Rayne can has blog attempt?
Day 1 of my attempt at a travel blog.
Have arrived in Austin safely. The bus trip was 44 hours of slightly surreal. Left Ottawa at 12:30am. A big thanks to Farrell for the last minute lift to the bus station : ) Arrived in TO around 6:00 am, was met by and had breakfast with Marna and Cat at a Timmy's no less yah! got to catch up with Marna and receive gifts from Terry yah! and was back on another bus for an 8:30 am departure. Two Mennonite/Amish couples (the younger couple had a cute toddler with them) got on the bus in London. There was the usual security theatre at the Detroit border crossing: alot of "yes sir, no sir, please let me into your oh so glorious, doesn't everyone want to sneak in and stay illegally forever, country, sir." The border guards were a mixed group: the ones who came out to inspect the luggage were nice but the ones inside doing the questioning were incredibly patronising. The Mennonite family, the lone male German tourist, myself and our bus driver were all talked down to and/or lectured before being sent on on our way. I changed buses in Detroit and again in Cincinnati. The Cincinnati bus had about 35 Amish taking up the first 2/3 of the bus. The back, where I sat, had about 7 deep southern African American men. Between the German accents and southern drawl I could understand little of the English conversations that were attempted. The bus seats were mostly not broken and I had two seats to myself on all but one segment of the trip. I do have good travel karma. Two more bus changes later and I rolled into Austin around 10:20 pm last night. I was met by Robyn, driven to her place in Leander and had a lovely night's sleep on a REAL bed. Woke up to a morning that was cool and misty. By the afternoon it was warm and sunny. It is around 6:00 pm now and the short light rain is mostly over. I cannot complain - this is Texas after all. Further more, there are blue bonnets, pink buttercups and and indian paint in bloom along side the roads and in Robyn's backyard (ooh pretties) and the rain is good for them. Planning to take pictures that I will try to post later after I borrow or buy a cord to upload. It appears I left mine on my computer desk at home [has head desk moment].
Have arrived in Austin safely. The bus trip was 44 hours of slightly surreal. Left Ottawa at 12:30am. A big thanks to Farrell for the last minute lift to the bus station : ) Arrived in TO around 6:00 am, was met by and had breakfast with Marna and Cat at a Timmy's no less yah! got to catch up with Marna and receive gifts from Terry yah! and was back on another bus for an 8:30 am departure. Two Mennonite/Amish couples (the younger couple had a cute toddler with them) got on the bus in London. There was the usual security theatre at the Detroit border crossing: alot of "yes sir, no sir, please let me into your oh so glorious, doesn't everyone want to sneak in and stay illegally forever, country, sir." The border guards were a mixed group: the ones who came out to inspect the luggage were nice but the ones inside doing the questioning were incredibly patronising. The Mennonite family, the lone male German tourist, myself and our bus driver were all talked down to and/or lectured before being sent on on our way. I changed buses in Detroit and again in Cincinnati. The Cincinnati bus had about 35 Amish taking up the first 2/3 of the bus. The back, where I sat, had about 7 deep southern African American men. Between the German accents and southern drawl I could understand little of the English conversations that were attempted. The bus seats were mostly not broken and I had two seats to myself on all but one segment of the trip. I do have good travel karma. Two more bus changes later and I rolled into Austin around 10:20 pm last night. I was met by Robyn, driven to her place in Leander and had a lovely night's sleep on a REAL bed. Woke up to a morning that was cool and misty. By the afternoon it was warm and sunny. It is around 6:00 pm now and the short light rain is mostly over. I cannot complain - this is Texas after all. Further more, there are blue bonnets, pink buttercups and and indian paint in bloom along side the roads and in Robyn's backyard (ooh pretties) and the rain is good for them. Planning to take pictures that I will try to post later after I borrow or buy a cord to upload. It appears I left mine on my computer desk at home [has head desk moment].