Keeping Austin Relatively Normal

 Flying just one leg from Guadalajara back to Houston, it was a relatively easy day. All we had to do was proceed through customs and then deadhead over to Austin where we would be for the rest of the day. I had eaten my "breakfast" of cookies around 4am, so my body was ready for lunch at 9. By the time we got to Austin just after 11, I was starving. I had a hankering for bbq, so I did some searching around the area. I didn't want to eat at a sit-down kind of place, so that limited my options. I was hoping to find a hole-in-the wall or a food truck type place. The problem with that was locating where the food truck might be. After walking for what seemed like miles, I was too hungry to be choosey and decided to eat at a kebab food truck. And thus, my trend toward eating atypical local cuisine continued. I had a spicy lamb/beef kebab with baklava on the side. It was very tasty. Not brisket, per se, but tasty. Shortly thereafter, I met up with a friend from graduate school. We chatted for a while, attempting to fill each other in on the events of the last few years. She now works in the big pointy scary building in downtown Austin.

 The last time I saw her, I was just a wee pilot with maybe some 100 hours under my belt. Back then I was flying around in airplanes with mere lawn mower engines. Now I fly around in planes with really powerful lawn mower engines. In the grand scheme of things, it hasn't really been all that long to get to where I'm at. Meanwhile in Austin, my friend has been embarking on all sorts of adventures of her own -- book publishing, coaching, hotel-ing, foundation-ing, and other sorts of business/leadership types of things that I cannot begin to understand.
"So it's a 501(c)(3) . . ."
"The plane goes zoom!"

But, it is always a delight with this job to pop in to all sorts of cities, call someone up and catch up on life. It also cuts into some of the solitude that comes with my profession. So often when arriving at the hotel, the rest of the crew gets to their rooms, the door clicks, and that's it.

After our meet-up, I continued walking around the area. I took a stroll along a path by the Colorado River and crossed a bridge to reverse down the other side. Austin is a very active city and I saw hundreds of people running or cycling down the path. It was a gorgeous March day with temperatures in the high 70s. All in all, I have been pretty lucky this trip. I can walk outside in a t-shirt. Other than the early wake up times, it has been a good trip. I have had lots of time to unwind and relax in the cities we have visited. And on that note, I should probably get ready for bed. I have to set my alarm for . . .3:50am. º_º