Austin, Texas, and floating

On the weekend of the 13th-15th of July, I headed down to Austin, Texas to meet up with Jessi who had recently moved there temporarily while she looks for work in Germany. It was a fun-filled weekend, where I was introduced to a favourite sport among the locals.. Toobing!

I had initial plans to go to the Schlitterbahn Water Park in New Braunfels, which is apparently the biggest and best water park in the US. But the word on the street was that the big kid's Schlitterbahn was floating the Guadelupe river (one of many), which involves lots of young people, sun, skin, alcohol and no queues. The lure of hydro-coasters and surf chutes and waterslides was strong, but finally I was convinced.

Saturday morning was stormy but everyone was keen to go, and from when we arrived at midday, loaded with cans of various beers and pre-mixed drinks and margaritas, the weather was fining up. I quickly got the impression that it was rather popular, by the dozens and dozens of people walking around in swimwear and the big warehouse with hundreds of truck inner tubes stacked to the ceiling. $20 got you a tube, with or without a wooden board lashed to the bottom, a bus trip back from the finish, and a tube with a bottom for a cooler and a mesh bag for rubbish.

The river was huge, it reminded me of the Logan Creek at Big Riggen that I floated down on tubes as a kid, only about 20 times the scale. It is fed by a freshwater aquifer that is 68F (20C) all year round, perfectly refreshing on a hot summer day. After the initial traffic jam on the shores while everyone got into the water and into groups, we were off. It was just minutes before we hit the first set of rapids, which turned out to be the most severe of the whole trip!

If you can imagine a scene of absolute chaos, Jessi flipped and scrambled for her tube, I got dunked but stayed upright, the sound of rushing water, everywhere people were calling out, trying to re-group, swimming around to pick up tubes, hats, thongs. There were unopened cans of beer floating down the river at a rate of one every 10 seconds because some poor person had upended their cooler tube, the contents emptying into the river. We lost the contents of the smaller of our two coolers, thank god because my Jimmys were in the big one, and I'd already dropped mine (which sank!) because I was paddling about retrieving 4 other beers that were floating past!

After we re-grouped and resumed drinking, floating in the cool water in the hot afternoon sun through the lush green countryside, it was right up there with some of my most favourite experiences. My waterproof camera drew a fair bit of attention, I had it strapped to my rip cord which was strapped to my key cord in my pocket. So many funny things happen on the river. Jessi was scared of the fearsome snapping turtles (I saw at least a half dozen of them), while she squealed and scrambled to lift her butt out of the water she tried to convince everyone that they could bite your finger off. Some guys had a blow up doll. Others had waterproof speakers. We had to drink from our unnatural hand, if someone spotted you using the other hand they'd cry 'buffalo!' and you'd have to skull/chug the rest. I asked 'why Buffalo? What's that go to do with drinking, or using the wrong hand?' I was missing the point, you could say anything, Buffalo was a country thing. I was in Texas, after all. Guys were doing flips and jumping off a rope swing, I saw two guys with their heads split open, cuts that definitely needed stitches coz they banged their head on a rock. And then with each set of rapids, protect the cooler! Eric and I were ready to put our bodies on the line to save our remaining drinks, only he got swept down the main rapid while I got swept in another direction, the cooler nearly went on its side but he held it down with one hand, the other holding his hat, legs in the air with a classic 'oh sh$!' look on his face. It was legendary.

By the end, several rapids and 4 hours of drinking later, we were all thoroughly plastered, and the last rapid ends quickly and you have to get to the side before you get swept under a low bridge. A girl had drowned under the bridge the day before, and so event organisers sat on the bridge instructing wayward floaters how to safely go under, and cops were walking about. Other staff lugged around 5ft tall bags full of empty cans. I didn't notice until later the little slashes I'd inflicted on my foot. We piled aboard the old school bus that was our ride back to the start, and off we went, at a blistering pace of 15mph, driver had a cowboy hat on, Texas country music blaring, non-stop chatter and shouting, and I thought to myself 'hmm, I'm definitely in Texas.'

Apart from the river float, Austin was absolutely beautiful, with neighbourhoods the likes of which I'd never seen, hands down the best place to live that I've seen since coming to the states. Jessi, her brother Eric and his partner Ali, and their friends made me wanting to stay, and the 6 hour drive back to Todd's house and my home was not as exciting as it usually is.

I have made my first web album of photos with Google's Picasa, which is awesome by the way, and I'm going to use it to share all of my photos from now on. The link for Austin pix is below.

Austin, Texas (13-15 July 2007)

New wheels

Third of four backdated emails :)

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Hi everyone, got some more news... I managed to get a car! So this means I'm gonna be heaps busier and this will be the last major update for a little while.
I was looking around like crazy for a mid size SUV, something that wasn't a gas guzzler but was big enough to support me in the things I want to do while I'm over here in the States, like weekend trips, heading to the lakes and the snow for water and winter sports, maybe even towing my flat mate's boat so we don't need to bother his old man for the truck. I started looking all around Norman, a couple of websites, getting a lift to the somewhat famous 'mile of cars' in Norman, and after looking over hundreds of cars, I decided on the Jeep Liberty as my favourite make & model. My first experience driving on the wrong side of the road was in a Jeep Liberty Renegade with the car salesman sitting next to me and Rajesh sitting in the back (one of the fellas from the Xyant office who was helping me look for a car, champion).
So Rajesh and this guy were chatting away, and I didn't hear a single thing they said, I was concentrating that much; keep right, indicators are on the wrong side, gear stick is on the wrong side...I managed to do fine though even in moderate traffic. Also tried driving a Saturn Vue but that was too, family-suited, too 'nice' I suppose. The Jeep was more rugged, more powerful, better looking, better fun. But this Jeep had some issues, most of all it was only rear wheel drive. In fact, I was absolutely stunned at the fact that over here, 98% of cars younger than 2000 model are automatic, and then of those that are manual transmission, they were all either rear or front wheel drive. Two car dealers joked 'what do you want a 4WD in Oklahoma for anyway'? They just thought I was crazy, when I asked for a manual transmission four wheel drive, I'd get furrowed brows and head scratches and 'um, well we don't have any of those, in fact I haven't seen anything like that in ages'. Americans love convenience (hence drive thru ATMs, Wal Marts that sell everything you can imagine, and fridges double the size of ours back home full of microwave meals), and unfortunately, manual transmission is seen as an inconvenience.

It made me think carefully about my resale potential, but I just can't do auto, I wanted that manual transmission, and 4 wheel drive incase I get stuck in weather up on the ski fields or whatever may happen. So I started looking wider, and sure enough, in Colorado where it snows, they were relatively abundant. And then I found one car that had everything I wanted. After grilling the sales guy with questions, and getting him to take extra photos of particular areas at my request and email them, I ran the VIN number check (vehicle's history, which has become important since the used car market has become littered with flood restoration jobs from New Orleans) and all checked out. So, a million bank dramas later (bank security is so tight it's a wonder they even give you your own money seriously), the deposit was down and I was trying to get my stranded a-- over to Colorado Springs. I spent a couple days seriously contemplating a plan to hire a car from Oklahoma Airport to Colorado Springs; a drive there and back again that would take all weekend, involving sleeping in the back of the rent car on friday night. My flat mate then looked at flights for me and found one out of Dallas for $200, via Denver to Colorado Springs. I hadn't considered Dallas for the obvious reason I can't get there, but Todd said he had found a motorbike he wanted to look at (he's also in the market for one of those) and was going to cruise down with another mate Chris, and we'd go early and drop me off at the airport. So that was the new plan, and at 3:10am Saturday Morning I was up and getting ready for the 2.5 - 3ish hour drive south to Dallas/Fort Worth Airport, Texas. The airport is enormous, with multiple terminals for various airlines, and after getting lost both in the car and then running the full length of a terminal on foot, I made it to the United flight with a short wait till boarding. That was a fair bit of stress think I got another grey hair from that one, because of the consequences of missing the flight, and I've had my fair share of consequences already!

Descent to Colorado showed that most of the snow had melted from the ground from my last visit two weeks previous, and the countryside was like a white tiger's fur print stripes, with only the gullies sheltered from the westerly wind facing north-south having any snow left in them, shining white strips amidst the brownish grasslands. I could finally see the front range, which was in clouds two weeks prior, and it was breathtaking. Snow capped mountains. Colorado Springs is nestled in close to the front range that lies to the west, which extends north and south as far as the eye can see, and eastward is the start of the plains, with no geographical features of any sort.
I got picked up at the airport by Lucas, the internet car salesman, and headed over to Heuberger Motors. Well it was kinda funny, like a love at first sight type of thing, I spotted the Jeep from across the car lot and knew that was it, and a thorough look and drive later, it was sold. I handed over the 'cashiers check' (same as a bank cheque) for $13 000 USD which stung me about 18k Australian. Damn. Still it was a good buy esp when considering prices of similar cars in Australia. So, the feature list is basically as follows.

• 2003 Jeep Liberty Freedom Edition (also known as sport; but an overly patriotic title don't you think?)
• Black
• 3.7L V6 5sp Manual Transmission
• 4WD, RWD when not running 4WD
• 38 000 miles
• Sunroof
• Cruise Control
• Power windows, locking, steering
• mmm, cup holders (two of them! oh wait, they usually come in pairs don't they? I never had any and was always extremely jealous of those with this superior luxury feature)
• Those neat dashboard displays that are white in the day and black at night
• 6 stacker in-dash CD player / radio, 4 door speakers
• Tinted windows (but not for front doors, illegal apparently on SUV's here?)
• Two-tone leather steering wheel and matching black cloth seats with tan leather edges (best of both worlds, durability of leather on the edges, without the cold/heat of leather where you mainly sit)
• Roof rails (I won't bother with racks though, not yet) and once I get a tow hitch, towing capacity of 5000lbs which ought to haul Todd's boat to any lake we desire :)
• $10 000 USD cheaper than the Kelly Blue Book recommended price for that type of used car, which is good

The cruise control quickly became my new toy, and for the third occasion driving on the wrong side of the road, I headed back up to Denver to meet up with Stacey, my first friend I made in the US, on the connecting flight two weeks before from LA to Denver. We spent St Patricks out to dinner and I tried Venison meat loaf. So, confirming my first impressions, she's cool, and it's great to have a friend in Denver. Staying overnight I was up early the next day excited about the interstate drive back to Norman Oklahoma. I had two choices, one quicker route was to head east to Kansas and south to Oklahoma, but that is a flat, straight, boring drive. So I went south as planned, back through Colorado Springs, following the spectacular front range all along. I passed an enormous international speedway, which was a genuinely massive grand stand in the middle of the countryside, and a high-walled circuit track. I also passed a major accident affecting north-bound traffic, where a bus had blown up I'm guessing about 20-30 minutes earlier, with a stack of emergency vehicles driving up the grass on the highway center and traffic backed up for over a mile. Never heard about it on the news tho.
Stopped just short of the border to fill up and grab subway, it was amazing how quickly the countryside changed at the border to New Mexico. The rocky hills, short pines and small bushes gave way to yellow grassy plains and hills with black rubbly slopes crowned with small cliffs. New Mexico was otherwise uneventful, and a bit tiring, and the border to Texas saw another distinct change, to flatness and numerous corn pastures varying from brown and yellow to lush green, all arranged in squares containing circles of crops, and the watering gear wheels around a central point. Another stop in Amarillo, and a second lunch, and on to Oklahoma, where I saw distinct Oklahoman farms straight out of the movie Twister, with a big house, an even bigger shed, and a wind mill, and vast green plains of crops. I was still listening to radio, about the 9th radio station I had passed through, and just after dusk I got to Oklahoma City and headed south the final leg to Norman. By this stage the front of the car was thoroughly plastered in bugs (I had cleaned the windscreen 3 times from bugs already). I got home and what was the first thing I did (after unloading my stuff)? Got straight back in the car and drove with Todd around town and gave him a drive. He's hooked on SUVs now and so his volvo sedan's days are numbered ha.

All told, I covered about 720 miles in that trip, about 1150kms, over about 11 hours. I've already worked out a dozen ways to sit in the drivers seat to make full use of the cruise control, even got a foot rest on the dash for when i'm bare foot. Was equal to the best drive I've ever done, next to the drive west from the Gold Coast to Stanthorpe on a winter friday afternoon / evening a few years back.

There are some good personalities at work, I have been put through a few group introductions, the biggest was at an office-wide meeting in the (large) kitchen to discuss major company developments, Bill the boss said 'we have a couple of new faces here, there is Jason who has come here from Aus-stralia' and someone said with perfect timing 'that's quite a commute'
And they find it funny that the Australian has bought a Jeep Liberty Freedom, pretty much the most patriotic car title around, and when I was asked if I was gonna fly the American flag on it, I said I had an Australian flag on order and 0ZB0Y plates.

Yes so it's late now, i'm behind on sleep, work is full on learning heaps and contributing heaps i've had to hit the ground running there. Meeting more people at work, some guys with similar tastes of adventure sports as me, one guy goes four wheel driving in a Jeep Wrangler (nuts 4 wheel driving though, like oh look at that river over there, lets go and drive through it). And I mean through it as in along it, not across it. That's Kevin, and Adam I met today he also has a boat and goes wakeboarding, one of the bosses windsurfs, and so half of Metavante sounds like it'll be at Lake Heffner or Thunderbird in the spring/summer months. Looking forward to my second summer :D so I can retaliate for all the stories of great surf and hot weather back home with a few pix of wakeboarding and camping by the lake. Every day at the moment is being marked by a big achievement; an important possession bought, some weird US thing or terminology learned, .NET technology ideas for work, simple discovery things like driving down a new neighbourhood the likes of which I've never seen, and I'm sure this will continue for a long time still. Exciting? Absolutely. Challenging? Wouldn't have it any other way. Homesick? No, but I think about everyone back home and other friends abroad heaps. Fulfilling? I'm living my dream, setting my goals and making them happen, and I have plenty more to go!

Hope you all are well and looking after yourselves. I'll be in touch.
Jason