After finishing our cycle around southern Utah, saying farewell to Max and Sarah and packing up our bikes in our newly purchased bicycle bags, Neil and I woke early last Saturday morning to catch a shuttle bus two and a bit hours to Las Vegas Airport. The bus ride from St George through Arizona and Nevada was sleepy and uneventful, and it wasn't long before we found ourselves checked in and patiently waiting at the gate to board our plane.
Wake up St George - view from the Inn
About four hours later we arrived at the home of our Warmshowers host Amy, who was kindly hosting us for the next three nights. Amy and her husband Adam (who unfortunately was away in San Fran during our visit) have recently moved to Austin from the West Coast. Their little home is simply lovely, their yard spacious and perfect for our tent, and the location (East Austin) five star - minutes walk from the popular 6th Street bars, food trucks and restaurants.
Urban camping at Amy's house
Amy was an incredible host, and we felt like old friends from the minute we arrived. She is an environmental sciences professor, who has a great many stories of travel, bicycle tours, places she has lived and general life lessons and tips. Amy gave us greats suggestions of things to do and see around town, and joined us for breakfast, bicycle rides and city exploring.
Austin is a very progressive city, known for its live music and delicious food trucks. We tried some of the tastiest food around - Vietnamese Bahn Mi, breakfast tacos, vegan tacos, cheese platters, pizza, salads, sandwiches - and cooled down with the tastiest drinks - kombucha, iced chai, iced coffee, Dr Pepper, local beer. We wandered down the bustling Rainey Street checking out the multiple bars and restaurants which looked particularly beautiful at night with all the festoon and fairy lights. Cycling Austin was really nice, with a great designated bike path along the river and many bike lanes along the street.
A very familiar view - Austin riverscape looked uncannily like Brisbane
Amy invited us along to an evening community bike ride she had found on Facebook. So on Sunday night, the three of us cycled about 5km north of Amy's place to meet a rather eclectic group of people for a 20km ride around town. We set off, Amy and I two of the four girls in group of about 12 people, riding around the suburban streets of Austin with no idea where we were. The leader of the group was a woman in her 50's, who looked like she could take you down if you messed with her - but she was very friendly and welcoming nonetheless. The rest of the clan consisted of enthusiastic males in their thirties. One guy had bicycle wheel rims covered in multi-coloured lights, another had a super-power to change his bicycle tube in a matter of seconds, while the most interesting of the lot was a young Asian guy, who wore a teddy bear backpack on his front, and carried a small but loud stereo on his back. We were treated to the likes of Shakira, House of Pain, Ricky Martin, The Cranberries and other terrible 90's hits, all the while getting intermittent wafts of marijuana - he was really keepin' it real. We ended the ride at Torchy's Tacos, an Austin Mexican restaurant which served really tasty tacos (even Obama ate there!) before heading back to Amy's house.
Austin was quite hot - we felt like we were back in Brisbane in the middle of summer! We spent a few hours at Barton Springs Pool, which is a beautiful and huge swimming pool filled entirely by cold water from a nearby spring and home to the endangered Barton Springs Salamander. The pool sits within the 350 acre Zilker Park, a metropolitan recreation area with bike trails, walking trails, sports and a whole lot of greenery.
Overall Austin had a really friendly, happening and cultural town - a place we will love to return.
Overall Austin had a really friendly, happening and cultural town - a place we will love to return.
We had planned to spend three nights with Amy, before catching an overnight Greyhound 13 hours to New Orleans the next day. As time got closer we became less and less enthusiastic about this bus ride for a number of reasons. First, our newly acquired bicycle bags were a massive fail - one plane ride later they both had holes, I had a bent disc rotor (luckily able to be straightened for $11) and my gears now need a serious tune-up (Neil's surprisingly didn't take a hit). Second, it was going to cost us an extra $100 to pay for oversize luggage on the Greyhound and we would need maxi taxis in the mix. And on top of that, we had been encouraged by multiple people including Amy that a ride on a Greyhound bus was probably the worst and dangerous mode of transport in the USA. We were warned to be prepared to see some of the most confronting of the American population. Suffice to say Greyhound in America is not quite the same as Greyhound in Australia.
So considering it would cost $150 to hire a car instead, we changed our plans and spent an extra night in Austin. Early Wednesday morning we said our farewells to Amy and with coffee in hand drove eight hours across Texas to reach New Orleans in Louisiana. This is the second time Neil has made this drive, having done the same leg last time he was in the US. We passed the time listening to a fantastic podcast recommended to us by Amy. For anyone interested, the series 'Serial' (season 1), is brilliant and will be 10 hours very, very well spent. Thanks for such a wonderful stay Amy! Hopefully we can see you and Adam in New York in December.
We were really excited to get to NOLA - it was sure to be a wonderful place. Will write about in the next post!
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