Before flying down to Quito however, I spent the previous ten days deeeeep in the heaaaart of Texas staying with my friends the Jams (big shout out you lovely people!). Boy was it HOT! My friends live in Austin, known as the liberal, chilled-out oasis in the sea of Republicanism and religious fervor that blankets America´s deep south. It´s also famous as the city containing the greatest number of music venues anywhere in the world. First impressions: Green, green, green with trees everywhere!
The first evening I arrived off the Greyhound from New Orleans my friends let slip that they'd managed to get tickets for an NBA playoff game, Dallas Mavericks vs Denver Nuggets (yes, quite possibly the worst name for a sports team ever). It meant a drive over to Dallas and the tickets weren't cheap, but I figured the opportunity to watch a real live NBA playoff game wouldn't likely crop up again and was pretty excited. I've wanted to go to a basketball game since I first saw the Chicago Bulls dreamteam of the mid-late 90s on television growing up.
The American Airlines Centre where the 'Mavs' play was bigger than I expected and ten minutes before the game started the place was almost full and buzzing. The Mavs were in a tight spot, down in the series 3-0 and had to win this game to have any chance of staying in the playoffs, although coming back looked unlikely. Being at a game here is quite an experience. They have a gigantic sound system and massive video screens hanging from the ceiling, all of which get the crowd going with chants and silly animations. We shouted, we cursed the opposition, and somehow, despite being ten points behind the whole game, the Mavs came back in the last minute of the last quarter to winthe game by two points! The place went wild! It was so intense I could feel the adrenaline cursing through my veins!
Other activities whilst in the Lone Star State (did you know Texas used to be it´s own country back in the day?!) have included:
Watching the new Start Trek movie at an IMAX. Its entertaining enough, but how weird was it to see Simon Pegg cracking jokes all over the shop?!
Visiting the Cathedral of Junk. This is exactly what it sounds like but miles better than you could ever expect. In a quiet residential street, in Vince Hannemann´s back yard sits an impressive structure composed entirely of old toys, car parts, scrap metal, old radios, arms chairs... in fact anything you can think of is probably stuck in there somewhere. It was amazing and pictures cannot really do it justice but here you go.
The best thing is it is completely structurally sound and you can walk up inside to second floor level! Its a very bizarre labour of love, but an incredible achivement nonetheless.
Going ´Toobing´. This basically involves a big group of you hiring large rubber tires and floating on down the river, a cooler of food and drink to hand. Often I find its the simple things in life that you end up enjoying the most and this was a case in point. Good conversation, good people watching and laughs aplenty as you go bobbing down the rapids trying not to get your back end prodded by rocks as the bemused turtles and other wildlife look on!
The Natural Bridge Caverns near San Antonio were an impressive sight. Its always intriguing to see inside this Earth of ours and marvel at the fact that these alien formations of stalagtites and mites have been steadily growing for millions of years.
The rest of the time we spent hanging out in Austin, checking out one of the best record shops I´ve ever been too, swimming and sunbathing in and around the gorgeous Barton Springs Pool and generally enjoying life.
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We went ot see the Startrek movie and thought it was awesome! Most entertaining. You have to have been a trekky fan when Capt Kirk was in charge to appreciate fully!
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