Austin, TX–South Texas

We’re heading west on Government Blvd. At least, that’s what US Hwy 90 is called in Mobile. We’re in south Texas. It’s flat land as far as we can see, which isn’t as far as usual because it’s a little foggy. The forecast for Del Rio tonight is chance of thunderstorms. Still, winter has got to be the right time to visit Texas.

We’re not sure we’ll get to the place we plan to camp tonight before dark. We had a late start from Austin this morning. Our host Dave had an 8 o’clock class this morning, so he left us his spare apartment and car keys. We slept in (later than we had planned, but Berck and Dave had stayed up till 3:30 discussing geek things), gathered our things, and packed the car. Then Berck opened Dave’s car (he takes a shuttle to the law school at UT), put the car keys back in the apartment, closed and locked the apartment door, put the apartment key in Dave’s car, and locked Dave’s car.

It was right at this moment that I realized that the stereo’s faceplate wasn’t where it should be. “Berck!” I called out. But he had just slammed Dave’s car door.

There was nothing to do but call Dave and leave him a message. While we waited for him to get out of class and turn his phone back on, we drove to a tiny Mexican restaurant that advertised breakfast tacos on its outside wall. We sat down at the counter beneath a huge screen showing a Mexican soap opera, and the waitress put a basket of chips and some salsa in front of us. We had just been served some Huevos a la Mexicana, breakfast tacos, and Mexican Coke, when Dave called us back. We got some to-go boxes to dump our food in and headed to the University. He met us outside the law building and gave us his remaining apartment key.

Sure enough, the stereo faceplate was sitting on the coffee table … beneath a magazine. We sat down at the table and finished our breakfast. Then repeating the process with the key, we were finally on our way.

Well, the sun has shown itself, and we should be at our campsite with our tent set up in time to enjoy the sunset. The terrain has gotten bumpy, and instead of endless plowed fields, there’s nothing but scrub brush and cactus for grazing.