MESQUITE, Texas, and back to AUSTIN, November 26, 2005 — I have to wonder how I can so successfully ignore RV parks, car dealers, manufactured homes, truck stops, franchises and billboards (such as the offers for microsurgery vasectomy reversal) and all that much of the time. When you are in Mesquite near the franchise epi-center or driving on IH35, you can't. Last night I drove from Skillman to Mesquite on 635. Whoa, when did they put a thousand car dealers with a million cars in each lot on that stretch of highway?

The answer, of course, is that I successfully ignore a lot of the IHOPs, billboards, McD's and outlet malls by staying West of Burnet Road in Austin except to go downtown. No billboards allowed on Mopac or 360. (AKA Loop 1 and Cap of Texas.) Of course, there are some franchises

in my usual orbit. But out there in the real world, the things assault you. We noticed this on our trip on the American highway this summer, too. Like I say, reality isn't far away here. A mile to Burnet Road. Of course, as FFP pointed out today, there are still a few 'mom and pop' places (a Greek store, two independent coffee shops and a diner for example) and a pile of junk and thrift shops to soften the blow on that stretch.

Lest you think I'm an elitist (which I am, but that's not the point), this world I find so shocking is not so because it is less, um, elegant or is populated with the class of people from which I come (the solidly lower middle). No, I find East Austin pleasant, even pre-gentrification. Maybe especially pre-gentrification. No, the thing I find shocking is the soul-free stretches of dealers of cars, Targets, Wal-Marts, Taco Bells, links and links in chains with acres of parking. And the thing I find amazing is that I can skirt that world (which is everywhere) for so much of my time here in Austin.

Dad and I got off pretty early this morning from the hotel. By 7:15 we were on the road. Dad insisted on driving. Said he'd take the 'short haul.' By that he meant driving until our official stop in West which is short of Waco which would be halfway I guess. However, he got some rain. There was even a tiny bit of sleet mixed in. He told me that Ovilla was the oldest town in Dallas county. He knows stuff like that and holds it out to tell me when we pass the sign for pulling off to go there. He pulled in to West and we had a bathroom break and I got us a sausage roll each and filled my coffee. I took over driving but the rain eased up and I had the easier part of the run.

FFP was glad to see me. He and I went off to South Congress and had lunch at South Congress Cafe (and a Bloody Mary) and shopped a bit. I felt really tired. I didn't sleep well the four nights in that hotel. But I enjoyed walking down the street where independent businesses still thrive and where you don't feel assaulted by a corporate vision.

I was so tired when we got home that I read some and dozed and finally succumbed to actual sleep in the bed. Forced myself to get up and watch TV, have some food and coffee. We watched a DVD of Borstal Boy . This things show up from Netflix and I'm never sure how they got on my queue. This one probably resulted from my trip to Ireland over a year ago. Maybe.

I love my family and I really don't mind venturing out into the real world where highways and shopping centers loom. Places were a Bingo Parlor or spin-off storefront church has a better chance of thriving against the chains than an antique mall or Mom and Pop Taqueria. And where a Wal-Mart Supercenter has the best chance of all of providing salvation. But I sort of like my weirdly insulated life, too. Where South Congress thrives with two independent motels, two independent Mexican food places, a few independent cafes, an outsider art gallery, a costume shop, a tiny fresh food grocer, a barber shop, some boutiques and secondhand stores. And, of course, the Continental Club. Oh, SoCo has a few chains. There is a Starbucks over there in the retail part of that apartment area. But Jo's Coffee Shop and Texas French Bread are the neighborhood coffee stars. And Amy's can hardly be considered a chain. Do they even have stores outside of Austin? Zen is not a very obnoxious chain is it? And don't write and tell me that there are parts of every city like this just as there are parts of Austin groaning under an inventory of stores and restaurants imposed from a corporate headquarters somewhere. I know this. I seek those areas in other cities (Lower Greenville and Montrose come to mind). I drive to the Arboretum area to see my Dad and I used to work there.

No, the marvelous thing and the thing I'm talking about here is that I've managed to forge my path through Austin to ignore the reality of it and the reality of America. When I lived on Abbott Ave. in Highland Park in Dallas and could walk to work on McKinney Avenue and drink at the Quiet Man and eat at the Highland Park Cafeteria I was kind of insulated like that. Of course, there was Central Expressway within spitting distance. You can trace magical paths through any city. But as soon as you get on the major highways in America, you are in a scary place. The place where people start shopping on the Friday after Christmas in the middle of the night, their strings pulled by corporate wonks in New York or California or Bentonville. We all feel it, see it on TV. Some of us can skirt it, though, just so for a while if you live just right.