Texas: Lubbock to Austin

I breakfasted at Teocolote Cafe in Santa Fe, where Song of Ice and Fire (Game of Thrones) author George R. R. Martin is known to frequent. No Martin sighting, but I did have a tasty, spicy, Christmas-style (red & green chile) breakfast burrito. It was the best burrito ever.

I also happened to pass Billy the Kid's grave on the way to Texas. It was one of the only graves in a small, maintained cemetery. Neat!

From New Mexico, I headed to Lubbock, Texas, to see my friend, Valerie. Lubbock is home to Texas Tech, and apparently, one of the highest teen pregnancy rates and lowest literacy rates in the country. I didn't do anything to contribute to either while I was there. Valerie and I cooked a tasty dinner, and there was much rejoicing.

From Lubbock, it was a diagonal tear across Texas to Austin. My college buddy Arek and NY friend Lexy live there. Austin is essentially the offspring of Greenwich Village and Boston's Newbury Street. Hardly a chain to be seen (except for Whole Foods world headquarters) and full of outdoor seating, one-of-a-kind restaurants and boutiques, and a thick air of friendliness and warmth that I haven't encountered anywhere else.

Arek took me to Rudy's BBQ, and afterward, Lexy, her other half Tyler, and some other friends and I visited Barton Springs for a Solstice gathering. Barton Springs is a public pool but it's a natural mineral spring, with water that flows through it and into a river, so that it's far more like bathing in a river than in a swimming pool. The water, apparently, is always 60°. It was a beautiful way to welcome the summer.

This morning, I'll have brunch with Ben, a grad school friend, and then off to Dallas.