Sustenance for the Traveler
Scenes of Austin
Driverless Horseless Carriage
Autonomous vehicles: Dystopian scourge or Pixar characters come to life? To find out, I took a Waymo ride across town.
Waymo is the Google AV available through Uber. To call one, you request a ride through Uber and hope for the best. Sometimes you get a Waymo and sometimes you get a human driver. You can’t specify. What you can do is cancel and try again if it gives you a human driver. Or you can just go to Congress Street, where there are lots of Waymos driving around and order a ride from there.
The car gives you a friendly spiel when you get in, then notifies you whenever it turns onto a new street. At the end of the ride, it tells you how to get out of the car and reminds you not to leave your phone and keys behind.
It handles impediments well. At one point a car stopped in front of us to let someone out. The Waymo started to go around it, then stopped when the driver-side rear door opened. We waited until the other car started moving again.
Uber also partners with another company called Avride. I don’t know whether those cars are available yet or are still being tested, but there are a lot of them driving around downtown Austin. There’s also an Amazon car called Zoox, which is currently being tested.
But I had to keep reminding myself that it was futuristic. Overall, it felt like a Disneyland ride. I was a little disappointed that it didn’t tell me to keep my arms and legs inside the vehicle at all times.
Austin Barbecue
On Thursday I began my investigation of Austin barbecue joints. In preparation I skimmed part of a reddit post that listed some good ones and then started with InterStellar because it was the closest.
InterStellar opens at 11:00 and people start lining up an hour earlier. It’s like waiting for Space Mountain, but there’s no FastPass. And it’s not a ride. But it’s similar in that you’re just standing there.
I had turkey and brisket, both of which were excellent, and the peach cobbler rice pudding was an unexpectedly good juxtaposition. I got a Big Red because it’s a Texas thing, but it was kind of like drinking bubblegum, so I didn’t finish it.
On Friday I went to KG BBQ, which is run by an Egyptian dude who left a finance career in Cairo to move to Austin and learn the Ways of the Barbecue Pit Masters.
He learned very well indeed. I had Sumac & Cinnamon Lamb Shoulder, Egyptian Baladi Salad, and Egyptian Iced Ahwa. Ahwa is cold brew with cinnamon and vanilla infused whole milk.
On Saturday I tried Terry Black’s, not to be confused with Black’s, which is one of the best known Austin barbecue spots, and is thus more touristy than the others. I had brisket, sausage, Mexican rice, and peach cobbler.
Sunday I opted for KG again. This time I had the brisket, mediterranean rice, cardamom pistachio rice pudding, and ahwa.
At KG I ate outside, which meant that I had to keep an eye out for grackles. They kept their distance, but I could tell they were just waiting for an opportunity.
All three places were comparable, but I think the best brisket was at InterStellar, followed by KG, then Terry Black’s. However, KG has much better sides than the other two, so I’m giving KG the coveted I’ve-Been-To-Three-Barbecue-Spots top ranking.
Fun fact! Austin is almost the same latitude as Cairo.
Cute Li’l Robot
Museum of the Weird
For the low price of $12.99 you can enter the Lucky Leezard Curio Shop and buy a ticket to the Museum of the Weird, where you will see such marvels as wax recreations of sf/horror characters in dramatic lighting, mysterious relics to baffle the mind, and various uncategorizable oddities. There’s also some sort of freak show, which I didn’t attend because I was afraid it would put me off my feed. The whole thing is well presented for something so goofy. It’s much smaller than the Cryptozoology Museum in Portland, Maine, but it has the advantage of allowing photography.
Roadside America rates it as Major Fun.
Grackles Behaving Badly
Branching Futures in Austin
I’m in Austin, with the plan of moving here to attend an intensive programming course that I’m not sure I can get into. I’m in an Extended Stay America in North Austin that is…well…if Casa Humphrey is a 10, this place is probably a 2. It’s serviceable, though, and fairly cheap.
My plan, however, is shifting. The programming part is the same, but I’m not sure I want to move to Austin right now, because I could end up moving again in a year. Or I could move to Austin then instead of now. Or I would only move locally. Or something else. So the plan is still a plan, but futures are branching.
As the philosopher HIldy taught us: “There are more than one ways to do many things.”
However, I have identified the apartment complex I think I would probably move to, if I were moving, which I still might. Just not right now.
Regreso a Santa Bárbara
We returned to Casa Humphrey to reprise the trip of a couple years ago. Not only was Humphrey there, but there was an additional Humphrey. Humphrey Prime. Also a skunk, named Skumphrey.
There was surfing without any waves, lunch at Tucker’s Grove, a return to the scene of the Ellwood Tree-Climbing Incident, and of course Birdemic 3. We also drove around randomly.
We didn’t commit Alcalde to Casa Dorito, but we’re keeping that option open.
