Lubbock and Austin - Texas!

10th and 11th June

So next on our journeys we headed for the Lone Star State- Texas (apparently the only state which flies their state flag at the same height as the American flag. We've been told that Texans very much sonder themselves as Texans first, and then Americans second- or something to that effect...)

We finished our long journey in Lubbock (just missing a rain storm). There didn't really seem to be much going on in Lubbock, except a very cool drive in theatre- which is exactly where we all went, to watch, for just $6, The Hangover II!

It was really good fun, although we were all glad we brought our sleeping bags with us because despite the heat of the day, after the sun had gone down, it got rather chilly.

Anyway, after our very brief one night stop in Lubbock, we continued on to the capital of Texas, Austin. When we arrived we went exploring and found a very nice park with a lovely little river which we felt we needed to paddle in because we were overheating so much!! (I think we were all a bit gutted that we hadn't brought our swimwear!)

After discovering that public transport here is absolutely unbelievably awful (we waited at a bus stop in the sweltering heat for half an hour, before realising that buses only stopped there once every 90 minutes!!) Having given up and got into a taxi, we headed for the restaurant that we were all going to meet in for dinner- a BBQ place called Stubbs which had live music (and was the venue that Adele was going to play in the following night- but she cancelled!)

After a very pleasant meal we wandered around Austin and tried on some fun hats in some of the shops:

We were actually there over a weekend which happened to be "biker weekend" so there were a whole load of bikers (and when we say a whole load- we really do mean a whole load. I'm pretty sure every biker in the Northern Hemisphere had turned up on the streets).

Our final stop for the evening was at a nice little bar/ cafe. Dave, John, Saskia, and the three of us had tried to find a club that would let in under 21s (since 4 out of the 6 of us are unfortunately underage), but unfortunately there was only one, and we'd walked about 10 minutes in the wrong direction, and the insane temperature meant we just really wanted to find air conditioning as soon as physically possible- so we settled for a bar. There was great live music, and we had excellent seats on the balcony- so all in all it was pretty fun!