Katrina Day 0

In the weeks before I left, it seemed like this trip was coming together in slow motion. I exchanged email after email with the organizers before my participation was settled. Just as the trip loomed, we were all put on hold as Rita threatened Texas. After her unexpected turn to the east, we got the request on Saturday to attempt a Sunday/Monday departure. I had a few loose ends to tie up on Monday morning, so I scheduled my flight for Monday afternoon.

Flying through Phoenix, I didn't get to Austin until around 10:30pm. After picking up my car (a 4x4 SUV, a first for a rental for me), I spent about 45 minutes making the 20 minute drive to the hotel. I've lived in California for three years now, and driven in many other huge cities in the US: New York, Chicago, Miami, Los Angeles, San Francisco. But, Austin takes the cake for the most confusing, bizarre highway system I've ever seen. It seems like every trip involves a few U-turns... BY DESIGN! I'm not kidding-- I really can't explain how bizarre it is. It looks like it works pretty well once you know what you're doing, but it's a nightmare for visitors.

In any case, I was settled into the hotel room by 11:30 or so. They had booked us into Embassy Suites. The setup is great-- bedroom + living room/kitchenette. Not really sure how many days I'll be here in Austin (vs. other sites), but it will be easy to do it in such a spacious suite.

Huge mistake of the night: turning on the TV "just for a minute" while I was sorting out my luggage. The Tennessee/LSU game was being rerun on ESPN-- I missed it while I was flying to TX. Long story short, it was 3am before I finally turned off the light. The 7am wakeup really hurt....