel like Barrack Obama now. Wi-Fi available? That is how you punks reeled us in and look who apparently doesn't have any signal strength (Hint: It's Motel 6). We desperately wasted time in the morning looking for some interwebs and an initial stop at the Burger King proved plebeian. My computer alerted me to a signal emanating from Quiznos but alas it was an administrative password-protected wi-fi. Luckily Micky D's has the good stuff we were looking for. Dollar menu + Wi-Fi = mas fun. Who knew clowns were so good at tech support?

We made it into Austin with very little fanfare (no horns or parades commemorating our last major city stop as a trio for the roadtrip). Our GPS faithfully leads us to Rachel Wright's house, which we have the odd pleasure of resting in for a couple of hours before she comes home from babysitting.

Alex plays detective and makes inquisitions about Rachel's character via her stuff. While most things were spot on, his interpretation of her spiritual side was a little off the mark. To be fair, the girl loves her iconography. Rachel finds this amusing (Alex embarrassing) and decides to spend half an hour quizzing Alex about her life. The results are mixed, but the entertainment golden.

We catch a dinner at the "mexonesian" Hula-Hut, which is very much so an Austin-y place and the lake view in the early evening was phenomenal. I was a little over-ambitious and wanted to beat the waitress with the chips and salsa (opting for self-serve), which resulted with three giant baskets of chips. Which got us stares like we were celebrities, but in a less fun way.

After getting full off giant enchiladas, BBQ soft tacos, and cheesy chile rellanos, we made our way over to Congress Ave Bridge to watch the famous departure of the bats (it is like flight of the bumblebees with less allergic reactions). The site was really cool and the way the bats moved together across the tree line reminded me of a less intimidating version of the smoke monster from Lost. There were millions of beautiful, flowing, chirping bats. Alex got distracted by the man selling light savers.



Very casually we take a walk to Austin's big party strip, 6th street, with no intention of doing anything other than seeing the sights. However, when you stop at the Jackalope and start your night off like this. It is going to be a long and fun one.

We left the loud metal of Jackalope for Casino El Camino (which was definitely my favorite bar we went to that night). We hit other bars like Whiskey Bar, the Thirsty Nickle, the Bling Pig Pub, but the best part was watching Alex go ape-sh** for Guitar Hero night at Shakespeare's. Via his mad skillz, Alex made several new friends for the evening and also defended his guitar honor against a very adept girl named Carly.

The night ended with a quick refocusing stop at Kerbey Lane, a late night diner (of course), where Dave preceded to eat a lemon, Alex devoured hummus and pancakes with his hands, and Varun scowled with a sort of semi-embarrassed awkwardness that comes from being the most sober at the table. But definitely some of the most fun that has been had in a while.