Monthly Archives: August 2009

We drove into Austin in search of a cheap and cheerful motel in the heart of things, as advised by our trusty Lonely Planet guide we pulled into the Austin Motel which seemed to fit the bill. But it seemed the receptionist had pulled on his grumpy pants that morning (or more likely he never takes them off – maybe there too tight?) and took an instant dislike to us as we parked in the wrong spot to run in and ask for room rates.

So after scoring yet another amazing deal at the Hampton Inn & Suites we took full advantage of our plush beds and got stuck into some serious TV action where Hayley got her first taste of “True Blood“! The next night we tried to meet up with a mutual friend of Hayley’s, but he had his folks in town for the weekend so he gave us the numbers of his band mates to show us around instead! So we ventured off to Beauty Bar to meet the lead singer of Scorpion Child Aryn who was working there that night. We had a few drinks with Aryn’s friends from another band Castle – Tyler and Hutch and still damaged from New Orleans had an early night.

The next day Aryn took us to Barton Springs which is a natural spring in the city that is a much needed cool down from the Texas heat and then we all headed to the Jackalope for some food and a very big cocktail thanks to the owner Jason!

We then headed to Parish to watch a band, meet Tyler and dance the night away!

The next day was our first 4th July experience, we were a bit slow getting out the door to watch the fireworks on the river so we settled for watching them through the buildings instead. Same diff?!

The next morning we were due to check out of our lap of luxury, but upon being woken up by drilling with an epic hangover Josie proceeded to call management and demand a free night for the inconvenience. Mission accomplished we used it to the fullest and had another bed bound day! But even by the next day Austin had our hearts and we were not ready to leave just yet so we decided to find somewhere to camp and headed out of town to Lake Travis, but when we got there we quickly realized camping is not such a savory option around Austin and after visiting a few options (including Hippy Hollow, a nudist part of the lake that yet again involved nude unattractive men with sensible shoes) booked ourselves into an Extended Stay apartment for another week. We spent our days exploring the city, buying up big at the thrift and vintage stores and discovering the delights of Mighty Cone (a delicious slaw, fried chicken and coated fried avocado combo):

The evenings were spent meeting the rest of the band members. We went on a Bloody Mary trail with Shaun

Went to a Castle gig and hung out back stage with Tyler, Mingy and Hutch

Did karaoke with Chris and Aryn from Scorpion Child

And then there was the night we decided to get tattoo’s…

We tried to leave Austin several times, but it kept drawing us back for another hour, another day, another week! But after a 2 week stay we kissed it goodbye and hit the road again…

On our drive into Louisiana we heard the shocking news that Michael Jackson had passed away (o.k we are obviously a tad behind with the posts), but we were greeted at our New Orleans hotel with a very drunk receptionist and guests having a little MJ tribute in the foyer, Hayley was instructed she must moonwalk and dance her heart out before she could get a room rate – so she gave them a little more than they bargained for and we boogied ourselves into the best room in the hotel. After settling in we headed off to explore the French Quarter, Bourbon St was the hectic mess we expected (Kings Cross on Crack) and there was an abundance of ‘Ghost Tours’ that we decided to get in on the action with and scare the crowd’s with our convincing ‘boo’s’ and other ghostly noises…

The next day we met up with some American friends we met earlier in the year in Australia who were in town on a bachelor weekend, so our New Orleans experience quickly turned into ’2 blondes a car and a bachelor party’ – cue strip clubs, tequila shots, stumbles, tumbles and Bloody Mary’s galore…

The hungover mornings proved to be just as much fun as the drunken nights before (I am not sure that we sobered up at all the whole weekend which might explain it!) we discovered some interesting cullenary delights:

And decided one morning to purchase a set of ‘Gnarly Teeth’ which we put in and proceeded to laugh non stop for a solid half an hour, literally falling over ourselves in fits of laughter and surprising passers by with a flash of our pearly whites. One man commented that Hayley looked like a bunny rabbit and Josie ‘just looks really ugly’!

Next stop upon yet another reccomendation by an aussie ex pat at our hotel was Galveston, a beach town in Texas – who’d a thunk it? So we ventured out for a bite to eat and met the lovely Betty Sue who invited us to come and visit her cousin’s costume shop the next day, as she thought it would be right up our ally. She wasn’t wrong! Her cousin has been making costumes for performers, shows and celebrities for years and is sadly selling his collection as he is dying of cancer. We played dress ups for a couple of hours and left with a dream dress each and a smile from ear to ear.