Don't mess with Texas!

Last week was the first week of the summer without a group so things were tranquil, I slept a lot, finished The Omnivore's Dilemma (por fin!) and ate a lot of beans, lentils and other slow cooking legumes. I took a road trip with Bill and ventured back into Texas passing through San Antonio and on towards Austin. What a cool city! I've knocked Texas in the past for being all open space, having poor lighting on the highways and not much to do in between but Austin is a really cool city (sta bien padre!).

Street art on the main drag
(some of the funkiest murals and airbrushed facades I've been privy to...)

We ate at Mellow Mushroom Pizza place where I was exposed to some of the first vegetarian and even vegan options in awhile! I had an excellent tempeh sandwich and then was able to browse the local university bookstore, wander through the college strip (the area is called Guadelupe but here it's pronounced Guade-loop) of ethnic restaurants and vintage clothing stores (KT you'd have so much fun here they have a Buffalo's Closet Exchange).

Guadelupe herself...

I also walked into this amazing place, Toy Joy, a store that could keep you occupied for hours. I wanted to take pictures inside but I figure the owners would look at me a little funny... Anywho, they had globes, Mexican paper flags, star lanterns, chains of Barbie dolls, beaded curtains and My Little Ponies hanging from the ceiling. There were little plastic boxes where you could find every toy of every size imaginable: mood rings, plastic bugs, Chinese finger traps- the place could keep one occupied for hours! Best of all I was able to reunite with Caitlin Shuuue who I hadn't seen in a LONG time. We explored the Texas Capitol building, sought out air conditioning and were able to catch up for a couple hours.

Ms. Shue and I before we both start our long drives home...

On the way home I discovered it is not a good idea to fall asleep and get comfortable if you are going to be driving the second-leg of the trip. But what'd know, the 7-11 has little creamer cup sized 'shots' of caffeine that are supposedly equivalent to a full cup so I was wide awake, although I couldn't see the lanes very well (at least when we got to Reynosa this didn't matter much, you form your own lane and defend it or else).

It was good to get a break and be able to energize before our groupote came. I'm not very good at this keeping up with the whole blog/updating kind of thing, so more details to follow later.