The Seattle to Austin Fiasco

More fun in Seattle

I spent another couple of days in Seattle as planned. Did some journaling, a touch of job hunting, an application or two submitted, and went to dessert Tuesday night at the Cheesecake Factory in Bellevue with Stacey, Kim, and Justin. On Wednesday, I was going to go to a job fair with my old roomie, Jon, but he got there before I did (go fig) and said it was tiny, so I bagged that and met him downtown to chat for a bit. We supposedly didn't have much time, but after an hour and a half, we decided we'd been standing outside talking long enough, and we went our separate ways. Then, I went to lunch nearby at McCormick and Schmick's overlooking Lake Union with Kim (I recommend the Northwest Salmon Saute or whatever it's called--quite tasty), and went to dinner at the ol' Broadway Grill with the boys (their turkey meat loaf's quite good). It was unusually quiet, but I realized that was because it's not a weekend like it usually was when we went before.


The Fiasco

The next day, Thursday, was my day to make a beeline for Utah to catch my flight to Texas the next day. I didn't want to. But unfortunately, Southwest's web site hadn't indicated that the good airfare deal I'd found required 3 day advanced purchase (I specifically looked for that), but so it was, so I missed the deal, and the airfare would now be $180 different. I tried to come up with an alternative: try another airline, sound desperate and hope they take pity...no, I couldn't come up with a viable alternative.

So I was about to get in the shower and head out when a knock came on the door, and an older fellow announced he was there to replace the water heater in my friend's unit, where I'd been staying. I'd be waiting a while longer. But after a half hour or so, I realized I'd have to wait for the water to heat even after it was installed, so I packed up the car and headed for the nearest place with a shower: the gym, where I worked out just long enough to justify using their showers, and headed out down 405 South. Thick traffic. I was busy considering the cost of a hotel in Idaho when it dawned on me. I would have taken 405 for my original plan to swing through Portland, but not to get to Utah quickly. Shoot. I turned around, backtracked, and hopped on I-90. Then I noticed I was really low on gas, so I pulled off, and on the radio, they announced I-90 westbound across Snoqualmie was closed because of slide-offs after a snow storm, and I-90 eastbound (my route) required chains. Did I have chains? Of course not.

After gassing up, I stopped at Schuck's, the only place I knew was nearby, to inquire about chains or cables: $65-80. I called my parents to make sure I hadn't missed the chains in some secret compartment or to see what bright ideas they had. They informed me storms were making their way into Idaho and Utah, so I needed to plan for some delays. Of course.

We did come up with possible alternative routes for me to take. To check the costs of doing such, I went the Bellevue library. It turned out to be just about as expensive no matter which way I went about it, so I decided to stay and just change my flight to Seattle instead of Salt Lake and eat the cost. So I went to Sammamish, ate dinner with the fam, and went to my niece's orchestra concert, which was fun (she did great!).

The next morning, I got up, packed, played a bit with the girls, and headed out for lunch at Chipotle in Bellevue and off to Kim's place for my ride to the airport and a safe, free place to leave my car. At least I'll not have parking expenses to add to the bill.


First time in Austin

I arrived in Austin around 9:30 pm, and the air was still warm and humid, which somehow surprised me. I had forgotten that Texas has a lot of humid areas. Not super humid, but it felt much more so than Seattle because it was frigid in Seattle and balmy in Austin. I wouldn't be needing my thermal Ts here, nosiree.

We drove a half hour or so to Ty's friend's place where we're staying after stopping at Maggie Moo's (Coldstone-esque and good enough but nothing to write home about) and the Wingstop (recommendable--good stuff), and we chatted, got acquainted, and discussed possible plans before bed. The Wingstop got my order wrong. Gave me regular wings instead of boneless. I was displeased. Stupid bones. But they tasted good.

Texas has been fun, but I have to go to bed for the night, so I'll finish this up later with some pics of Texas funness. For now, I'll just thank Mom for reading this, since you are probably the only person in the world who has bothered reading all of it, and Ty says to tell you "hi".