Tuesday, June 18, 2019

#477 The Year of 50: Austin


My friend Julie turned 50 in April of 2018.  She wasn’t excited about the number, but she was excited about going on a trip to celebrate it with her friends.  After much debate and prodding to pick a date and place, she chose Austin, Texas.  And due to her roller derby conflicts during the spring/summer, we booked a weekend in September.  A nice excuse to prolong birthday celebration. 

Our cast of characters that were able to join were married couple Cathy and Herb, Lisa, Cincinnati Kathy (Lisa’s friend from, where else? Cincinnati), the birthday girl, and yours truly.  Party headquarters was a modern Airbnb house not far from downtown.  Here’s a rundown of our weekend. 

Bats.  Most of us had seen the famous Congress Bridge Bats.  I witnessed this phenomenon last spring but was hoping to see larger numbers in the fall.  On our first day the weather was chilly and rain began to fall when we reached the bridge to wait for the bats to emerge at dusk.  We waited.  And waited.  And waited.  And shivered.  And waited some more.  We watched the kayaks below.  We watched the people on the boats below.  We prayed.  Our stomachs rumbled.  No bats.  After 1 ½ hours we gave up and found food at the Banger’s Sausage House and Beer Garden, then continued on to Little Lucy’s Donuts for dessert.  Despite no bats, it was a fine start to the weekend.  (We tried once more on our last night to see the bats, but still nothing.  What is going on?!)

We may not have seen bats, but we saw a beautiful sunset.


Later on we saw some bat-shaped bike racks.  Does that count?  
Texas Stars.  Rain continued the next day so we toured the Texas State Capitol building.  An unusual choice.  It was really cool and we were fascinated by all of the Texas stars we saw throughout the building.  Chairs.  Light fixtures.  You name it, it had a star on it somewhere.  We needed our donut fix for the day and stopped at VooDoo Doughnut.  This place has the craziest donuts I’ve ever seen.  I’m partial to cake donuts so kept it pretty simple, but the others went all out.  Man can’t live on donuts alone, so we had pretzels and beer at Easy Tiger.  More carbs!  Any place that has Tiger in the name is good with me!   

Rotunda in the state capitol
Roller Derby.  Our main attraction for the day (heck, the weekend) was the Texas Banked Roller Derby, more specifically, the Calvello Cup, named after a well-known roller derby personality Ann Calvello.  What a night!  If you clicked on the Calvello Cup link, you saw that the dueling teams were the Rhinestone Cowgirls vs. Putas del Fuego.  (Go ahead and look up the meaning of the second name.)  Banked roller derby is a little more “show” than flat track.  They have pillow fights, and other shenanigans during breaks.  And if it’s your birthday, you can go onto the track and get spanked by the teams.  Beware – they hit HARD.  And they don’t smell like roses (in the video below you can see me holding my nose).  I guilted Julie into going onto the track since it was her birthday trip, and since my birthday was upcoming, I went with her.  I just wanted to go onto the track.  A way-cool girls band performed before the bout and during breaks.  Check out Midnight Butterfly if you get a chance. 

Calvello Cup action.



Janea.  As luck would have it, my good friend Janae lives in Austin!  We spent our day in Austin last spring with her and her friend Janna, and she was able to meet us at the derby.  And she’s the one who tipped us off on the birthday spanking ceremony.  I met Janae when I played with an Athletes In Action fall team back in 1997(?) and trained in Cincinnati, where she’s from.  She’s lived in Austin for the past several years and I’m so thankful I got to connect with her.  She’s one of those people who you don’t see for a long time, but you pick up right where you left off.  All we do is laugh together.  She’s awesome! 

San Marcos River.  The next day we took a leisurely tubing trip on the San Marcos River.  Such fun to sit back, relax and enjoy the water and scenery (including really cool tress and roots, and lots of turtles).  Fitting into a tube can be a challenge for us tall folks.  My butt sits a little lower than most, but I was still comfortable.  Give it a try! 

Lisa, Cincinnati Kathy and Julie floating down the San Marcos River 
ABGB.  After tubing we cleaned up had refreshments at the Austin Beer Garden Brewing Company.  Every Sunday they have live music and dancing.  I packed my cowboy boots just for ABGB and it didn’t disappoint.  (My packing skills were put to the test fitting size 12 cowboy boots in a carry-on bag and having room for other clothes.)  We visited ABGB last spring on a Final Four side trip and I turned down a dance offer from an older gentleman, then felt guilty.  This time around I was more receptive, and when tall Edd approached me to dance, I obliged.  What a small world it is – he went to high school in Indianapolis and I enjoyed hearing about his life path.  You can meet some really cool people if you open up a little. 

Me dancing with Edd.
University of Texas.  We had time before our departing flight to see the University of Texas campus.  Lunch at Fricano’s Deli and a little shopping at the University Co-op.  While at the co-op we saw a real Texas star – Hall of Fame former Lady Longhorns coach Jody Conradt.  Julie gets points for her eagle eye and stalking photography skills.  I’d never met her or played against her teams, but I played at the same time she coached and she knows my coach.  I introduced myself, telling her where I played, and she was very nice and seemed pleased to talk to me.  She looks fantastic at (then) 77-years old.  I will admit as I walked away, I was sweating a little.  She’s a legend, after all! 

"Stalking" Jody Conradt
Airport.  Austin’s airport had some fun shops that we perused before taking off.  We had a close call on our connecting flight through Atlanta.  As we landed, I checked my watch and saw that our flight home was boarding.  I ran ahead to save a spot for the others but they held the plane for us.  Again, sweating!  Whew! 

Birthday girl
Julie may not have been thrilled to turn 50, but I’m thankful she allowed me to come along for a fun weekend.  I hope she enjoyed herself – I know I did!  Yeee haw! 


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