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The long Road to Austin
Veiw down Cogress Ave with Capitol building in the background.Getting to Austin was a royal pain in the arse and meant we had to take a 3 day train trip back to LA (again) then through into Texas. By now we are really getting fed up of the trains they are so damn slow and full of wierdo's (yes more of them)! As we have been spending such a long amount of time on the trains we have both been recently thinking alot about home and are starting to really get excited about being back next month, can't wait to have a proper cup 'o' tea and fish and chips!
While waiting for the train from LA to Austin I was asked 5 times for money from beggars, one person asked me if I could buy them a rail pass and then one if I had any books( though I was actually reading one at the time!). The journey on the train took us through California, Arizona, new Mexico and into Texas. In reaching West Texas there was litteraly no evidence of civilization, just empty dessert as far as the eye could see! We also spotted several cyotes on the route. Both Kim and I passed the time reading,
Topping the Tan
Trev chilling by Barton Springs! I read over 800 pages in 2 days thats how little we had to do!! However on the first night we got to meet our first real red neck hillbillies! Our carriage seemed to hold the cast from the film "Deliverance" (strange red necks), all with the most southern accents, they talked all day and night long after getting drunk on about 4 beers (usually budlight which tastes like water). At one point they were bragging about how their 'cock's' would bet each others 'cock's' in a cock fight aswell as talk about how tough they were becuase they had been in the "united states marine core sir"! They were actualy friendly enough and we had quite a laugh listening to them but they wouldn't shut up. The conductors had to tell them off repeatedly for being so loud, like a bunch of school kids.
The train stopped in San Antonia for a night, we didn't get off the train to look around but wish we had of as just a few blocks from the station was the 'Alamo' (Davey Crocket). I was annoyed that we had missed out chance to see it but as we had to stop
Time to cool off
Barton Springs so great, it was so hot and humid the 68 degree F water cool us down this way again on the way to New Orleans I was hoping we would have another chance.
Arriving in Austin eventually after 3 days without a proper wash we both felt very greasey and dirty and not to mention tired, we have made good use of our sleeping bags at long last though! We were also looking forward to having somthing decent to eat, for some reason Kim thought it a great idea to go and buy bags of raw carrots to eat on the train and tins of tuna fish which we didn't eat until we got to Austin (she even bought a tin opener)! We pretty much lived on cheese slices in brown bread....yummy!
Its took us a good while to find the Hostel in Austin as it was situated outside the main city centre. The Hostel its self was pretty bizzare perhaps the most strangest we have stayed in. It seemed to be a half way house for middle aged men with names like 'Johny Florida' who had no lives and no jobs and enjoyed perving at all the girls who stayed there. You couldn't go into your room between the hours of 11am- 5pm,
Mexican
Nic, Hayley, Kim and Trev in a Mexican resturant where we had some yummy food (with no peppers for Kim obviously!) you could't drink in the hostel and the showers were communal, the place sucked!
We did little the first day we arrived in Austin as we were so tired. After getting kicked out of our rooms at 11 on the 2nd day we headed out with Hayley and Nic an really nice English couple we had met (hey guys) and went and had a look around some local shops. In one shop they were selling 'Jesus Christ action figures' which I was tempted to buy for a laugh.
Later that day all four of us went to a place nearbye called Barton Springs which is a natural pool, which was pretty amazing and refreshing, however for some reason all the guys in the changing rooms were content to walk around naked, wasn't a pretty sight seeing gangs of old guys with their tackle hanging out! Texan's seem quite happy in walking round nude, rather unsettling, saldy its just the guys who seem to do this :-s
******************A most bizzare train journey!!*******************************
***Food poisoning***
Alright it all started with a trip to Wendy's the fast food joint. We thought you couldn't go to the States without
trying a burger from Wendy's. It tasted ok nothing special however a couple of hours after eating Kim started having very very bad stomach cramps. Waiting to catch a bus to the amtrak station to get a train to new orleans, kim was litteraly bent double on the ground crying. A guy from nowhere came up to Kim and asked if she was alright, he saw we were travellers and gave us a lift to the Amtrak station which was really good of him, thank you very much!! Kim was ill for a good 4 or 5 hours actualy crying most of the time. We nearly didn't get on the train I was actualy worried that it was somthing worse than just food poisoning, but we ended up getting on the train and giving it a bit of time to see if she would improve. That night I had to look after her, at one point I was even reading a book to her to keep the attention off the pain she was in, it brought our relationship to a new level, especialy when I had to bin her bags of puke ( I still have the nightmares)!
***Then
Hem, what does this remaind you of?!
And luckily theres no preservatives either, really, at that size!!! the rain came!!***
Still ill the train stopped for the night in San Antonio, I managed to miss the Alamo for the 2nd time but instead looked after Kim in the station (what a gentleman!). Just as she was settling down the news broke that there were big storms with a possibility of tornado's developing that were headed our way. We basically watched on TV as everything heading our way, then the rain, wind and hail started up.....great just what we needed!
By then end of the night Kim was exhausted from being ill and I was pooped with everything that was going on, especialy after carrying all the luguage all dayaswell :-s.
***The train crash!!***
The next day we were all tired though Kim was better we thought finally after everything it would be a straight forward trip, it was not to be. We were all ready several hours late due to the storms, then suddenly we were both awakened after a big shunt. The train stopped and over the speaker the conductor anounced we had hit a dumper truck that had been trying to cross at the crossing! We never found out what happened to the driver but after several hours of waiting we reversed past the wreckage and litteraly nothing was left! Then they had to de-couple the engine on the front so it could be replaced, it was battered at the front end, im suprised it was moving. We now waited for the engine to be replaced, now running over 12 hours delayed!!! Nothing else could possibily happen on this trip right....wrong.
***The crazy stalker!!!***
The next day I noticed a man on the train who kept starring at Kim everytime he walked past. On one oaccasion he stopped and asked her if she wanted to have dinner with him (this guy was at least in his 50's with a crazy look in his eyes!). She said she was alright and had eaten but he didn't leave instead he just sat there and started trying to make conversation with her though she was obviously feeling awkward. He kept talking about how he was going to Washington to pick up his medical records (alarm bells ringing by now). She tried to scare him off by saying I was her boyfriend but he wouldn't leave, so Kim made an excuse that she needed the bathroom and walked off. He then started talking to me and then to himself muttering about 'hate and how you build yourself up in life then everyone breaks you down' I told him politely that he was invading our privacy which took him back a bit. He walked past to leave then said to me "you have a good girl there make sure you look after her" I said I would then he said "I will too"........proper physco!!! He managed to catch Kim again while she was filling her water bottle up and was telling her how he had been beaten up by British spys, she quickly came back to sit down! For the rest of the trip he kept pacing in the next carriage and looking through the window and often starring at us, we didn't get to much sleep that night!! Finally we arrived in New Orleans, thank god, as we are waiting at the station Kim was on the phone he camed up to me and said " Did you like my brain London" he walked off and that was the last we ever saw him! Hello New Orleans thank god! That was perhaps one of the most bizzare few days of our trip!
P.S. I forgot to mention in Austin Nic brought 100's of PG-tips tea bags with him we haven't had a better cup of tea in 6 months, damn we miss tea, cheers Nic and Hayley!!!
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!!!
thanx for looking after my baby trev xx