stupid bats...

Remember that bat bridge I once heralded as an awesome local wonder of Austin? Well, I still think it is pretty cool....sometimes. The thing is, it has almost always proved to be a great place to take out of towners to show how Austin "keeps it weird". Turns out though, that the bat bridge can have an off kind of night.

We took some great friends of ours who were new to the area to check it out. We described the novelty of it with such wonder and intrigue. We made of night of it - stopping at Big Top Candy Shop on South Congress before hand and then spouted off all the trivia about the bats we knew as we walked and ate Aussi licorice and gummy alphabet letters. It was a great time.

Then we got to the bridge. We waited. We waited. We waited. It was getting pretty dark. The sun was well down (the cue to the bats to come out). The bat watching tourist boats were lined up all in a row. It got darker.

Matt got mad. "Stupid bats! What the heck? They're not coming out. We should just go...stupid bats..."

I stayed optimistic. "Come on Matt, it always takes longer for them to come out than we think. We just got here kind of early and so we just feel like it has been a long time."

Darker. Bat boat annoucers running out of jokes to make, trivia to say...

Then a dozen bats flew out with the reek of guano. The guy next to me says "Oh ho...Here We Go!" Much anticipation. Everyone leans over the bridge waiting for more.

Darker. Then another dozen bats. This repeated itself until our friends convinced us that it was a-okay. The candy and company was good enough to call the evening a success. Matt and I felt a bit dumb still.

It got so bleak even the bat boats started to head in toward the docks. We headed home.

Luckily our friends are talented folk with a good sense of humor. They documented our experience together by doing what they do best.

It says it all really.