Welcomed To Texas

Welcomed To Texas

So I took a chance. But I wasn't the only one. Knowing that I was going to be in Austin for SXSW, I decided to rent a condo from a local Austin-ite instead of staying at a hotel. I went to Craigslist and searched high and low for a decent place to rent. Every time a had something in place and ready to go, it would fall through. Eventually I found Beto's ad. He was gonna be in Costa Rica during SXSW and he was throwing around the idea of renting his place out. I jumped on it. A couple a emails and a phone call later, it was done. It was very casual and each us placed a fair amount of trust into each others hands. Of course, the jokes started right away from my friends. “dude, yer renting a place from some guy you found on Craigslist? Dude, they are going to find you in pieces in his freezer, dude.” And so on.

Apparently, Beto's friends had made similar stabs.

But, I got to Austin, made it to the condo, met Beto... and it was all good. We took a few minutes to talk and take care of business, then he drove me around Austin and showed me the downtown area. It was starting to be dinnertime so we picked up a friend of Beto's, Willy, and thought about where to eat. I asked him what his favorite restaurant was. He smiled and said “We are going to Rudy's”

Rudy's is a bar-b-que place. And a gas station. But mostly a bar-b-que place. They serve to order brisket, turkey, ribs, and even a kick your ass jalapeno sausage. All the sauce is on the side. It was explained to me that in Texas, bbq is cooked without bbq sauce and said sauce is served like a condiment. I had always had BBQ with the sauce cooked up on the meat. This was better. Much better. Like, sex is better with a partner than by yourself better. For the record, the BBQ sauce was awesome too. It's just that the BBQ brisket was so awesome that if you were stuck on a desert island without sauce, you live a happy life with just the BBQ meat until you got voted off for hording it from the rest of the tribe. Served sliced up by the half pound on deli paper accompanied by as many slices of white bread and pickles you can eat and don't even get me going on the creamed corn (which no one has been able to tell me what the hell creamed corn is... except delicious). The place was filled with personality and all of it was Texas. It was an unique experience. This type of place just does not exist in California, and I doubt ever will.

Beto had taken me around not like a guy who rented me his condo but like a friend, which he is now. Before he left me with his condo I asked him why he had rented his home to me. He had taken quite a chance. A guy from another state, no references and we had both been a little lazy in getting a rental agreement signed. Most everything was just agreed to over the phone with a verbal handshake of sorts. Any number of the things could have gone south. His decision couldn't of been made easier with his friends making serial killer jokes as well. In the end he said after talking to me on the phone he had a good feeling about the situation and that “at some point you just have to trust people”.
I couldn't agree more.

I have been welcomed to Texas.