My upcoming road adventures have gotten me thinking about some of my past trips. My most recent road escapade was a jaunt from Austin to Los Angeles, by way of Albuquerque and Sedona. There was a hysterical museum visit in Roswell, a pit stop at a meteor crater where we made a new friend, a dingy Denny's dinner that left us appreciating the food options in places like Austin and Los Angeles, and a long stretch of nothing. And I do mean nothing:

I was in Maryland in grad school when my best friend had a very intense need to get out of her cockroach infested apartment in Austin and move back to LA. I flew to Austin and helped her pack up everything in her apartment that we didn't manage to sell on Craig's List, and quite literally shoved (mixed with some finesse) all of her belongings into her rented SUV. (Her poor Volkswagen wasn't going to be up the to trip.)

No space was left unoccupied. Although, we did manage to fit all of her belongings INSIDE of the car, unlike these people:

I did get to tour a bit of Austin before we bolted from the cockroach lair.

*Quick side note: if you have a genuine cockroach phobia, I would not suggest living in Texas. They have rather unique cockroaches. They are large. And fly. Luckily, I am oddly unafraid of insects so I was able to be the designated cockroach destroyer while I was there, but poor Carmella was worse for the wear.

Austin definitely has some awesome food trucks.

Naturally, we had to get cupcakes at Hey Cupcake!

We also browsed some cute shops and spent an OBSCENE amount of time in the flagship Whole Foods that is located in Austin. We are both Real-Food obsessed so that was a rather profound experience.

I wish I had taken some pictures of my own, but I tended to be too be engulfed in the experience, so I'm borrowing these from others.

Seriously, Whole Foods was one of the biggest deals for me. If you are ever in Austin and like food, go there.

South Congress is a super cute area and there are some really unique finds in Austin shops such as my nag-champa-scented Ganesha car air freshener, journals made of recycled stuff and cool art pieces.

I also got to see another friend who had moved from LA to Austin as well, and watch her Improv Show, which is always good fun. I love improv comedy. And my friend has serious talent. Ashley, you are one talented lady!

Then, after some book store browsing (because ALWAYS), thus concluded my Austin stay.

And then we were off!