Austin - 1st Thursday

In Austin on the 1st Thursday of the month we were reminded to Keep Austin Weird. That is an ongoing theme that recently was supported with a 5K run. H and D volunteered, making up goodie bags and supplying the runners with shirts, gear, water, etc.

First Thursday is an institution that brings a lot of people to South Congress Street (that same street where the bats leave the bridge in the evening). People gather and walk along the section of the street that contains a lot of shops with eclectic merchandise, a variety of bars and restaurants, and, for the night, a lot of music.

Here are a few pictures, starting with a view back toward the center of town along Congress Street.

There is music of all sorts. Rock and roll was playing in this bar.

















Continuing down the street we saw these ladies being interviewed by a local station. Not sure what they represented.

Then we came up on a street group playing the blues.

There were a lot of different kinds of people around, everything from old time hippies to goths to just plain strange people ("not that there's anything wrong with that!")

Up the street was a band doing heavy metal. Without a bass they found themselves unable to kick ass, though.

We ARE in the west, even if Austin is pretty hip.

There were even some Brazilian foot boxing (capoeira) type people.

















And, finally, the Austin Motel sign. Yep, it really look like it!

Austin

We're here in Austin, now. H&D have a beautiful apartment and have started a great lifestyle. After a healthy dinner we went to the lake to have a walk. We walked along the water, crossed a bridge, climbed up at the Congress Street bridge and then walked the city streets for a little. The architecture here is very dramatic. Since the last time I visited (long ago) the town has grown up a lot.

Many of the buildings are lit up at night. They make a pretty skyline.

The entire downtown has been renovated and upgraded. There seem to be a lot of mixed use blocks going up (stores downstairs, condos and apartments upstairs). The one below is a bank building.

After walking through downtown we returrned to the Congress Street bridge, which was beginning to get crowded, as it does every evening year around.

The crowd grows and grows, on the bridge and down by the banks of the lake.

Just at dusk, the bats emerge from the cracks between bridge girders. The come out in a continuous stream for about 5-10 minutes. You can just hear the squeaking (if you are an old fart like me). It is much stronger if you are young.

They stream past people, everybody smiling and taking pictures. An entrepreneur sells light swords. Everybody just chills out and enjoys themselves. That seems to be a common theme. This is an enjoyable town!

It's kind of amazing to see a stream of tiny mammals going past the modern architecture.

We continued past the skyline all the way to the dog park, which is an institution here. All kinds of runners, bikers, walkers, and onlookers gather here to exercise or watch dogs. The dogs jump in the river, sniff each other, run around, respond to whistles, and generally enjoy themselves. Unfortunately, it was too dark by then to take good dog pictures.

Road Trip - Day 4

Last night was interesting. We stayed in by far the worst motel for the trip. The room was unpleasant. The place was too close to the road so we heard trucks all night. Neither of us slept worth a damn. When we got back on the road we remembered we hadn't filled our tank the night before. As I looked at the gas gauge, it looked way too low. It seems somebody came by and siphoned about 1/4 of a tank while we slept poorly!

Today was a day of changes. We changed from the hills of the Appalachians to the flat lands west of the Mississippi. The roads are built 20-40 feet above the fields, which are huge! Some are 1/2 mile square. There is rice, with canals curving through in pairs like old flooded tracks. There is corn and wheat in amazing abundance - square miles visible from this road alone! The land here is flatter than piss on a platter.

The weather changed as well. Coming down I-81 and across I-40 we had temperatures in the 70s and 80s. Continuing west today we had 90s all the way. Strangely, the heat seemed a lot drier than what we sometimes get in NJ. It is a lot easier to handle.

The roads today were unusually crowded with trucks. They came in strings of ten or more in some cases. It seemed that they played leapfrog for miles and miles, frustrating all of us that wanted to go faster.

For our excursion today we broke away from I-30 after Little Rock and drove over to Hot Springs. This is a town that had a strong peak in the early 1900s with its development of spa properties. The historic district is lined with beautiful architecture. There are many beautiful low buildings (2 and 3 stories) for blocks and blocks, each of which was a spa. Note the restored building below that houses the National Park Visitor Center. In one of these buildings I once visited a museum to the spa trade. It contained a large variety of very strange water and electrical devices, designed to torture health into the unsuspecting. It isn't clear if any of it worked.
















In the picture below you can see the detailed window frames and moldings.


















We moved on then to the Crater of Diamonds State Park, south of Hot Springs. This park is devoted to an upwelling of diamond-bearing soils. It is an open field of dirt where people dig up buckets of material, and then use sieves and water to remove the soil. Then they inspect their gravel and rock remains to see if they got any diamonds.
















Here is E, scrubbing away the mud and soil from the rocks. You can rent a "basic kit" inexpensively. It contains a shovel, a 5 gallon pail, and a pair of sieves (coarse and fine). You dig up soil wherever you want, then take it to a covered pavilion (the sun is brutal). There you wash it through your sieves, then despair when no diamonds show up.

Most people, including us, don't get a thing. Here is our handful of what turned out to be common rocks (calcite and jasper). Apparently, if you stick to it as some locals have, you can make a fortune finding even gem quality diamonds. At least we still have the $85 million PowerBall tickets! Maybe they'll be the right ones this time.

After a couple of hours of excitement we motored on down the road into Texas. It also has a lot of trucks! We spend our night in Sulphur Springs, resting up for a morning run to Austin. Much better motel this time.

Road Trip - Day 3

Yesterday's drive was mostly along the Appalachian Mountains, though we drove through a bit in the southern part of Virginia. The views were great, with rows of mountains in the haze. Yesterday we began to get into kudzu country. For those who don't know, kudzu is in invasive species in the SouthEast of the US. It spreads rapidly and chokes out anything it encounters. You can see trees, hillsides, and bushes all choked out with this vine. It has big leaves and seems to shade out anything else.

Today we spent all day driving through Tennessee. Kudzu continued and grew even thicker in parts of the state. Tennessee is a big state. On this third day we begin to understand how big this country is. This morning we made an abortive attempt to find a statue to the flying spaghetti monster (FSM). Apparently the relatively small town of Crossville, TN, has made a commitment to the FSM, along with those other commitments. We could not find the park, however.

Just before noon E & I stopped to visit my Aunt Lui. She is my Mom's sister, and is one of the few remaining Neills of that generation. She must be in her 80s now, and is fit, friendly, and funny. She told us some old Neill stories and gave us lunch in her beautiful brick home. She made me remember fondly what a good sense of humor my Mom had. Several of these pictures below show Aunt Louie and her home, along with E and I. Auntie has a working Victrola in her home!

Note the Neill family resemblance...

We continued on just past Memphis to West Memphis, Arkansas. This is just across the Missippii River. It is very wide here. The bridges have to continue far beyond the banks over the flood plain, too. After a bit of rest E and I got back in the car and traveled to Beale Street in Memphis. Along the way we stopped in a park along the banks of the Missippii in Memphis. The park itself is beautiful, but the view is even better. Enclosed are a few pictures of the river and the I-40 bridge, "Millionaire's Row" - the houses along the bluff just East of the park, and of Beale Street.

We had dinner in the Blues City Cafe. The ribs are great! Beale Street is a bit disappointing, with just two or three blocks barricaded for pedestrians. The music was in evidence, though. We could hear lovely blues the whole time we were there. We passed by B.B. King's Club, but did not go in.

Day Trip - Day 1 continued

Here are a few pictures from the town of Luray, Virginia. Don't hesitate to stop here if you get the chance!

Here is a bit of the Luray Caverns property. This is beautifully maintained.

I also had another camera in the caverns yesterday. The camera had a bigger lens, so some of the phots came out a little better. The most amazing thing to me is the depth of interest (new term). You can keep looking deeper and deeper into a scene and see more and more. You can also look closer and closer and keep seing more. See below.

Road Trip - Day 2

When you are on a big road (like Interstate 81)  you are really tempted to stay on the cruise control and just go. You have to stop along the way, though. Just take a side road that promises something unusual and follow your nose. A case in point below. Off I-81 is a sign pointing to Natural Bridge, Virginia. On land once owned by Thomas Jefferson is a really beautiful natural stone bridge, along with a variety of other natural features.

On the way down to the level of the stream that passes through the bridge is a 1600 year old tree (arbor vitae). These trees are beautiful. This one died in 1980 or so, after a long life. It grew very slowly (the estimate is 30 years per inch of trunk size).

A tribe of Indians (Monacans) once lived in the area. There is a demonstration village here. Sometimes there are some dancers and a native life show.

About 50 feet above the level of the stream is the "Lost River". This is a stream running through the cliff above the stream, completely enclosed until heard and excavated.

 There is a fair bit of wildlife in the area. We saw this turtle and a fat snake sunning on their separate rocks.

Follow the trail all the way to the end and find the "Lacey Falls", a multi-tiered, beautiful, but kind of dry waterfall.

Don't forget to stop and take a picture of the famous FoamHenge along the way.

Later in the day we went through two sets of thunderstorms, both of which were enough to slow traffic from 75 to 40. They forced us to put the flashers on. Fortunately, no one cracked up during these miseries. There were a bunch of bikers with camping gear that were not having a good time, however!

So far we are finding hotels for a decent price. They seem to be clean and relatively new. They have wireless (therefore these entries). Not bad!

Road Trip - Day 1

We're making this a 5 day trip. We'll average around 5-6 hours a day and take breaks when there is something to see. Today was full of observations:

• Route 78 has no pee stops - ouch
• Route 81 is better that way
• Favorite sight - a beautiful dark green corn field next to a golden field of wheat
• There are a lot of Civil War battlefields - we stopped at none (Antietam was close, but we were aimed toward Luray Caverns)
• Too many trucks are on the road. They clog things up a lot, along with idiots in cars. Why is my road crowded?
  
• Luray, Virginia is a nice small town. We were there a short time for lunch, but noticed how clean and presentable it was. It is the kind of town that America was filled with prior to the advent of the mall. It has small businesses along a main street. There is a stream going through town, with garden spots along the bank. There is a farmer's market. You can get barbecue here (we did for lunch). It was kind of pretty and normal.
• Luray Caverns is huge! We walked 1 1/2 miles through the Caverns, and there was more than we saw. This is one of the most impressive caves we have seen - not that we have seen all that many. Here are a few pictures.
• Hot as hell, though. We left 70 in Flemington at 7:30AM and here it was 93. Austin is reported to be over 100.

  

  

There is still a lot of running (and dripping) water in this cave. There are a couple of pools that have beautiful reflections. My photos don't do it justice. The flash disrupts the image by showing through to the bottom of the pool.

Road Trip!

There's going to be a road trip starting tomorrow! E & I will drive down to Austin, Texas, where our daughter has just moved. This should be a classic - 5 days down, stopping in Luray, Knoxville, Memphis, and Sulphur Springs.We'll have side trips to

• Luray Caverns
• Jackson,Tennessee to visit my Mom's 80+ year old sister
• Hot Springs, Arkansas and maybe to the Crater of Diamonds to try our luck
• Beale Street in Memphis
• and more

We'll spend some time down in Austin, then come back via Florida (to see grad school buds) and up the East Coast. ROAD TRIP!!!! Both of us are looking forward to it. We'll keep you up to date along the way when we can get net.

Father's Day

Had a chance to go in to NYC to visit Lauren on Father's Day. She has an apartment now, up near Columbia. It is a much nicer part of town than I used to think. So we have been dragging over stuff from her room at home to the new place. No exception on Father's Day. A vanload of stuff came over with me. Furniture, clothes, shoes, etc., it did'nt seem too much like a holiday carting all that crap.

Anyway, once we were done unloading we drove downtown to look for parking so we could go to the International Day Festival. That was a pain, parking is terrible down around 50th Street or so. After a half hour we got to park and go see the festival. This is mainly an excuse to have a bunch of booths to sell stuff, accompanied by mostly Italian food stands. Every couple of blocks there is a bit of strangeness, but not too often. It was a hot summer day and there were a ton of people out there.

Lots of interesting people watching! This poor guy had about an acre of rugs all spread out for sale. They looked really good. There was a pile in the middle that people could look through, too. One trick he missed, though. There was no cover over the booth!

A little later in the day we were forced under cover when the rain came pouring down. First I was fascinated to see the umbrella sales guy come in under cover, right along with his umbrella and wares. Then, as we passed back by the rug merchant we saw his entire inventory being rolled up wet. What a misery!