Sarah's Churchill Adventure: Friendly Texans Save the Day

After the misery of finding myself in a hotel on the 10 lane highway that I now know is the main highway that runs form Mexico to Canada (outside by front door thank you very much) today I decided to just tackle the place head on.

First up my interviews with Bob Kafka and his wife Stephanie Thomas – great stuff from both of them and totally made the trip to Austin worthwhile. Bob is a great activist with the real fervour of the 70’s still in him but really articulate too. Stephanie too gave me a great interview building on themes I explored with Bob – the history of ADAPT, Justin Dart a fellow Texan who travelled to every state in the union twice collecting personal stories of discrimination as well as talking strategies with politicians and activists in the lead up to the ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) in 1990. Justin’s story need to be told so it was great that Bob was able to share his recollections. I spoke with Justin’s widow Yoshiko earlier in the week but she is very reluctant to talk publicly because of fears about her English and also a desire not to damage Justin’s legacy by saying the wrong thing. I think she is being way too modest but can only respect her position.

After my interviews with Bob and Stephanie I went for a walk to find some late lunch – ended up eating Mexican style vegetarian food – weird but acceptable.

On the way back I got a call from Jasper who I hadn’t spoken to for about a week or so. Nice to catch up as I’ve missed his random outbursts on facebook and on the phone. First night of proper trading at Pretty Please the new club he’s managing and all went well so he’s feeling pretty pleased with himself. While I’m sitting on a seat on the street talking to Jasper on the phone a Mexican looking guy rides past on a bike – he looks a bit like Ollie – Jasper’s former business partner and the guy says hello to me – just the kind of random friendliness/chatting up that seems to happen all the time here and before I know it I’m saying hello thinking that it’s Ollie. Earlier I ran across the road to beat the traffic (that comes at you from unexpected directions) and there were 3 black guys on the sidewalk. One says full of charm “I thought you were running to me baby”. “Sorry mate, just beating the traffic” I reply but these syrupy moments of Southern charm can’t help but make the old girl feel like a much younger girl. Just take it at face value and enjoy it I say to myself.

So then tonight I decided I just had to force myself out the door and see something of what Austin has to offer. I shared a cab with some other hotel guests into town. They were going to see a concert of some band I’d never heard of but who were obviously a headline act. I on the other hand was about to head out aimlessly on my own for the evening – not something I really embarked on with much enthusiasm but felt obliged to get out of the house so to speak.

So after wandering past several bars full of after work blokes and other meat rack taverns I settled on a slightly more classy looking place that served prohibition style cocktails (ie lots of absinthe) and pretty good looking food. I went in, sat at the bar and felt about as comfortable as I could on my own in a bar. There were a couple of nice-ish looking guys having a drink together next to me and when one of them went to the bathroom I struck up a conversation with the other. Turned out they were friendly and unthreatening company. Worked in money markets as some kind of weird engineering nerds who developed electronic trading systems (go figure). So we talked about the world, money markets, Bill Gates, wealth and relative happiness, taxation, philanthropy, Australian politics, economics, a little about documentaries and disability rights and in general it was a stimulating night’s conversation. I ate good food, drank an intoxicating cocktail, a nice glass of red wine and an affogatto with Amaretto – plus a really, really good pasta with mushrooms dish. All in all an agreeable night out with some reasonable random company – just goes to show what you can do if you try. Not really my style going out alone but if I’d stayed in I would have just been miserable.

Funnily the taxi driver on the way home just totally fell in love with my accent. His Brazilian accent too had its charms but he was totally besotted by my voice – I almost got a free taxi ride (no strings attached – “just talk a bit more please”) but couldn’t bring myself to accept. It was a sweet and happy encounter.

So I arrived home probably too early by 10pm but still managed to put away 3 drinks and feel woozy and pleased with myself for making the effort.

Tomorrow I might orientate myself a little more in daylight and try my luck again – stick to the nice bars and not drink too much.

Saturday….

What is it with these darn friendly Texans? You won’t believe the day I’ve had. I decided to make a slow start to the day and maybe head out around 2 in the afternoon as I didn’t want to do too much coming and going in taxis from my hotel. So after lazing about reading and taking my time getting ready for the day – a small luxury without children – I caught a cab to where I thought there might be an area worth exploring. I didn’t really hit the mark straight away and ended up wandering around the same streets I’d been in last night. I wandered in to the Mexican museum and managed to just miss a musical performance, which was a shame. Outside there was a half-hearted attempt at a Mexican street fiesta (maybe things would get livelier later at night) – see pictures for all the weird and wacky “day of the dead” stuff. And some Mexican style band playing music with more than a hint of Country and Western style – my least favourite music on the planet.

So after wandering about there I found the visitor information centre and was guided to the South Congress Area where all the cool shops and cafes are. It was about a half hour walk away in fairly hot and windy conditions but turned out to be a bit of an oasis when I arrived. It’s a bit of an eclectic shopping strip cleaved in 2 by 7 lanes of pretty busy traffic which to my mind spoiled the ambience somewhat but here the car is king so maybe it’s just the Texas way.

It was about 4 in the afternoon and I felt like a meal so I settled into a cool (in both senses) room next to the funky retro Austin Motel. The waiter pretty quickly tuned into my Australian accent and told me how he’d been an exchange student in Brisbane as a teenager. He obviously still loved Australia and Australians and before long he’d suggested that as he was about to finish work for the day maybe he could take me to a bar he was heading out to where there might be some good music. He went to lengths to reassure me that he was dating someone and purely being friendly and so off we went. Ryan meet Sarah, Sarah meet Ryan.

Turned out the bar he was going to is owned by Lance Armstrong and is called “Johnny Mayo’s” or some such – a play on Jeune Maillot I think which is the French for Yellow Jersey. I’m sure I have the name of the bar not quite right and possibly the French translation too but you get the idea – a bit cheesy. So the bar was actually not jumping as expected so Ryan takes me instead on a tour of the Texas Congress building. We talk politics and, music a bit (but my current music knowledge is a bit rusty so I don’t go too deeply there). He’s a drummer working on a solo project at the moment but he had been in a band that toured Poland among other places and he dreams of moving to Poland, marrying a nice Polish girl and growing old under a European health system instead of the American one – I kid you not this is what he told me. He’s 33 by the way. The health system is a HUGE issue in the country.

So after our short but interesting tour of Congress we head back to the South Congress area and go to another bar so he can eat and we have a couple of beers and chat more. We both had a really fun time – he was happy to tune back into Australia and I was more than happy to be taken out and about by a friendly local. I showed him the YGAP teaser on my iphone, we talked about all kinds of things and then by about 8 o’clock it was time for him to go and meet up with his girlfriend.

You can never predict these things yet somehow travelling with a slightly unusual accent seems to open doors and of course you have to be ready to walk through and see what’s on the other side. After Ryan left I wandered around for a little longer but really couldn’t sustain the energy or interest for a late night of music. I felt like I’d soaked up enough of the Austin ambience and friendliness, so I ate some chocolate, peanut butter and banana ice cream – not bad, and jumped into a taxi home.