The weather has turned weird in Austin

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Well it is Wednesday evening here now and what a contrast in the weather!!

Last Sunday was very warm - around 78 degrees F (25 degrees C). We were walking around in T-shiirts and shorts.

So we drove into downtown Austin and hired bicycles to ride around Lady Bird Johnson Lake.

For those who may recall USA president Lyndon B Johnson, he lived here in Texas - in fact out in the Johnson City area - which we passed through on our way to Fredericksburg as we described in our last blog update.

Many things are named in his memory here in Texas. Lady Bird Johnson was his wife and was obviously very popular, having the main town lake named after her, as well as some street names etc.

We rode the bikes to the South Congress area where there are a number of antique shops as well as markets and eateries. We ate Morrocan food from a roadside van which was delicious. There were thousands of people out walking, jogging and dog walking along the trail around the lake while the weather was warm.

What a well laid out city Austin is - Glenda even commented on the similarities to Canberra with the well established road system and a lake in the middle of the city. However, it is not overly bike friendly.

There are only about a dozen or so buildings more than 6 stories high in the centre of town - otherwise everything is very evenly distributed.

This morning the temperature gauge on the hire car (Mazda 6 which gets along very nicely) showed 18 degrees F which is approximately -7 degrees C. Bit of a breeze as well, so the wind chill factor is high and you cannot spend too much time out in the open.

Also woke up this morning to a blackout. Found out later that due to the cold snap the electricity demand is up, so they cut off power to different areas of the city to reduce the load on the grid. Dunno if Aussies would like this idea....

Anyway Glenda is heading back home this coming Saturday, but snow is forecast over the next couple of days so we will see what happens.

I will be here for a further 3 weeks and then head back home at the end of February.

Until next time...

C&G

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Photos

Me and Stevie Ray Vaughan
Stevie Ray lived in Austin up until his death in a helicopter accident in 1990