Trip to Barton Springs

In order to escape my monotonous video editing routine, I went to Barton Springs today. By car this trip takes 20 minutes. By scooter this trip takes about 30 minutes because I don't go on the highway. By bus this trip is 45 minutes, plus the amount of time it takes to get to the bus stop and wait for the bus to show up. I chose to ride the bus for this particular outing because I wanted to ride my bike around Barton Springs too.

Riding the bus in Austin is always an adventure. Public transportation is by all means very efficient and safe here (especially after I spent a few months with LA public transportation) but every time seems to have its fair share of experiences.

The ride to Barton Springs was a fairly pleasant ride except for the fact that I wore my bathing suit onto the bus. Not that I was fully exposed or anything, but I have this tank top I wear over the top part of my bathing that is very loose fitting. It reveals more skin than I usually show (like, none). There were more than a few unwelcome stares and of course a comment from a twitchy man that went something like,

"you're wearing a bathing suit. You're going to the pool."

I neither confirmed or denied his comment.

Barton Springs was extremely relaxing as always, and extremely cold as always. I took the bus back to eat dinner with a friend. At the bus stop a hefty woman, wearing a second-hand army shirt and black cycling gloves, pulled up to me on a custom-made mountain bike, screeching to a stop. She looks at my deteriorating road bike and nods, approvingly. She begins to describe how she bought the frame for her bike off of craigslist and everything else was a custom modification. She talked about it like a firstborn child.

On the bus, I sat across the aisle from her in the front. She begins telling me about how when she was younger she would jump off tall bridges with her friends in Florida, and the police would think they were committing suicide. She explained they never caught her because she rode the currents away from the cops, and also because,

"the cops were pussies."

I make a timid comment, something like, "oh yeah, I guess they were" to which she responds,

"yeah, they were big pussies."

I did not quite understand her affinity for the word pussy but she used it a lot, especially when describing authority figures. We chatted for a little while longer.

When she got to her stop she made sure to gave me an impromptu hand shake before leaving the bus.