hibernating in Austin Hill Country - and San Antone

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San Antonio Sat. 5 Feb. 2011
Well an entry at last some might say – well it is now San Antonio TX having escaped the chills/freezing of below zero by hibernating with Vic and Carol in Austin for 4 nights. And today Sat. was finally “back to normal” for this time of year i.e about 16C (60F) from a min. of ard 1C (34F). Mind you the outside thermometer in Carol’s garden seemed to be stuck on 20F (-6C)most of the time!

Vic (who is future cabinmate Tim’s older brother) and Carol met me off the train in Austin at ard 6.45pm on Tues. nite 1 Feb. We then drove to Carol’s house in the Hills district which is about 30mins drive NW of Austin. We stopped for a quite nice dinner at a steak-house type place on the way then we basically holed up for the next 2 days inside as it was so bloody cold outside and watched the weather on CNN. Its all a bit of a blur and nothing much happened – not that I am complaining – it was just good to be out of the cold and wind etc. It finally snowed there on Thursday night overnight, not as serious as Fort Worth, as Fort and Dallas seemed even colder and harder hit – and Super Bowl, the major football final of the year, is between the 2 of them at Arlington on Sunday (tomorrow now).

We went out for a Mexican dinner one night – then had an early Italian meal before the snow was forecast to hit. Sure enough there was snow overnight coating everything – but it was sunny so I took Ginger the dog for a longish walk and sniff of the neighbourhood. We babysat young Parker on Friday night – son of Jennifer, who is Carol’s daughter who had also come to Mexican dinner.

Today Sat. they ran me downtown – it was now sunny and warm – to the slightly suburban Greyhound depot – where I cooled my heels for the 1.30pm bus which finally left about 3.45pm – knock on delays due to snow and ice in Dallas etc I assume. I ended up sitting next to an Aussie guy from Sydney (Bondi – in film world?) - which was not exactly what he wanted to do either (meet another Aussie - in a nice way of course).

Must say I am impressed with San Antonio so far - had a very nice fish meal (snapper) at Landry's near the Riverwalk and thought the Riverwalk was itself pretty impressive - the Venice of Texas indeed! Look fwd to exploring more in the daytime. The Crockett Hotel where I am staying is overlooking the Alamo - or my room does - and altho people spoke of noise on Booking.com I think the only real noise will be those damn horse buggies going clip clop!

And San Antone is forecast for 68F/20C tomorrow which is warmer than Austin - so maybe I am in the right place (for the time being).

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