Leap Year: The Craziest Day in 4 Years.

This week's travel blog is going to be broken into two sections.

Simply because that much bizarre can't fit into one post....

This is quite possibly the oddest day I've had in a long time. Part of it could be because I haven't gotten much sleep this week. Part of it could simply be because I'm in the midst of a two week jaunt in Small Town Texas.

I'm going to blame it on Feb. 29th. A day so insane we only get to celebrate it once every four years.

Thank goodness.

Today I find myself in Huntsville, TX. If you don't know about Huntsville (maybe a good thing) it is the Execution Capital of the State. The Death Penalty is carried out here on a regular basis.
In fact, it's happening at this very moment. Right as I am typing this. It's 6:00 pm right now and by 6:30 a man will have been given a lethal injection.

Just down the street from my hotel.

Crazy.

Now, I'm not making this post political. This isn't pro/against/right/wrong the Death Penalty. Regardless of what I think, it is incredibly odd being so close to something like this.

It's kind of scary. Someone is getting killed less then a mile from where I'm sitting right now.

And it's all legal.

This has seriously played with me.


The man was terrible. A Gang Leader from El Paso (also fitting---see future post) sentenced with 17 life prison terms. He organized the largest-ever jailbreak from a Texas prison and then killed a Dallas police officer.

Friend Z and I accidentally found ourselves smack dab in the middle of the hoopla. We had been touring the sites of the town and were trying to see the Walls...which is the prison, but it was blocked off. There was a ton of News Trucks, Reporters and randoms just hanging around. Employees were heading home just like it was a normal day.

And to them...it was.

Naturally we snooped to figure out what was going on.

What's so mind boggling about this place is that people literally live right next door to this maximum security prison. You can see people in their cells. There is a major college just down the street. Insane.

If you ever find yourself in Huntsville, I'd suggest these sites:

1. Texas Prison Museum.

Yup. You read that right. It houses the infamous "Old Smokey"



The electric chair that was retired from use in the 60s. It also has a cell you can hang out in for awhile. I was pretty claustrophobic after about 30 seconds.

2. Sam Houston Statue

Apparently you can see it from six miles away.

3. The Walls

Texas State Prison. Filled with Serious Offenders. Right next door to some lovely neighborhoods. There are a number of prisons or "Units" as they seem to call them here, but this one is the big kahuna.

4. The Golden Corral

The only place in town where you can get food after 8pm. Who doesn't love a buffet?

The Billgramige to Arkansas.

Week 5 of Travel: We’re just about a 1/3 of the way through the semester. That means I still have around 10 weeks of travel left this semester.


For some reason, I thought I was already halfway though, but I seemed to have forgotten the month of March.


So in this week’s episode, I found myself in the wilds of Arkansas. (Not to be mistaken with Ar-Kansas. The imaginary state I’ve made up in my head).
I’d never been to Arkansas, but I was looking forward to it. Mainly for two reasons:

1. I could get a new state magnet for my fridge.
2. It’s Clinton Country. (You know I love me some Bill, Hill and Chels…)

Holy Canoli.

Arkansas is hell to get to. Kid you not, from door-to-door, it took me 13 hours.
Partially my fault. I apparently had the inability to schedule visits that geographically made sense. I got to Little Rock around 6pm and had a 3 and a half hour drive to Fayetteville.

Mistake #1.

Pesky little buggar.

In my defense, it was the only day UA had available for me. I just happened to forget that no one really goes to Arkansas, so Sunday flights are few and far between.

I made it to the hotel without any major kerfuffles and awoke the next morning to snow covered cars and icy roads.

I was pretty excited to see snow for the first time this winter. However, I was quickly reminded that living out of a suitcase means you aren’t always prepared for such weather shifts.

Unfortunately we aren’t like Mary Poppins with a bottomless carpet bag, but thankfully I brought boots instead of my normal ballet flats.

Meetings and Visits went off without a hitch. Although the snow through students for a loop so info tables were a bit DOA.

Oh well, can’t win them all I guess.

Fayetteville seems like a wonderful place. I bet in the spring and fall it is really beautiful. Little Rock wasn’t as nice. I don’t really know if there’s anything there that would make me want to come back. (Other then the fantastic school we’re going to start working with).

The hotel I stayed at was in a bit of a shady location. Apparently North Little Rock isn’t the greatest place to find oneself. In fact, security escorted me to and from my car each time. It was crazy! They never said anything, didn’t acknowledge that they were following you, but always sort of lingered.

It felt like I had my very own Secret Service agent.

My only real complaint about Arkansas is the lack of healthy food options. I found myself grabbing dinner at gas stations just to avoid fast food----not that gas station granola bars are any healthier then the Sonic.

Now, although the days were busy, being the good little Clinton-esta that I am, I definitely made time for a little “Billgrimage.”

(Actual term. I swear I didn’t come up with it.)



In Fayatteville there is the Clinton House Museum. It’s a tiny brick house right off of campus that Bill and Hillary moved into---and got married in. There was a replica of the wedding dress as well as a ton of other memorabilia. The lady who ran the place was a wealth of information. The two lived here while teaching at the UA Law School up
until President Clinton became Governor.

In Little Rock, there is the Clinton Presidential Library. I liked it, but I was really overwhelmed with all of the bells and whistles they put into those exhibits. It was a bit much. I did learn that Bill Clinton stays at the Museum whenever he is in town. Apparently there is a suite on the top floor.

If I were Hillary, I’d let him stay there and I’d be at the Four Seasons down the street.

Austin Can Stay Weird. (AKA the post that is all about food)

One month in—3 months to go.

It’s Week 4 of the travel season. I spent the week in Austin. Don’t get me wrong. Compared to the rest of Texas, Austin has a lot to offer. It’s got great food, a nice river and apparently there is quite the music scene (I wouldn’t know).

The traffic, however, sucks.

I’ll totally throw it out there: I’d rather be driving in LA. Maybe because I wasn’t expecting it. There aren’t actual people in Texas are there?

Fact: Yes there are. And they’re all driving insanely around Austin.

I had some really good visits and meetings though. Meet some really nice people and made some good connections.

Although I felt like I was working every single waking (and some sleeping) hours of the day, I tried to get out of the hotel for a bit and join the land of the Normal.

First stop was Sandra Bullock’s restaurant “Bess Bistro.” I love me some Sandy B. She’s my favorite, so Friend Z and I met up for happy hour. The place was small, but super cute. It was Southern Trendy, if that makes sense. We had Shrimp Bess (If any more butter was added into the dish, it would be illegal) and Friend Green Tomatoes.

I’d never had FGT’s but both of us loved watching the movie, so Friend Z and I had to try them. In general, I find red tomatoes gross. However, fried and green were really, really good.

Realistically, it was probably the fried part that won me over.

I also went to this fantastic

café for a few hours called Halocyn. It was super cute---and a really good place to get some work done. The coffee was not only delicious, but it came with Animal Crackers.

Friend Z and I came back here at night and ha

d their S’mores kit. You literally make S’mores at your table. Complete with personal open flame and bucket of Emergency Water.

On my last night---spent in San Marcos, TX I drove to this tiny town called Lockhart. It’s abo

ut 20 minutes in some direction from where I was. Lockhart is apparently the “BBQ Capital of Texas” There were like 4 or 5 BBQ pits in a two foot radius.

I chose to try Blacks. The oldest family run BBQ in Texas. I’m not a big meat fan…but I’ll admit. That was some good eats.

I took mine to go (which you should never do when it comes to BBQ—see below) and drove to an empty field (not hard to find)where I watched the Texas sunset. It was beautiful and peaceful. A quiet moment that I really needed.

I ended up spilling an entire cup of BBQ sauce all over the car floor, but it wouldn’t be Texas without a little mesquite in t

he air, right?

I will also put it out there that RBD #1 happened in the fitness room of my HIX in San Marcos, TX. It wasn’t pretty. Them tears not gonna get me down for long as thankfully it only lasted an hour and I was running on the treadmill the entire time.

Talk about extreme multi-tasking skills.

Howdy! From San Antonio and Austin, TX

Is it April yet?

For some reason, week 3 of travel really took a lot out of me. I have no idea what in the world is making me so tired (It could be the yellow fever vaccine still running its course) but even after a short 3 days on the road, I’m totally run down.

Not good for it only being Feb. 5.

I really need my road amnesia to kick in. I think that’s what happens this time of year. I forget what in the world happened the week before, forget all the reasons why this time of year is hard and end up feeling more refreshed.

Road Amnesia (noun): A survival tactic used by Study Abroad Road Warriors in order to make it through the day to day, week to week, month to month travel. Often the result of road fatigue.

Extreme cases include of Road Fatigue:

· Inability to decipher the correct day of the week. If you’re away from home, you know its sometime between Sunday and Thursday.

· Confusion over physical location. Often wake up in the middle of the night not knowing what city, state or country you are in. You do however recognize instantly that you’re in a Holiday Inn Hotel.

· Constant to-do list running in your head.

· Extreme fear of forgetting reservations, material, or other work items

· Addiction to calendars, computers, smart phones and wi-fi. Screens haunt your dreams.

While the road life is incredibly hard on the body, it does give me some major opportunities to visit places and see things I’d probably never get the chance to. I figure work and non-work time needs to be balanced on the road---always trying to make time for the gym and a little sightseeing if possible.

This week was especially weird. It all started when I packed one brown sandal and one black sandal.

As I needed them both, it really made this week’s outfits a challenge.

I was so not prepared for San Antonio weather. Al Roker told me the day bef

ore I left that the weather was going to be nice, in the 70s. To me that means sun and warm and sun and…Catch my drift?

What that actually tuned out to be was rain and clouds and horribleness.

This was my first visit to both San Antonio and Austin. After my week in Lubbock, I was looking forward to a change in scenery.

My biggest complaint for the week is that my GPS does not understand Texas Highways. I got lost quite a few times because it told me to go north instead of south or vice versa.

I swear, this time it wasn’t user error.

What I did see of San Antonio and Austin, I liked.

My hotel was within walking distance of The Alamo. I’ll be honest, didn’t know much about this Texas Landmark till I got there and in all honesty, I was expecting it to be bigger, but it was still neat to see. On my drive from the airport, I also stopped off at two of the Missions. Also smaller then I thought they’d be.

I guess everything isn’t always big in Texas.

Someday, when it’s not shitting down rain, I’d like to spend more time on the Riverwalk. It looks like a fun place to hang out in the sun.

There was an Andy Warhol exihibt opening up the same day I left town that was just down the road to the Airport, I stopped by to see it since Andy Warhol is one of my favorite artist---which is why half of the art in my apartment are Warhol prints.

The museum was really cool. It was made out of a rich family’s old house. The exhibit itself was fantastic. It had a ton of Warhol art---comparing his love of celebrity to his obsession with death and violence. There were a few prints he had done of car accidents, suicides. There were even a few JFK/Jackie O prints. The Marilyns and the Maos were there too.

Part of the museum also housed a Theater section. They had just gotten in some of the original costumes and fashion prints from the Drowsy Chaperone. I’ve never seen the show, but they were playing the soundtrack, which includes the amazing Sutton Foster. It was neat seeing some of her costumes.

The second part of the week was spent in Austin. I had such high hopes for the city. Everyone told me Austin is the best place in all of Texas. I didn’t get to spend that much time looking around, but I did make it to the original Whole Foods.

Which was amazing.

It was like the mecca of all grocery stores. Like the Disneyland for healthy eating. I could have spent days there simply eating my way through.

I also drove past the State Capital Building---which is apparently the tallest capital building in the country (surprise, surprise).

Right after my work event, I stopped by the LBJ Library---it took all of ten minutes to go through (at least it was free). There was this motorized, life size LBJ that started to talk when I entered the room.

He told jokes. LBJ the comedian? Go figure.

I’m heading back to Austin next week, really want to hit up Sandra Bullock’s restaurants.