Well we made it to Austin last night for The Verge. Remember when I posted about it a few months ago? Well I won a free ticket! And now my first day is done. And I don’t know how to effectively get things out of my head in a way that will make perfect sense. I guess I could wait until we’re back and take a day to sit and process it all, or I can do a brain dump and then go back through it later to polish things up. So here are a few observations:
From the 700+ drive here:
- My sixth month old was a freaking champ during the ride. He didn’t get that upset much.
- When he did get upset he really let us know.
- Shreveport, LA is bigger than I remember.
- Driving across LA and TX into the setting sun is horrible w/o sunglasses.
- In Texas there are two lane rural roads where the speed limit is 70mph. I shudder to think of people living alongside that road having to pull out of their driveways into 70mph traffic.
- So that means on some Texas interstates the speed limit is 75mph.
- I like the Texas custom of people moving over into a wide shoulder so I can pass on the left.
- After the sun went down and I wasn’t looking into the sun the drive was much more pleasant.
- Driving through Waco I saw a lot of nice looking buildings next to the interstate. That was Baylor University. Looked nice during the drive by.
My impression of Austin so far:
- I came to the first two Passion conference in the late 90’s. But I remember nothing of Austin except for going to REI once with some friends.
- Austin is a big city with lots going on. I don’t know how much of the city I’ll get to see, but I hope to take as much in as possible.
- More tattoo’s in Austin than in Oxford.
- Lots of construction going on downtown in Austin.
- I think I like this place.
- I’m hoping to see the famous Austin bats. I am close to the bridge.
- But the free wifi at the hotel isn’t the best.
And the Pre-Conference Labs:
- I went to the Missional Community pre-lab today at St. Davids.
- It was informative and the speakers were approachable
- I’ll give a few bullet points of each breakout in the next post.
Soooooooo, they don't sell sunglasses in LA or TX?
Good question.It didn't start to get really bothersome until the stretch on the two lane highway. There were no good options for sunglasses along TX 31 that I recognized. But as soon as it went bow the horizon my whole world changed.
That’s when you wear the wife’s sunglasses and hope you don’t see anyone you know. 🙂