Texas

Feb 23 2018

First off, a word about the blog. We write this not as a real narrative or anything, just an open journal so we can remember our adventures as we get even more forgetful. We want to remember things we found fascinating or worth remembering, and it may or may not be that interesting to anyone else. It should be named “Mike and Deb on a Bike” or something, but we are going to leave it as is, since I have my own blog and we just decided to use Mikes blog to journal. Saying all that does free us up to write about restaurants we loved or people we have met, or funny things that have happened between us, without being concerned if it keeps anyone else interested.

That being said, we were still on the train Friday and we had the whole car to ourselves! We spread out, MIke reading and listening to podcasts (Mostly Slow Burn, a fascinating account of Watergate) and I spent the hours knitting and listening to my podcasts (I love NPR politics, Pod save the World and The Daily) I have been knitting keps lately using a pattern and yarn from the island of Fair Isle, the patterns used were traditionally used in the knitted hosiery of fishermen. I purchased the pattern directly from the museum on the island and am using pure shetland wool. It is addicting! This one needs its traditional tassel yet.

Anyway, that is how we spent our lovely quiet afternoon.

We arrived in Austin ahead of schedule and quickly found the hostel we were staying at Firehouse Hostel. We had a small coed room with two set of bunk beds, but little did we know when we reserved the room we were staying on 6th street. An area of Austin which makes Beale St in Memphis look tame. The noise!

At any rate we enjoyed our roommates and it was better then staying in a sterile chain hotel by ourselves so all was good.

After settling in we headed to an area of Austin called Rainey Street. A neighborhood of historic houses turned into restaurants and bars, lots of food trucks and music. We took the pedicab and as proud as we are of Grand Rapids, we thought that night we wished they would lighten up on the restrictions for food trucks and pedicabs and dogs on restaurant patios. It adds so much flavor. Such friendly people we met. What a nice night.

We headed back to the hostel and slept um…fitfully.