Mimi's Airstream. Austin, TX. January 23 2017
There has been a lot of talk lately about whether Austin is, like, the new Portland or whatever. I, having never been to Portland, am somehow already of the opinion that it isn’t. Not a clue (yet) as to whether that’s a good thing or a bad thing, but I’ll circle back in March-ish.
Austin does stand alone, and in a good way. When we arrived, we stayed at Mimi’s, a girl I went to elementary school with but I hadn’t seen in ten years (Facebook, eh?). She lives in an airstream in the backyard of a house on a residential street in East Austin, and shares it with two other trailer-dwellers, four chickens, and a handful of cats. We felt super at home there, and it turns out that my replacement at the Toronto job I just left is her cousin! The world is small. Alongside the airstream, we got to have an outdoor shower, we got to eat vegan BBQ at a food truck down the road, we got to wander around East Austin (a bit ghost town-y, and brought memories of Nashville). We drank at a local brewery because what else is new, perused vintage shops with our eyes (no space in the van for more stuff) on South Congress ("SOCO"), and swam at the world’s most tits-cold natural pool/best people watching spot. We went out our second night to the “Dirty Sixth” because some blog had told us to “spend one awesome, regrettable night” there but to “not make a habit of it” so we did just that, catching some local bands and then moving on to (our first and last) nightclub. Austin is weird, and good weird, and its own breed of weird. I’m happy to be updating y’all with this entry in the middle of the Texan desert at Big Bend National Park though. When you read this we’ll have found wifi!
Skating the Graffiti Wall Lookout. Austin, TX. January 24 2017