My adventure began after packing my car at 11 p.m. on Monday night after driving from the Tour of Somerville. Which is really fun to WATCH, btw. Car packed to the brim, I headed to Blacksburg to sleep in Cora’s spare bedroom.
I rousted myself at 7 and hit the road for Diamondhead, MS. 4 state signs later I was in Mississippi! It’s a lovely place. I pulled over at a state park South of Hattiesburg for a little bikeybike. I passed few cars, a chick on a horse, and did an accidental time trial due to a highway shoulder decreasing from 7 feet to 7 inches. I was literally riding for my life and hoping someone didn’t want to taxidermy a cyclist.Bill Wesley is Megan’s dad. Meg and I have been friends since our family moved from the Silicon Valley to Oregon in 1985. We spent countless hours playing in the woods at the ranch, experimenting with makeup and trying to hide it from our mothers, and generally being inseparable. So much so that a family friend coined us “The M&M Girls”. I fondly remember experiencing Gold n’ Soft Margarine and white bread at her house. Oh, and Saturday morning cartoons!
Bill and his wife Syble live in Diamondhead on the Gulf Coast and I begged a night’s stay off of them in lieu of some anonymous hotel with plasticky bedspreads. They welcomed me graciously and I spent a delightful evening and morning getting to know them again. Megan’s nephew, Andrew, was also visiting. He is the only child I have/will babysit. He is 19 now and I was ill-equipped to chaperone when he was born. He maintains that I dropped him once but I think that’s urban legend. Allegations off poor babysitting skills aside, it was good to see ‘Drew. He will be serving our country come Fall in some branch of the military. I am forgetting which but it’s the one that gives you short haircuts.
I headed to New Orleans for an afternoon of exploring The Big Easy. Wrong. I found it to be sketchy, contrived, and not that cool. I definitely need to visit with a local. Next time…
After driving through Houston and confirming my hunch that it is the shittiest town in America; I arrived in Austin. Daniele and Phil welcomed me into their awesome new house and we had two days of fun and biking and partying. Only in Texas does one win a bucket of cheese sauce in a bike race.I arrived in Dallas on Friday morning and spent an hour prying my clothes/shoes/bike wheels from the nooks and crannies of my car. Aside from the JRL Ranch being the most beautiful place on earth; my apartment at Mockingbird Station is the nicest abode I’ve ever had. It beats my faux-Jeffersonian condo in Cville any day. But I’d hate to pay the mortgage on this place.
I explored the area by bicycle this weekend and found an astounding number of cyclists. Hundreds upon hundreds swarm the bike paths and bike routes; and none very menacing. I was surprised at how courteous and steady they were. My commute to work looks to be about 1.5 hours; we’ll see how that works out.
Last night Lizzie took me to see The Old 97s. What a rock show! I normally dislike concerts because they interrupt me as I talk to my friends and make me deaf. But this one was amazing! House of Blues. We took the light rail. No smoking. Rather squeaky-clean crowd. High energy band. PS: I thought I knew the world’s hottest lead singer.
But Rhett Miller may give William Walter a run for his confederate wampum. You decide. 
(PPS: The Old 97s' other guitarist looks like Peter Hymas)
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