Barefoot Bryan in Austin. Part ONE.

I should have known it was going to be an interesting and unique night.  When Jon-Paul asked if I wanted to go to Austin to SXSW I said "yes" and I was excited and I was happy and I was glad and I was thrilled to be heading down south on a drive that would last one and one half hours.  Still, something inside told me it was going to be a strange and different and bizarre evening.  I did not open my mouth, though, to mention anything about my hesitation or my trepidation or my fear or my concern concerning our journey.  Actually, the opposite is what I did.  I did a little dance in the lobby of the church building where I was standing when Jon-Paul extended the invitation to join him on this trip.

We Drove.  We Drove to Austin.  We Drove One and One Half Hours to Austin.

We were stopped at a red light, we had just entered the city and were trying to find a parking spot amid the chaos of South by South West (SXSW).  I had my driver seat window down and my arm was hanging outside.  It was chilly in Central Texas but still warm and gorgeous.  I looked down to my left, out the window, and noticed a blue tarp covering something just 3 feet away from me and my car.  I looked a little closer and realized it was a person sleeping on the sidewalk.  No pillow, no blanket, no bags, nothing.  Just someone laying down, sleeping on the sidewalk using a blue tarp as their cover for the night.  It was around 11:00 PM on Wednesday.  It was the middle of SXSW and the city was busier than ever and over-crowded with people drunk and high and a few sober people too.  I watched the sleeping person for just a moment when I noticed a large coca-roach crawl out from underneath the person and scurry down the Austin City Sidewalk.  I was shocked I was surprised and I was honestly a little grossed-out.  I pulled my arm inside the car and rolled the car window up.  The light turned green and we drove through the intersection and I didn't have to think about homeless people or blue tarps or coca-roaches or anything like that for the rest of the night.

It took around 20 to 30 minutes before we finally found a parking space inside a multi-level parking garage where the attendant let me park my car inside for $13 instead of the $20 his sign was asking for.  We parked the car on the seventh level of the garage and boarded the elevator down to the ground floor of the parking structure.  Once outside the elevator we made our way around the corner of the interior of the building and pushed our way through a pair of heavy glass doors with heavy metal door handles.  We had it hard.  We had to drive so long to find a parking spot in the car that I owned.  We only had $13 in cash, times were rough for sure.  We had to beg this man to let us park our car inside for the $13 we had.  And then we had to drive all the way to the seventh floor!  Times were getting tough, that was for sure.

Once outside we made our way to the left on the Austin City sidewalk.  Austin is a pretty clean city, all things considered.  You don't see very many cigarette butts, beer bottles, empty cans, or trash of any sort on the Austin City Sidewalk or the Austin City Street.  Actually, I typically see more sanitation workers actively doing their jobs than I necessarily see police officers doing much of anything.

We had to walk down a bit of a sloping hill in order to arrive onto Sixth street, our destination for the evening.  It was a bit concerning, our walk down the sloping hill, I was wearing my cowboy boots and they do not have the best traction on slick and slippery surfaces, another sign of the hard times.  I deliberately bent my knees and walked more slowly than Jon-Paul and Nathan to make sure I didn't slip and fall on the Austin City Sidewalk.  I love my cowboy boots, a gift from my sister last May when I visited Texas for the first time, and I wear them almost everywhere I go.  I typically don't walk up or down very steep or slippery hills but I have slipped in parking lots before and know enough about them to understand I should step carefully when going across questionable surfaces or grades such as those of the Austin City Sidewalk.

Sixth street is famous in the city of Austin and the police shut down motor vehicle traffic on Sixth during peek hours because of the extreme amount of people walking up and down the Austin City Sidewalks and the Austin City Streets.  There seems to be a bar or nightclub every other door and so there are copious amounts of people who are intoxicated walking around Sixth Street during the evening hours.  I have only been on Sixth Street during the evening hours so I cannot attest to the soberness or drunkenness of the people during the daytime hours.

People walking in suits and ties.  People walking in blue-jeans and buttoned shirts.  People walking in their underwear.  People walking in shark costumes.  People walking other people.  Gay people.  Straight people.  indifferent people.  Christians...Well, not many Christians.  Sinners.  Black people.  White people.  Mexican People. Some Asian people but I don't know if they knew where they actually were.

 To Be Continued....