don't mess with it

Austin, Texas. Nice place to visit, bad place to camp in July. When it's still 90 degrees at midnight, the last thing you want to do is look at a sleeping bag, let alone curl up in one. But the highlights of our short stay were worth the sweat and tears.

Highlight #1: Greg Laswell at Stubb'sStubb's is famous first for their BBQ and second for their concerts. Or maybe the other way around. After dinner, we made our way to the basement for the show. No air conditioning, but I had a good spot ten feet from the stage, and a cheap Lone Star beer, and I even got to talk to him afterward... when I promptly plugged Atlanta (their next gig) and recommend breakfast at Flying Biscuit. Gotta represent the A.











Highlight #2: Barton Springs
Here is what made the heatwave bearable — Barton Springs. Thirty million gallons of spring-fed, stone-bottomed, 65-degree goodness. We parked our overheated selves in the water for about five hours.











Highlight #3: The BatsBy day, the Congress Ave bridge is quite ordinary. But every evening around dusk, tourists stand elbow to elbow. Underneath the seemingly unremarkable bridge sleep 1.5 million bats, the world's largest urban bat colony. More than the sight of it, the sound was a bit unnerving.