Austin, Texas

We ended up leaving New Orleans a little late due to the previous nights drama which in turn led to us arriving late into Texas. We tried to book a campsite but they were all closed and we couldn't quite make it to Austin. To add to our tardiness when we stopped at Macdonalds to use the bathrooms we got back into the van and the ignition wouldnt turn. We called the campervan company and explained what was wrong, the only thing we could think was that the battery had died as we had left our phones plugged in charging. The campervan company called out a repair man who arrived in about 25 minutes. We showed him what was wrong and he laughed, walked over to the drivers side, turned the steering wheel and the ignition turned and the car started. It turns out the van has a steering lock! We were thoroughly embarrassed that someone had had to come out for that but we were never told there was a steering lock!

We were a bit stuck in Houston due to the time but decided to keep going to Austin, we were about 50 miles out when we saw a Walmart. Luckily the manager at the Walmart was really nice and allowed us to park overnight so we had a place to stay! The next day we got up early and drove to Austin, as we were already late and a bit fed up we just paid for some all day parking, at $7 it wasn't bad at all, we planned to move the van at midnight to some free street parking that we found.

We walked around Austin and loved the feel of the city, it was very hip and cool with lots of street food vendors and bars. I definitely found that the further south we had got the nicer everyone seemed to be, we had a slice of pizza for lunch and the guy at the pizza bar was so nice and told us lots of info about the best places in Austin. We walked to Texas state capitol which is a very impressive building. The building is free to enter and look around so we spent some time exploring it and seeing the history behind it which was really interesting. We then decided we would head for a hiking trail and go for a walk. However someone we decided that now would be a great time to get our road trip tattoos! We both really wanted a tattoo to commemorate this part of our trip, i have also wanted the world 'wanderlust' which means the desire to travel the world tattooed on me for a long time. We googled the best tattoo parlour in Austin, brought a picture of Suzanne the van and a lovely lady called Annie drew up a gorgeous design for us. The detail on the van, mainly a bunny and salamander were too detailed to fit into the tattoo as it was small so Annie took the colours from the van and incorporated it into the tattoo. Izzy got hers on her ribs and i got mine on my ankle. I love it! It's beautiful and really well done. It's just what i wanted and i think it's a great way to have a reminder of this great trip! Sorry Grandma!! :)

Our tattooist Annie heard how we were planning to park our car in a random spot and move it by 7am so that it was still free and kindly offered to let us park it outside her house! This was really handy as it meant we didn't need to worry about being charged once the free period ends and we could get a bit of a lie in.

We headed out for a night out in Austin and found a bar with a live band playing, Austin, similar to New Orleans is known for it's live musical and it was a great feel to the bar. We found out that all bars in Austin close at 2am, which is really early by English standards so we moved on the a strip of college bars to get some shots in. The bar we found was an arcade bar, meaning that it was full of arcade games which you could play. This made it a really fun atmosphere and we had a great time.

The next day we decided to go to Barton Springs, a natural spring in the middle of Austin. We figured it would be a great way to stem our hangover. We didn't end up finding the springs as we got distracted by the absolutely stunning ladybird lake. This lake, which could easily be mistaken as a huge river separates North and South Austin. We walked along the lake and saw a lady with a bearded dragon who was basking in the sun and having a swim in the river. I loved this as we have a bearded dragon called Squirt who lives in London with Martyn, Squirt would have loved coming here and laying in the sun!! We found a place where you could rent kayaks and couldn't think of a better way to spend a few hours exploring. We rented the kayaks and rowed along the different parts and corridors of the lake. There were loads of people with dogs in their kayaks, canoes and even sat on their paddle boards. They were so cute and we stopped and chatted to a few and said hello to their dogs :) We also saw turtles swimming about in the water which was amazing as i absolutely love turtles!!

We eventually headed back and as we were walking back down the trail to the van right infront of us was a HUGE snake just sliding across the path! I grabbed Izzy and we froze and stood there mouths gaping open. The snake paid no attention to us whatsoever and slid on into the bushes leaving us very freaked out but also excited that we'd seen a real wild snake!

We cooked some dinner in a park where we shared a bench with some guys who we chatted to about our trip and their travels, it was a really pleasant afternoon. The previous night Izzy had exchanged numbers with a guy who was in a group of people who had rented a mansion just outside Austin centre. They said we could park our van outside the house so luckily we had another place to park and sleep again for free! We headed over to the house, which was enormous, and parked up, we all had some pre drinks and headed into Austin centre for another night out. The bar we ended up in was incredible, it was small but not too full and the DJ played the best set i've ever heard. The group was really fun and it was probably the best night out i've ever had, the atmosphere throughout was so much fun and the music was excellent! There was an after party at the house but i knew one of us needed to be up and awake early to drive so i went to sleep pretty soon after we got back.

In the morning i wasn't too hungover but Izzy felt awful after partying a bit later so i drove and Izzy had a nap. We were on our way to Big Bend national Park on the Border of Mexico.