Austin, TX

After all the high maintenance and drama of the past two sits, I was very happy to sit for a very cute, low maintenance, happy little kitty kat. My daughter flew in for the weekend so we got to take in some fun sights!

First up was the Sunset Kayak Bat tour. We paddled out into Lady Bird Lake, which is really the Colorado River and watched over a billion bats fly out at sunset. It was very cool.

We got some good stories about the bats & the lake, not sure how much was urban legend?? The bats were happily hanging out near the river, when the town decided to damn up the Colorado River to control flooding. No, its not THAT Colorado River. There are several Colorado (‘Colored Red’ in Spanish) rivers, parks and street names all over TX (and NM and CO). So, since the bats got flooded out, they started nesting in the Congress Street bridge. Well, the townsfolk didn’t like that, because… you know.. vampires! So they brought in the Texas Rangers to try to shoot them down out of the sky when they came out at sunset, and that obviously didn’t work. Then they waited until the bats migrated south for winter and filled up all the bridge crevices to keep the bats out. It worked! The bats couldn’t get into the bridge, so they starting nesting all over town, in houses, and churches and stores..etc.., which did not go over so well. So then they had to UNDO all of the bat crevice filler and let the bats back into the bridge. Now, we were told, the bats are the 3rd largest tourist attraction in Texas. I think there is a lesson in there somewhere that the thing that you thought was your worst headache is now your best attraction. I’m trying to imagine all the workers on the bridges with chisels digging out whatever they used to fill in the crevices.

My old decrepit phone finally lost its life on this trip, which was rather traumatic for me. Luckily, my daughter was there so she was able to help me order a new one, navigate us around on her ‘map app’, retrieve the tour tickets, and most importantly, take pictures !!!

The next day we did a bike tour (go eBikes) all around downtown Austin. The story we got about Lady Bird Lake was that the town asked several times to name the lake after her as she was instrumental in revitalizing the area into the beautiful park it is today. She refused, several times, stating that it belonged to the people of Austin. We learned that when a Southern Bell says “Bless your Heart”, it really means, Go F*ck Yourself. When they asked again, she said “Over my dead body”. Lady Bird Johnson died July 11, 2007. The town renamed the lake on July 26, 2007. Hmmm.. It really was a beautiful area all along the river/lake.

Temps were in the 90s in Austin, so after our bike ride we took a dip in Barton Springs Pool, which is pretty cool, and was pretty cold. A natural spring fills the pool every day, and then they drain out the water every night. A lot of people enjoying the cool water, and a view of downtown.

Austin was a short trip, but very fun and very low maintenance. After Austin, I headed back to Albuquerque to see the fam, and to pick up my sister, who went with me on to the next stop, San Diego.