Austin and Fort Worth

It took seven hours to get from New Orleans to Austin, with a few quick stops littered throughout the drive, but we were all so excited to finally be in Texas.

When we got to Austin, we cleaned ourselves up a bit and headed straight out for some food and drinks, because we only had one night in Austin and needed to make it count.

We were tossing up between BBQ and Mexican food for dinner, but after going outside for a smoke, James came back inside wanting to check out Uncle Julio's, so Mexican food it was.

Both James and I had the carne asada, which came highly recommended by the waitress, who had told us the meat sits in the marinade for 24 hours before it's cooked.

It was awesome. That's the only word I can use to describe it. I don't even remember what Cherie and Shaun ate, but I do know that me and James were NOT envious.

Straight after dinner we headed to 6th St, where all the action happens. Bobby, the MC from The Swamp in New Orleans, had told us to hook up with a guy named Justin at the Thirsty Nickel bar. So that's where we headed.

Justin had finished his shift and moved onto another bar, The Liberty, by then so we hung around for a few beers, watched a couple play Jenga with oversized pieces and listened to the live band that was playing.

We moved on to Coyote Ugly after that. The bar girls were a little obnoxious, but they served us well and we were plenty drunk by the time we got out of there. Body shots were also had by Shaun and I, and then, to get Cherie back, we bought her a body shot too, which the bar girls made a much bigger show and dance out of.

We took one of the many pedicabs to The Liberty, passing over what the driver/rider referred to as "crackhead bridge".

When we all finally walked into The Liberty, we asked for Justin and we met him. It took him a minute to remember the text Bobby had set him about four Australians who needed to get "fucked up", but he remembered and our heavily tattooed and somewhat drunk bartender got right to it.

By the time we left, we were all very drunk, had taken a few photos for Justin to send to Bobby and had given Justin our email addresses, although nobody remembers what for. I don't remember how, but we got back to the hotel. James and I bullshitted with a couple of Wisconsinites outside for about an hour before heading to sleep.

The next day was mostly spent recovering. We attempted to line up at Franklin BBQ, but when we were told that we would have to wait 90 minutes, and that we weren't even guaranteed to get any meat, we got out trusty ole Urban Spoon and found Stubb's BBQ.

Stubb's BBQ was the greatest BBQ I've ever had. The brisket was soft and buttery and the pork ribs peeled off the bone all by themselves.

For hours afterward, while driving toward Fort Worth, we didn't eat anything else, but we could still taste the brisket. Finding that place was one of my finest contributions to the whole trip.

It's a shame we didn't stay longer in Austin.

We had two nights in Fort Worth.

The first night was particularly quiet. Cherie wanted to go to Texas Roadhouse, but after driving past the same Texas Roadhouse four times down the freeway without being able to get off because about five straight exits were closed and our GPS couldn't give us an alternate route, we gave up and went to H3 Ranch, near our hotel, for their steaks and ribs instead.

It was probably one of the few nights we didn't try to have a big drinking night.

The next day was a longer, much more eventful one.

The first thing Cherie and I did was drop James and Shaun off at Six Flags.

After a brief stop at REI, so I could buy a Flash 18 backpack, we headed to Galleria Dallas, a nearby mall.

Cherie was after some makeup at the Sephora store, but another shop just across from Sephora caught my eye; The Art of Shaving.

I walked in and had a look around before the woman told me they also do beard trims and hair cuts, both of which I was in dire need of. My beard had grown for about four weeks and my hair for seven. I wasn't looking so great. So I said yes to the beard trim and hot towel shave.

I have never felt as relaxed as when I was sitting completely horizontal with a hot, wet, scented towel covering my beard and face for around ten minutes.

About 45 minutes after starting my beard trim and first straight shaving experience, I walked out of there feeling like a million bucks. This was something I'll never forget about the trip and something I would explore further back in Australia.

After wandering around the mall a bit longer, buying gifts for friends and family and, of course, ourselves, we picked up Shaun and James from Six Flags and headed to Hooters.

Getting to Hooters was an adventure. Because of freeway work happening all around the Dallas and Fort Worth area, a lot of the freeway exits were either closed or just didn't exist anymore.

But there were cars parked at Hooters, so there had to be a way!

After 30 minutes, having driven through some residential areas in the middle of who-knows-where, we finally made it to Hooters to enjoy some wings and beer served by petite girls in pushup bras.

That night we went to the rodeo in The Stockyards, which was a whole lotta fun! There were cowboy clowns, kids chasing calves and cowboys and cowgirls competing in a few different events.

One thing I was amazed by was how accurate they are with the rope. One event they had to do was in a team of two and one had to get one horn and the other had to get one hind leg. And, no matter how much of a fight the animal put up, they almost never missed!

After the rodeo, we, and most of the rodeo crowd, walked into Billy Bob's; a gigantic honky tonk. For the rest of the night we drank beer and ate some good ol Texas BBQ while listening to the live country music band.

James got pool sharked badly by a local who was adamant he was too drunk to win. He kept trying badly to bet us some money for another game, but we knew better. Hell, even his buddy was telling us how good he is at pool and that he always does this (and makes some good money doing it)!

We spent the next day shopping in The Stockyards. Between the four of us we bought cowboy hats, cowboy boots, a cowboy shirt, a money clip and presents for loved ones. Cherie and I may have spent a little more money than we should've!

The last thing to do, before getting on a flight to Las Vegas, was to drop off the car that we had come to love for the past couple of weeks. We named the GPS, Gloria, and the little ornamental guitar we hung from the rear-view mirror was Bob, but they had to be packed away for the rest of the trip now.

On the upside, we no longer had to worry about Gloria not knowing anything about new development or trying to take us off freeway exits that no longer exist!

While at the airport waiting for our flight, we realised that Cherie was the only one without a cowboy hat, so we fixed that up real quick, and then took off to Las Vegas.