The Midway Field House had an event yesterday featuring the new tablets from Buzztime.  The company is trying to replace the blue keyboard with something that looks like a fat smartphone.  It was the first time we had heard of them south of Dallas.

Brooke made time  and the hotel reservations.  Since South by Southwest was going on she couldn’t get a decent and reasonably priced hotel room on Saturday any closer than Brenham ( 90 miles away).  It was an America’s Best Value Inn.

This place was only $47 for the night but I would have paid an extra $20 for mattress padding and pillows.  It was a hard bed.

We ate at a Mexican restaurant less than a mile down the street from our hotel, Mariachi’s.  We ordered the jumbo maragaritas when we sat down and another round with our meal.  As we were finishing we saw another table had ordered a jumbo margarita with an upturned Corona bottle in a special ring.  We were on vacation so we ordered one.  The waiter informed us we could only have one because there was a limit!  When we explained we just wanted to split one he brought us one but it had a Coronita ( a half bottle).

Something didn’t agree with me because interspersed with tossing and turning on the bed/board my stomach was on fire.  I was up trying to throw up with out sticking my finger down my throat.  When we left I pulled into the first convenience store and got some Pepto-Bismol tablets.  I tried to swallow the first one whole.  I didn’t know you were supposed to chew them.

Midway is in the south part of Austin so I took the Bastrop route.  I enjoyed this route because I got to see how close the wildfires got to the highway.  This avoids I-35.  This is the only freeway in Austin.  There are other main highways in town but I-35 is the main North/South thoroughfare.

The club’s address is E. Riverside.  You can’t see it from E. Riverside, you have to take Royal Point to get to the place.  It is done up like a gym including a half-basketball court.  Sunday is a good day to drink there; most of the beers of their large selection are $3.  In Austin that is a fantastic deal.  It was cold and rainy in town but they kept the doors open.  When it emptied out it was very cold in the bar.

The tablets work well.  They solve the problem of no TVs turned to buzztime.  The questions come up on the tablet.  The problem is there is no sound to let you know a new question is up.  So if you are watching some sports event or talking to someone you miss the big type question and lower your odds of getting 1000 points.

We left about 6 PM for our hotel on the north side of town.  The average speed was 40 mph on  a Sunday on the freeway.  We got to the hotel and the bed was soft. I crashed for 12 hours.  We left town out what must have been 20 miles of construction on 290.  The one good thing was that it was sunny and warm.  A friend of mine said that God was pissing on the hipsters.