No Words.

'Forever Bicycles' – Ai Weiwei

Anti-Inflammatory, Please.

Austin, TX – A sting followed another.

Then, a general burn.

Individually, I could barely see them, but a blanket across my arms began to move like a hazy vision. Wandering through the beautiful University of Texas at Austin campus, I suddenly found myself covered by tiny red ants.

Fire.

Fire ants.

Apparently, they're a huge issue down here. It turns out I shouldn’t have put my bag down into the foliage to remove my shirt as it warmed.

Hook ‘em, ants?

Rock the Taco.

The nosh pit.

Austin, TX – Having ambled across the highway, we’ve arrived at an empty bar, blacked-out behind wall-to-wall curtains. A shaft of daylight from the front door creates the spotlight.

Sparse, fold-away tables make hyphens across the empty dance floor as a pair of golden balloons flutter lazily from the stage. It’s only 5 p.m.

Outside bar hours, it seems the North Door becomes a makeshift dining room for Pueblo Viejo’s customers. After a long conference day not eating, I welcome the paper baskets dressed by double-wrapped tacos al pastor, smoky refried beans, chips and guacamole.

It’s a performance for the ages.

Art of the Meal.

Half a step in, twice the steps out.

Austin, TX – Choppy fences stand, half-cocked, framing misshapen food trucks, food shacks and food trailers. With strong food and art scenes, Austin appears, at first blush, to be a city focused on both palate and palette.

The sun gleams off a large spray-can mural and a silver Gulfstream – a bullet filled with tasty treats. Fresh wood smoke, meanwhile, does olfactory battle with jasmine seeping from the trees that remain unburning. The humidity and vegetal scents remind me of being in a greenhouse on a cooler day.

Neon soon begins to seep into the encroaching dusk.

A homeless man with a tufted purple wig hikes his oversized jeans and rumbles across the road in front of us like a troll keeping Austin weird.

We have ended up at Banger's Sausage House & Beer Garden. With 106 taps of craft beer to peruse as I tuck into a fragrant south Texas antelope merguez sausage, jalapeño mac and cheese and a jar of spicy pickles, how could we not?

We haven't, however, taken them up on their offer of a free tattoo of their beer stein and sausage logo.