UT Austin

Right now I am in the Ransom Center of the UT Austin library, trying to look at some manuscripts of Bernard Malamud and letters from John Steinbeck. It's really quite a serious operation. I had to lock my bag up and watch a video on how to care for the materials. I learned what a book snake is, and that's always exciting.

I requested (out of the boxes and boxes of materials available) the letters that Steinbeck wrote every day to his publisher while he wrote East of Eden, you know, the ones he put in that big wooden box that I want to have recreated. I thought that would be cool since I already thought that was pretty interesting at the Steinbeck Center. For Malamud I asked for drafts of his short story "The Apprentice." There's so much more to see but I only have a short amount of time. You have to fill out a pretty detailed calling card and then they have to retrieve the stuff for you. I'm not allowed to have a purse, camera, phone, etc.

Downstairs is the Gutenberg Bible and also the first photograph ever taken. There are millions of books and manuscripts kept here, including the original copy of James Joyce's Ulysses. I asked for that but they said it's restricted. I think that's false advertising, you know? I guess I can't complain too much.

Tomorrow I'm going to visit O. Henry's house (it's closed today) and see what's going on there. Today we met Joel Johnson for lunch! Awesome! We went to The Shady Grove and Joel gave us the low down on Austin. Hopefully we're going to see some bats fly from under the Congress bridge and then listen to some live music. I just found out that Marianne should be driving down from Waco tomorrow and that's really really exciting. I like Austin a lot, except for the fact that you kind of need a car to get around. I'll fill you in on more after I get to see the letters and essays and when I've seen more of this city "where cowboy meets hippie."

Phoenix, New Mexico, El Paso

Today we drive from Phoenix, AZ, completely whizzed through New Mexico and finally ended at a La Quinta in El Paso, Texas.  As many of you have probably heard, the heat in Arizona is ridiculously unbearable and unlivable.  Even though I knew it would be that way, it was still shocking and unpleasant.  However, we had a great stay with Mark's aunt, who cooked us dinner and made us banana/strawberry smoothies.  

We also stopped at the Chiricahua National Park, which is home to these amazing rock structures.  The Indian name for them simply means "standing up rock," which they are.  It's like someone took big boulders and just stacked them one after another into a column and then topped it off with a flat stone cap.  They were different than anything else I'd ever seen and Paul said the same.  However, we couldn't get any awesome pictures because the sun had already set and there wasn't any serious light.  The visit to the park was cool though because absolutely no one else was there.  (I started imagining crazy serial killers hiding in the rocky valleys but I didn't share my crazy ideas out loud).  Also, a lightning storm started and it was so beautiful.  Every so often a big dash of lightning would crack across the sky and light up the red sandy dirt of the park.  It was awesome.  We decided that anyone could come through and see this place during the day, but we had a special experience because of the night lightning circumstances, free from crowds. 

The lightning really didn't stop the entire night but it was gorgeous.  I haven't seen anything like that before so even though I was slightly concerned for our safety (Paul told me later that you don't have to worry about lightning if you're in a car) I enjoyed the stormy drive.  

Another highlight of the day was when we spotted stray calves in the middle of the road and stopped so we could see them up close.  In the background was a rainbow and it really was out of control pretty and sort of unreal.  You can see how cute the calf is and sort of get a feel for the rainbow too in the pictures.  

Now we are in El Paso, Texas for the night!  It's insane how close to Mexico we are, though we will not be going in.  This is the setting of Cormac McCarthy's wide open Texas novels like The Road and No Country for Old Men.  Hopefully I can get some good shots tomorrow while we're driving approximately ten hours to Austin, Texas!  I'll let you know.  

San Diego

It was wonderful spending time in lovely and temperate San Diego.  We were lucky to stay with our friend, Mitch, who is living on Coronado, a beautiful beach town across the bay from downtown San Diego.  Mitch is in the Navy and doing his residency at the Naval hospital, hence the picture of him in uniform.  

Coronado is really beautiful and was made famous with the Hotel del Coronado, which has housed such famous guests as Charlie Chaplin and Thomas Edison.  L. Frank Baum also penned most of The Wizard of Oz here. It is also rumored that he based his vision of the Emerald City on the image of the Hotel del Coronado.  The hotel also appeared in many films, such as Some Like it Hot, starring Marilyn Monroe.

In addition to hanging out with Mitch and Yan, two fellow Sweeneyites, I also went to the San Diego Zoo, traversed Balboa Park and relaxed on the Coronado Beach. The wart hogs and Galapagos tortoises were probably my favorite animals at the zoo.

The weekend also ended with brunch at the Hash House, a restaurant that builds a theme around the state of Indiana.  Additionally, their gimmick is super giant impossible to finish portions that are really sort of insane.  Paul's pancake looked like a flying saucer and the plates were like boat size.  Each dish came with a sprig of rosemary and also a slice of yellow watermelon, which I had never seen before.  This should explain what we're eating in the pictures.

P.S.  I'm not sure why the beginning text is underlined.  If you click on it, however, a giant picture of my favorite Galapagos tortoise will appear.  I didn't plan this.