We left central Texas and headed steadily toward more trees. After living in the northwest for most of my life, anytime I go anywhere that isn’t crammed with evergreens I constantly think, “Where the hell are all the trees? It must be weird to live without pine needles all over the floor mats.” After a three hour drive and a few stops at thrift stores, we made it to Round Rock, TX. Round Rock is a suburb of Ausin where Ryan’s uncle, aunt, and two cousins live.
The family was great. His uncle Patrick works for Dell and his aunt Denise made sure we got some free Dell shirts as parting gifts. Ryan bought Justice League Heroes for Gavin (8) and Isabella (7) and they played the hell out of it. I had to be called in as a ringer to help defeat the Key (Damn you Wittner!). Gavin hadn’t upgraded Flash with Supersonic Evade so I had to rely on Green Lantern’s Energy Bolt for ranged damage against the Key and Sledgehammer for AOE damage and stun against the Quadlerks and those flying ray bastards. It’s almost as if I’d played the game for thousands of hours before…
The days were spent with Ryan rough-housing with the kids while I tried to crack jokes suitable for third graders from my sickbed. Ryan’s aunt saw how weak and miserable I was, and probably didn’t want me infecting her family, so she gave me some anti-botics she had left over from a sinus infection (Side Note: you should always take the entire bottle of anti-biotics a doctor prescribes even when symptoms disappear. This not only makes sure the bacteria is actually dead in you body, but stops the breeding of drug resistant superstrains. Seriously, these staph infections in ERs are getting scary). I am normally against taking medication not specifically prescribed to a person but I was on the road, had taken the meds before, didn’t have health insurance, and had talked to dead people in a fever dream not two nights before so I said FUCK IT and popped some amoxycilin.
I was too sick and feverish to go out drinking the first two nights, but we did explore the Austin during the day. We ate at Damn Good Tacos. And they were. Bone Thugs N Harmony was playing in town. We had become inadvertant groupies again. We visited the capitol building and took a tour of the grounds. We were the only two people on the tour. Apparently the Texas capitol building is seven feet taller than its counterpart in Washington D.C. I also learned that my belt buckle is the Texas state seal. An interesting fact about Texas is that while not everybody in the state is a redneck republican, EVERYBODY thinks Texas is the greatest thing since breathing. Were Texas its own country it would have the eleventh largest economy in the world.
On the third night I felt strong enough to go out on the town. They say Austin has toppled Seattle as the “Live Music Capitol of the World” and they are right. Seattle can’t hold a flame to Austin in that respect. Sixth Street in downtown has the highest bar/live music density I have ever seen (I held this opinion until I saw the French Quarter in New Orleans). We went out on a Friday night and the street was closed to traffic due to the overwhelming amount of drunk assholes in the street.
A NIGHT IN AUSTIN OVERVIEW:
-Listened to Dropkick Murphys play from the other side of fence.
-Saw way too many dudes play way too many cheesy guitar solos.
-Saw one guy play way too cheesy a bass solo. Do you ever watch a band and think, “I wish this bass player would slap and pop more.”? Me neither.
-Met some girls busking in the street. They played a song by Nico and were very nice.
-Twice walked through a giant bible-thumper get-together on the corner. They were banging drums and singing hymns or something. They weren’t handing out literature or anything but they had that glazed look in their eyes that led me to believe they were all going to go back to their HQ, pat each other on the backs and probably engage in every type of sexual act except vaginal intercourse.
-Found the punk/rock clubs on Red River Ave. Did not pay the five bucks to see an Iron Maiden cover band.
The next morning the family took us out for lunch at the Overlook (wasn’t that the name of the hotel in The Shining?). It’s a giant hotel and restaurant overlooking Travis Lake in Austin. Our watress had a scar on her neck that Ryan tells me was probably from a rope burn during a suicide attempt. She seemed nice. On old hippy was playing spanish sounding mood music on a classical guitar while we ate. I complimented him and he seemed genuinely happy that someone noticed. I saw him loading his gear into an early 90’s Astrovan on our way out. At this point I was feeling much better; almost 100%. The lesson here is that drugs work. Or that the flu had run it’s course. I’d like to think that the music healed me but, in my experience, music has mostly damaged my body and poisoned my mind. That’s probably why I like it so much.
