So goes the Austin city motto. I guess it’s a play off “Keep Texas Wild,” which I think is pretty awesome as well. And Austin does its best to keep to its motto. Apparently someone even ran for major of Austin with that as his campaign slogan.
I had big plans to upload some photos and show off some of Austin’s weirdness, but unfortunately for me and for you, I left my cable back in New York, so no photos for this blog! I shall have to paint with words instead.
Possibly the weirdest thing that I’ve discovered in Austin thus far is Oasis, Texas. Listed in my guidebook as a great place to see the sunset, D and I drove about a half hour outside of town to discover something that resembled a ghost town. Perched on the edge of Lake Travis with some truly amazing views, Oasis, Texas is a ghost town theme park. There were about twenty or more vacant retail spaces in a complex that resembled the Texas version of a ski chalet. Dotted amongst this craziness were bronze sculptures depicting everything from a monkey astride a giant banana to a large state of Texas with Austin’s skyline atop. Weird.
Yesterday morning I was walking into town and saw some vultures chowing down on some roadkill. Weird.
Just outside the State Capital building is a large granite headstone with the 10 Commandments inscribed on it. Weird.
And just this evening I watched the sunset over the Congress Avenue bridge as thousands of bats flew out into the night. Each summer these bats use the underside of the bridge as their home and each evening as the sun sets in the west they begin their flight for food. Very werid.
