Two instances of ACL traffic. One was amusing. One was not.
I was on the trail, headed towards the post office. A couple was wandering long, the poor woman was at least wearing sensible footwear (all about the shoes, huh), and the guy was in shorts and they both had water bottles and hats. Good move.
The guy kept pulling a map out of his pocket, then looking at it, then he reversed his direction. Not once, but twice. Joggers went by. There was a steady stream of festival goers, obvious by the blankets and portable chairs, water bottles and so forth. I was heading the other direction. Except this couple, they wound up dogging my steps for a little way, then he stopped, consulted the map again, and turned around.
After passing me twice, I pointed them in the right direction. I was mentally making up a funny comment about how guys won’t stop and ask directions. I hope they made it. Poor girl, she was “glowing” heavily.
Crossing the street to the post office, there was four-door sedan in one lane, behind the line. Light changed red. He saw an opening in the traffic ahead, and he went for it. Nearly took out a couple of pedestrians, myself included. I flipped him off. Violated several traffic laws. Not to mention common sense, but the downtown was snarled worse than fishing line on a bad reel, and that was barely after noon.
There was a third vehicular note, a certain truck with garish political slogans on it. The message is that “war is bad,” and we shouldn’t fight a war for oil. This might not be the driver’s first war protest, either, but that’s a guess, not absolute fact. And, the sight of that kind of decoration isn’t out-of-the-ordinary in Austin. What caught my eye, I was pacing the truck in traffic at one end of downtown. I had time to fetch the mail, stopped for a cup of coffee (iced), chatted up a Capricorn lass, and meandered homeward.
I passed the same truck, same driver, now facing the other direction, still stuck in traffic.
Feets don’t fail me now. I was ahead.
Expected: 50,000 people. Do the math, average 1.7 people per car, maybe boost that to a full two for this event, folks riding together. 25,000 cars. Glad I left.
Laeti edimus qui nos subigant!
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