Downtown Austin, Owls and Yellow Jerseys

I spent the last week in Austin Texas attending a conference on IBM mainframes called Share. Although I had two sessions, both had poor time slots and subsequently low attendance. The conference did prove worthwhile as I had many opportunities for professional networking.

My hotel was about a mile away from the conference so I took the opportunity to walk each way. Austin is the state capital of Texas. My walk to the conference was along Congress Avenue which leads directly to the state capital building. After registering at the conference, I wandered up and around the capital and even ventured inside to take a couple of pictures.

An interesting story about the Austin skyline was told to me by a local austonian. It seems that the tallest building in downtown Austin was designed by a Rice University alum. The building when viewed from a particular angle resembles an owl. The Rice mascot is the Owl and Rice is located in rival Houston. The “owl” overlooks the University of Texas campus in Austin and as the story goes, is meant to express Rice’s superiority over the University of Texas.

The highlight for me was a visit to a local bike shop called Mellow Johnnys which is owned by none other than cycling superstar, Lance Armstrong, I spent more than an hour wandering around the store, admiring the Lance memorabilia and even returned a second time to buy a Mellow Johnnys cycling jersey. By the way, the name Mellow Johnny is american cycling slang for maillot jaune which is french for the Yellow Jersey that symbolizes the Tour de France. The term was popularized by Lance during his 7 year reign as Tour de France champion and is sometimes used as a nickname for Lance.

Bon Voyage, Jay