The last leg of this trip has taken us to Austin for a couple of days. We’re staying with Al’s friend Neal and his girlfriend Sasha, who have given us the very best of Texan hospitality: doling out outrageous generosity with their time, their beer, their food…
….and their boat. Neal took the four of us out on Lake Austin for a few hours on Friday night, initially for dinner and a few beers at the Hula Hut. But he followed that up with crazy speedboat runs, sound-tracked mostly by Nathanial Rateliff & The Nightsweats. As long as I live, I will always associate S.O.B. with that night and the very happy memories of piling across that lake, Koozies in hand, and stopping off for some swimming not far off midnight.
Bumming around town with them, and letting them show us Austin, has been a great way to end the trip. Today, among countless other things, we stopped off for ribs and refreshments at a little shack at the side of the road.
Visited the University of Texas Football Stadium where Neal’s beloved ‘Long Horns’ play. The stadium is predictably bigger than most of the professional football stadia back in Scotland.
Stopped off again at a weird bar-cum-butchery where we necked some craft beer and genned up on meat history.
And a cracking night out downtown, visiting loads of bars
…and getting first hand proof that its people work hard at Keeping Austin Weird.
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