December 4th
Yesterday reality caught up with expectation.
I spent most of Tuesday December 3rd catching up on chores. Sweeping, mopping, cutting hair, showering, doing laundry, pumping out holding tanks, making beds—those necessary mundane tasks.
Wednesday morning well before dawn I finished packing up my RV, unhooked my land lines, and drove people rushing to work crazy by taking a leisurely drive down into Austin—the winds were still gusting and a moderate speed was in order. Found a place to park outside the service area at Champion Chevrolet and used their Wi-Fi to surf the web while I attempted to ignore their Christmas Musak which is apparently left on all night. The service guy, James Stein was efficient but more interested in protecting himself and his employer than providing me with service. They changed my oil but do not have a hoist that would allow them to do mechanical repairs. Went to their waiting area, found a table and set up shop with my computer. Set to work at my picture files and uploaded a second batch to Webshots:
They can be viewed at my profile on Webshots.
Drove down to HEB and Here Everythings Better is a slight exaggeration. The store I went to in South Austin was on the other side of a divided highway and the “U” turn that should get you there is followed by barriers preventing one from getting into the store. City Planning at its best! Not a bad store once I finally got to it but Nothing Special. I must comment that Hill Country Bacon is the best I’ve ever seen anywhere. The first two packets I picked up were so good I didn’t look further and I bought them even though I didn’t really need bacon—2/$4.00.
At Pecan Grove I found a camp site waiting for me and I have it for the month of December. The hydro works and the water tastes sweet. Pity about the live music at Romeo’s just outside my bedroom window; at least they close at 11:00. I won’t have to buy dinner to ‘enjoy’ it. I did in fact go next door for Dinner last night and quite enjoyed myself. They offer free hot spot Wi-Fi with a strong signal I can pick up next door—pity they need to reset their modem before it can access the internet.
Went for a walk uptown and discovered that streets in Austin are not pedestrian friendly. In fact there is a separate walkway/bikeway crossing Lake Austin to downtown. Once there I had no luck finding tourist or transit information or even a map of Austin. After a nap I set off to visit the Long Center which is literally down the street. After walking around their massive multi-storey parking garage I finally found the Long Centre Box Office and the way inside to the sole gal manning the office. Not only does the Long Centre not sell tickets to anything but the events they corporately sponsor—they don’t even have information on the other events taking place in their venues! The next event there were tickets for is in January. Disappointed I walked back checking out the local quick stop grocery outlets and a myriad number of hamburger and BBQ joints. The Golden Arches just up the street will wait a long time before I patronize it. Drive-through windows seem to be the order of the day and those lined up for them cause traffic chaos.
Wednesday began early and was a busy day. It was my first day in Austin and the best I could expect was an opportunity to get myself somewhat oriented. On the west side of my campground there are two huge derrick cranes towering over the park and the boom of one of them sweeps over people’s Motorhomes and trailers. I’ve now had a good night’s sleep—Austin seems to calm down and roll up the sidewalks for the night—and as soon as the sun has had a chance to warm things up somewhat I need to go explore the rest of the campground and then make a serious attempt at getting some tourist information. It’s also time I started taking pictures again.
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