I showed up to Rachael and Kevin's apartment and I was greeted by Basil, their victorian bulldog. I received the once over from her and I was cleared to enter. We started off by hanging out in the apartment and catching up while we waited for their friend Shannon,who is effing crazy, to show up with her dog. We went down to TacoDeli and ordered up some tacos and mexican Coke's, and for those that don't know mexican Coke's have real sugar in it vice the high fructose corn syrup crap we drink, way better then the normal American stuff.
After a tasty lunch we walked down to the Greenbelt and went for a hike with the dogs. After getting back Kevin headed off to work so Rachael and I both took naps. 5 hours later I awoke to Basil staring at me. I was rested and was ready to start my night. Rachael and I headed downtown. We ate at Chupacabra on 6th street and then walked to one of their favorite watering-holes, The Grackle. There we met up with a few more of their friends, Brendan, Pete, and Erin. A few Lonestar tall boys through the night and I was feeling pretty good. We concluded the night with a walk back downtown to catch a cab.
The next day Rachael had to work so Kevin and I took the bus up to the North University area to a place called Spider House. Dope spot! They had a very wide selection of food from breakfast and bagels to pizza with a well-versed coffee bar. I had the Garden Bagel with a side of chips and black coffee, it was definitely above par. As the punk music played, we talked for over an hour about our military jobs, baseball, music and just life in general. After that we headed about a half mile down the street to Clown Dog Bikes. I was asked by my good old friend Cuyler Yogi to stop in and drop off some macadamia nuts and beer to Mike and Bryce, the owners of the shop. We went in dropped the goods and talked story for a bit. After a few laughs we said our farewells and they threw me a shop shirt in exchange for the goodies! Kevin and I headed back to downtown and had a few beers while we waited for Rachael to finish with work. It was Tuesday so Kevin grabbed some tickets to Terror Tuesdays which is dinner and a old scary movie at the Alamo Drafthouse Ritz. We met up with Evan and his girlfriend there. The Invasion of the Bee Girls (1973) was playing that night. We all stuffed our face with food while we watched bee girls screw the life out of the professors of the lab they worked at. It was interesting to say the least! After the movie we called it an early night and headed home; Rachael had to draw out a tattoo that was going on me the next day and we watched Hori Smoku Sailor Jerry: The Life of Norman K. Collins.
I woke up the next morning feeling better and not as jet-lagged but congested, I thought I was getting sick, but apparently cedar pollen makes peoples allergies go nuts. Just my luck. My high school friend, who I had just found out moved to Austin, was going to pick me up and we were going to grab some lunch and coffee. We went to this burger joint called Hut's. They had the widest selection of burgers I have ever seen and on top of that they had a veggie burger that was vegan, so you know I was down! After wiping the BBQ sauce off the corners of my mouth and catching up with Brittany we departed and headed downtown to walk around and get some coffee. We talked some more and in what didn't seem like any time at all it was time for me to get dropped off at Sideshow Tattoo to get tattooed.
Rachael tattooed me for 4 hours. I got a 'momento mori' tattoo which normally includes a rose, a candle, and a skull. With those 3 elements I also had Rachael include a cat. Yes for those who know me, you know that I absolutely hate cats. But, through the last few months I have been getting hurt a lot and had a lot of really close calls, seeing as much I probably should be dead. As we all know cats have 9 lives, so I felt it was appropriate to include in the tattoo.
I headed back down to the apartment to get cleaned up and take out the dog as I waited for Rachael to finish work. We headed back downtown to the Dizzy Rooster and met up with Kevin to have a few drinks. When we got there Kevin was completely wasted since he was drinking all day. I guess it didn't help that he is good friends with the bartender Justin. Drinks ensued. We were all hungry so we went to the Vegan Yacht which is a food truck in this lot of food trucks on the 
side, I ordered a 'freeto burrito'(veggie chili with fritos in a burrito and sorry for the crap picture, iPhones don't do well in the dark). It was the best food I had in Austin thus far...SO good! We ended the night at a few bars with a lot of drinks and a lot of people from the east coast. It seems like everyone they knew was from either NY or Philthy. Just imagine a bunch of people from the Tri-State area all drunk in a bar in Austin talking about punk rock and sports, we were loud and obnoxious to say the least but it was a blast! I went home a little early because I had to pack as my flight left early the next morning.
While in Austin I saw some very strange things and met some even stranger people. I feel like I barely scratched the surface due to the minimal time I had there and the buffer of my hosts and their friends.
On the ride to the airport I sat in silence and reflected on my 3 days in Austin as it passed by me in the window. Although I saw a lot of interesting people and experienced a lot of interesting things that I would normally not experience, I thoroughly enjoyed my time there. I guess thats the point of traveling right? To see friends, experience the new cultures and interact with new people you come in contact with. I will be back to Austin this summer, that's for sure.
Keep it weird, Austin, keep it weird.
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