On Thursday a week ago I was trying to get wrapped up with work in preparation for taking Friday off and getting out of town for the weekend.  I got an IM from my customer asking me if I was going to be at the Austin meeting next week.  Since I hadn’t heard about such a meeting I was a bit confused.  It turns out that he had only decided on Thursday that he wanted me to attend.  This all meant that after my trip to East Texas over the weekend I had to turn around on Monday and go to Austin.  I just got back last night. 

I drove to Austin and back, since it’s not much more hassle than trying to fly there, and it doesn’t take much longer.  The flight from DFW to Austin is about an hour, but when you figure in time for check-in, parking, and security, you’d probably take three hours or more, and the drive is only 3.5 hours.  Another upside to driving myself is that I can carry my usual complement of sharp pointy things and other implements of destruction.

Coming back last night it really hit me how much traffic on I-35 is composed of 18-wheelers.  I left Austin just before 8:00pm and once I was on I-35 there was a long period where I was the only “regular” vehicle on the road.  For the most part, I kind of like driving with the big rigs, since they’re generally not prone to fits of road rage, they don’t usually make sudden lane changes, and they don’t usually tailgate.  Once you find a slot where you can match their speed it makes for a fairly relaxing ride.  At least until we hit Temple and all the idiots got on and started darting in and out and tailgating.