My Entrance Into Austin

Today was certainly an experience. By the end of this entry, you'll hear about an aging hippie with a van filled with Mexican pastries, a roll-on comedian that gets an undeserved reaction, and how the Cody draws all the ladies to him.

I left from the house I was staying and began down the road with Skip, until I felt how every step tortured me so I split directions with him to go my own way again. Sure enough, about ten minutes later, a van pulled over with an elderly man in it. I opened the back door to place my baggage there, and was welcomed immediately by a flood of pastries wrapped in colorful labels with Spanish print. I felt like Noah, had Noah been troubled by a great flood of candy.

Actually, wouldn't that make all the stories from the Bible just a wee bit better? Jesus could've healed the blind man, then given him a lollipop. Zaccheus climbed a tree just to see Christ, imagine how high he would've climbed for a Klondike Bar.

Over the course of the ride, he told me stories about how he dropped acid during the Nixon administration and how he was growing some mushrooms out on his land. I told him I haven't smoked in a while, he told me that he would've given some to me if he hadn't smoked it himself on a previous highway. He also explained to me how Albert Hoffman and Elvis were his two predictions on the Messiah, because of how Hoffman turned us on to such a visually stimulating and spiritually enlightening resource, and Elvis taught white people that it is okay to have fun. Eventually, he dropped me off next to a bus stop in Austin, and wished me luck.

First, I headed to the only place that made sense, Jack In The Box. Jack has been there for me so many times before, why not be there for me when I come to him with open arms and sore feet?

Maybe I should make another personal revision to the Bible mentioned above, maybe Jack is the second coming. Instead of dealing with salvation and eternal damnation, he deals with sourdough bread and curly fries. I really need to stop being offensive, that can get you kicked off a bus.

Speaking of being kicked off a bus, I decided to relax and watch people get on and off a bus for about two hours of my day. Nobody ever told me how cold and silent some people in Austin can be. The first person that actually talked to me was a wheelchair-bound man that introduced himself as a roll-on comedian. He told three other men and me some lines and jokes that slowly become a tad politically incorrect and the bus driver forced him off the bus because of it. I met a new friend, Daniel, that helped cause a little bit of a commotion over the issue. It didn't do any good, but damn, it felt right.

I ended up conversing with Daniel and found out he was a recording engineer and got invited to a recording session tomorrow with a jazz artist, which I am looking forward to attending. I also got to relax at his place for an hour or two.

I haven't decided how sleeping will work tonight, I have a couch across town offered to me, or a camping ground within five minutes of me. Is comfort really worth paying for a cab to drive me across Austin? I'm debating that right now.

"Albert Hoffman and Elvis are my two nominations for the Messiah, the second coming of Christ"

"What do Dale Earndhart and Pink Floyd have in common? Their biggest hits were The Wall."