Obviously it was a while until I got the chance to complete the last story. This one comes from Australia, having arrived safely back this morning.
The remainder of the conference was good - like I said, plenty of socialising and managed to catch up with Scott Marx, who I spent a week with in Colorado last year, as well as several of my contacts (supervisors and peers) from the UC Davis externship. As opposed to doing things in halves, they tend to do everything in doubles over here. I spent Tuesday morning wandering around the River Walk at San Antone which was really nice - very quiet given the conference had all but finished and not many locals around.
I met an Andy Way, a fellow Aussie at the conference, who has been roadtripping around the US. He and I travelled up to Austin, Texas for Tuesday night. It was a bit of an adventure in itself as Andy is transporting a car FULL of belongings from a marriage separation up to New York. We had to repack the car just to fit my and my pack in, with the only spare space left being on my lap. We ended up in downtown Austin by nightfall and found a pretty good deal on a hotel room. Everyone had recommended a visit to 6th street, which is the live music and bar capital of Austin. It was an awesome experience - nearly every bar for around 3 blocks on either side of the street had live music, even on a Tuesday night. The favourites were another piano bar, similar to Howling at the Moon, called 'Duelling Pianos' and another bar where they had a guitarist and a harmonica cranking out some tunes. Another late night but well worth the trip.
Wednesday morning nearly turned into a disaster - I turned up to catch a 10.30 bus to Dallas which was evidently booked out. It was a scramble to then phone Amtrak (the train service), confirm there was a seat spare and rush down to the train station which was neither well known to the locals nor sign posted. Luckily we got down there in time and I found my way up to Dallas.
The trip home was OK, though weather conditions in Australia meant we had to stop to refuel in Noumea, French Polynesia which took the flight time out to around 18 hours - a pretty long haul without getting off - needless to say I was glad to arrive home!
All in all a fantastic trip with a pretty good array of adventure - far more variable than the selection on Texan radio anyway! Hope you've enjoyed the blog, I'll probably restart it in South America, so watch this space in February 2012!
