So FINALLY I have the chance to say hello to everyone. No, I didn't die in a firery crash on route to Austin. Instead everything went almost unordinarily smoothly. Well...almost.
As you may have read the beginning of my journey didn't have the best of starts. I was delayed by several hours by rain covering the first hour of my route but that turned out to be a good thing. It so happened that, true to form, I was nowhere near prepared to just jump on the motorcycle and ride off into the horizon.
First, I hadn't really packed. I threw some things into a bag at the last minute but that wasn't abnormal. This is how I always pack - right before I leave for a big trip. Some could call that lazy but let's just say it's time efficient. I've always been better under the gun than with worlds of time in front of me to squander. But I've found that the times spent in between trips not living out of a bag does make me a little lazy, at least in respect to my organizational skills. I couldn't find anything I needed. Everything was spread out in 100 different drawers, closets, boxes, bags, and definitely some rouge black holes since there are some things that just were not to be found.
After getting enough stuff together to feel sufficiently satisfied (hey, this IS a tour of America - I can replace anything within minutes) I started packing up the bike. That's when I had the thought, "is that inspection tag out of date?" One hour later (that included four trips to two different inspection garages, another run to the hardware store to replace two burnt out running lights, and $12.50 later I had a new tag. As he was putting it on I noticed it wasn't even the tag I had noticed as being expired! It turned out I needed a new registration tag. Oh well, at least I have working (useless) red lights. Add $32.60 for the inspection 15 minutes later and I was finally off.
Waving goodbye Dad and Barbara (see, I did mention you two) I was on my way to Austin. I did catch a little rain during that first hour or two but it wasn't bad at all. The full face helmet was definitely a good idea. The rest of the ride went smoothly while I listened to four or five Modest Mouse albums on my iPod until I made it to Austin. No problems, no close calls, just a good ride.
In Austin I made it to Lael's house just in time. Even though there was only one car outside the house seemed full of people. While I was a virtual stranger to them all, especially the woman who's house I was staying in, they wasted no time in welcoming me into their fold.
Until late into the night (or early in the morning, depending on how you want to look at it) we went on and on. We started with yummy Mexican food, almost worked out a ride in a yaught taxi (still not sure what that is) an ended up at a karaoki club. It was my first time ever doing karaoki but I loved it! We had the best time and stayed for hours.
The weekend didn't stop there. I had another day in night in Austin. While we woke up tired and very hungover in the morning (what did we drink last night?) we still managed a big night on Saturday. We stayed in but that didn't stop the fun. And old friend of mine from my rock star days came stopped by. The last time I saw Darrien we were jamming in the band Deep together in Denton. It was great to see him.
Austin turned out to be the best place to begin my long journey. In the planning stage for visiting there I didn't think it was going to work out. I had emailed several people to stay with through CouchSurfing and didn't get much response. Luckily Lael signed up just two days before I was to leave and things worked out better than I could have imagined. Thanks Lael!
Posted June 14, 2005 10:31 AM @ (GMT - 6)
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Looks like things are going great. Today is my birthday and I am thinking I should have asked for a motorcycle sidecar... The bicycle my mom got me probably won't make it across the US. Keep posting, we are loving it!