Saturday, April 21st: 9 months in the making

a.k.a. Where in the world is Mad Mel Arena?

Our first full day in Austin involved returning the Dodge to the airport and catching the bus back into town. We disembarked at Congress and found a coffee van with an espresso machine. Had our luck changed? The swirly crema pattern said yes but the time it took to make the coffee was disconcerting. Not as disconcerting as the question, 'So with the flat white, that's less foam and higher temperature right?' Maim felt that it was our duty to educate. I'm not straying from the Americano again.

We headed up Congress to the Texas Capitol Building and dropped in for a brief tour before meeting up with Dr. Rage, who whisked us away to South Congress, the place to be. For everyone. Meanwhile, Mel arrived in Austin sans luggage, and Radio dropped her off to us at Guero's where we had lunch. We then brought our weary traveler back to our place so that she could freshen up before heading to the TXRG bout.

So, we were late. We all managed to get the times wrong and arrived ten minutes into the first bout. But Chip Queso spotted us and made sure people knew that we were there. It was great seeing the Hotrod Honeys in action again. The Honkytonk Heartbreakers took the win by 2 points in the final jam.

Our reunion with the Honeys wasn't the only thing on the derb bucket list but also seeing Smarty Pants skate competitively for the first time - and we've known each other for around 4.5 years. I have seen her eat the same pizza at the same venue over the past 4.5 years though.

Other highlights: Seeing most of the Texecutioners in action on their home teams; meeting Beyonslay; being Asian with Rice Rocket; seeing AJ again; blowing my daily budget on TXRG merch.

Then it was off to the after party which was held at Rusty Spurs, a gay cowboy venue. Only just prior to the after party was a 'lez dance'. It made for an interesting crowd mix. Just as 3D Pop said would happen, there was quite a bit of sexy dancing, we introduced The Pole, which quickly turned into the Drunken Monkey (Crackerjack is an AMAZING drunken monkey), Maso's 27 handstands, more sexy dancing, vuvuzela rage, vuvuzela beer bong, stool dancing, not in that order.

It was time to head home and after we walked Carrie home, she gave us directions back to ours. Our slow but steady walk home found us at a pierogi van with a buck's night that had just finished up. Only the sober one spoke to us though. It's ok, Maim had a plastic knife to protect us with.

We eventually arrived home and it was time to pass out. But not before setting alarms for brunch with TXRG in a few hours.