On The Road Part II

Hot, flat, brown Texas turns out to be pretty nice, this part. I found Culture. More in a minute. First, I must grouse.

My view all day

I traveled east to get here, you know. That means what? That means that when my local cohorts head home and leave the building silent but for the quiet rustling of janitorial immigrants, it is only three o'clock at the home office, and I have a phone meeting at four (their time), and an inescapable business phone call at six (their time), that goes on and on as we panic over this and make plans for tomorrow over that, and next thing I know I'm saying goodbye to my (ex)wife after checking to make sure she got home from SoCal safely and I'm in a tiny conference room on the fourth floor of a nondescript office building and it's nine o'clock. 9:00 pm means I've been in the building for 13 1/2 hours.

And you thought business travel was all early dinners and strip clubs.

The path between orifice and hotel mostly consists of Barton Springs Road, a two-lane between shedding oak trees lined with artfully lit-up restaurants. It was all very inviting, lots of open-air seating under the trees. I saw a brewpub, made a decision, hung a U, killed it in the wrong parking lot, walked along the sidewalk in the balmy southern air and walked into a barbecue bar in Texas wearing my SF Giants sweatshirt.

Hell yeah, baby.

Uncle Billy's served a coffee stout as the day's brewer's choice, and it really was good. Piled a pile of pulled pork atop that, bread, onions, pickles, peppers, hot sauce, mashed potatoes and coleslaw. It was migh tee fine. And the Niners were even winning a game on all the screens. Damnedest thing.

I couldn't pack it in just yet so I drove around in circles awhile. Monday night is a quiet night in any city but I could tell Austin knows how to turn it on. Street after street was half-lit with bars and restaurants where meat and music were the dominant themes, along with Western architecture heavy on the wood and the bricks and the granite blocks. There just weren't any people. But there was Culture. I could tell.

Of course I was drawn to the landmark. I know nothing of Texas politics and care less. I only cared to stop in the street and snap a photo for the old scrapbook. Not long after I found myself at a red light with two cops watching me in my rear view mirror, their faces red and impassive in my brake lights as I wished I knew if it was illegal in Texas to turn right against the light. There was no traffic, and they were waiting, so I decided to hell with it and went. They followed, and then made a U turn. I guess I wasn't very interesting.