At dinner, with a table full of other psychics, seers, frauds, and assorted hangers on, I was idly chatting with an elderly reader from Dallas, an old friend. She flew down to Corpus for the working weekend, and in doing so, accrued an extra four hours while sitting on the tarmac at Love Field. Or Houston, I don’t recall exactly what she said. But it’s also why I opted to drive, despite my preference for letting someone else doing the driving.
When I do travel, I usually carry a book or two, something nice and fat, a little juicy, some text that needs some kind of work, and maybe a good thriller. Never can tell when I’ll need something to occupy a spare minute – imagine that, weather delays in Texas?
If I had an extra four hours in Austin, I would hope that it would a be a weekday afternoon, one of the warm afternoons when I can get in a good hike on the trail, east loop down to Pleasant Valley then back to Barton Springs, going for a quick dip, then perhaps some BBQ, TexMex, Tex-Mex inspired Italian, or maybe some straight up Mexican food. Along that route, there’s Bouldin Creek Caffeine Dealer, Jo’s, Halcyon, The Hideout, Little City, and maybe someplace I’m forgetting. What’s a good afternoon without a cigar and a decent cup of coffee?
That’s just walking around, too, all within easy distance of Shady Acres. I know I missed something, but only having four hours to work with, that’s about what I would do.
Even stuck at the airport, for less than four hours, that would be okay, too, imagine that you can get good BBQ [okay, just passable by my standards, but still okay>, cappuccino done right and Amy’s Ice cream. Quit complaining.
