Despite minor setbacks, GBA continued through the Lone Star state and met up with the coolest rock band in the universe while doing it.

I know. We are falling a bit behind on updating both blogs and videos. These last 7 days have been crazy to say the least. As the last blog ended, we knew that there was a problem with the clutch. The best part of breaking down is finding out it is a minor repair. I think our luck on minor repairs may dreadfully be coming to an end. We cannot be lucky for too much longer.

The morning after the bus lost clutch capabilities, we drove from McKinney Falls State Park to an awesome garage: Austin VeeDub. These guys were more than willing to lend a hand. One guy I talked to on the phone the day before came over to our bus to see what the deal was. Sure enough, the clutch cable was snapped and we needed a new one. They had those in stock, and within a few minutes we were repairing it ourselves with an occasional check up by someone who worked at Austin VeeDub. Awesomeness. 

With a functional bus, and a pass that was still valid, we headed back to McKinney to explore the park. Much of it reminded us of 40 Acre Rock back in South Carolina. The one major difference with McKinney is that there were waterfalls and you could go swimming. Westy didn't gain any courage since her last swimming attempts, so she pretty much stayed dry minus her legs. Kim even went swimming. Shocker for the ages. Having a working vehicle made us want to drive a bit. So, the next morning we did.

Before the afternoon we were heading into the heart of Austin. Our first stop was the Zilker Botanical Gardens. I have no idea how this place could be free. It was huge, and there were people working everywhere. Maybe that's where tax money goes. Either way, the entire place had something worth looking at. Giant fish, waterfalls, streams, and pretty much anything that would entail a garden was there in cool form. Our next stop for the day would be underneath a bridge.

Well, not entirely. Kim found out that at this time of year, Mexican Free-Tail bats come surging out from underneath the Congress Ave. Bridge in Austin. We waited for a while, without the help of some random guy going on and on about how some nights the bats never show, when a sea of bats came spiraling out from the bridge and into the sky. We were pretty far away from the bridge, so it almost looked like a bunch of flies swarming something. There seemed to be an endless supply of bats that flew into the sky vanishing with the sunlight. The next morning we went to surprise one our friend's from Rochester: Jeremy.

It seemed like a lot of shows and events were just being missed because of our schedule. Most of the time, it was by a few weeks; so we couldn't just wait a day or two to see something. Kim caught online one day that Jeremy was going to be touring with a band we hadn't heard of: Closure in Moscow. It just happened to work out that they were going to be Austin the same time as us, and they were playing 5 shows in a 2 day span. We checked them out online, but laptop speakers don't do much justice to music. When it's music you've never heard before, you miss a lot. We weren't too sure what to expect.

When we found out online where they were playing, the site made it seem like it was a really small event. It was free, though. Since we were showing up almost an hour early, we thought we'd be right up near the front. The closer we got to the venue, the more noise we heard. It wasn't even music noise, it was just masses of people. A huge crowd of people in a blocked off street flooded the front of the building we needed to get into. Before the doors opened, we cut 100s of people and were able to be one of the first groups of people to get in.

We were in the place for maybe a minute before we found Jeremy at the South by South West (SXSW) festival. He was completely shocked, but glad to see us. Jeremy wasn't at the show so much for the entertainment as he was to make sure 'his boys' played on time and were ready to go. His job is to basically be the mother to this Australian band who sadly played in front of a crowd of maybe 30 for their first show in Austin. Both Kim and I were blown away. They rocked the place, and far too many people missed out. 

Their first show was at noon, and they played again later that day. Despite just showing up randomly, Jeremy made sure we could get into whatever place Closure in Moscow was playing, for free, without waiting in lines. I can't imagine how much hassle and money all of this would have cost us if it weren't for him. We got hooked up royally. Their second show was awesome, if not better, and more people were there. 

The next day, we saw them play three separate times. Each time seemed to get better, especially since we were getting to know them. At one point we hopped into a moving van of some random band with Jeremy, Barrett (guitar) and Brad (bass) only to hop out two minutes later. We had a meal with them after one of their shows, and felt like roadies when we lugged some of their equipment in and out of a couple of shows. Each one of them could easier make someone laugh and feel welcomed. When we were taking off, we were already missing them and wishing we could see them play for a 6th time. They travel much faster than we do, unfortunately, so we may not be seeing them for a while. If we are ever close, we will make sure we can see them again. 

We drove quite a distance the next day almost into New Mexico. The best part about staying at a Wal Mart is never knowing what you might run into. This one particular morning it was the ignorance of Wal Mart employees. One section of the parking lot is usually set aside for the campers and RVs. It isn't marked or anything, but the back corners are usually occupied by these larger vehicles. When we rolled into one particular Wal Mart, we parked in the back corner next to a few RVs. I thought I would park in two spaces to give us enough room. Wrong idea. The next morning we woke up to find out we were parked in. One employee had her car sticking half way into the driving lane, and so did another. We had to go inside the store and have someone page the license plates to move their cars. Awesome.

That morning started off odd, but Carlsbad Caverns made up for it. Almost all of our pictures don't even begin to show just how massive this cave was. The ceilings were enormous, and most of it looked like it would be found in a Hollywood set to some sci-fi movie. From the top, it was a mile of winding paths down to the very bottom, with crazy sites along the way. I had been there before, but this place doesn't get old. It was sweet. Again we are parked at a Wal Mart. This is in Roswell, New Mexico, so hopefully I don't wake up to our bus being beamed up into a UFO.