Mapquest ruined my day.

Mapquest is the DEVIL. The show Tim is seeing tonight is at Stubb's Barbeque in Austin. I looked up the address and punched it into Mapquest. It showed that Stubb's is located out west of town, about 20 miles from our hotel, so this morning we set out to find it so that Tim wouldn't have any trouble getting there. I copied down the directions, and we headed that way. To make a really long story short, the directions were OH SO VERY WRONG. Of course we called the location to ask for directions, but there was no way to get a live person on the phone. We stopped at a couple of gas stations and asked for directions, but one lady didn't know where it was and another guy told us we were close to it but headed in the wrong direction. We wasted another half hour following his directions only to end up in the parking lot of a high school in an area that obviously had no barbecue joint or amphitheatre. We spent over two hours driving-- over 60 miles total-- only to give up and come back to the hotel.

This time I just Googled "Stubb's bbq directions," and a map popped up. The place is downtown-- about 2 miles from our hotel. Very easy to find. Unless you use Mapquest, which, by the way, IS THE DEVIL.

Words cannot adequately convey to you the level of frustration I experienced during this clusterf*ck of a wild goose chase. We had plans for the day, and they didn't involve driving around lost for almost 3 hours. We were going to visit a couple of museums, explore Austin, walk around downtown, eat at a good restaurant. All that was out the window because even once we found the place, I couldn't shake it. I was so pissed that all that running around and time wasting was for nothing-- for what? A shitty website that wasn't even CLOSE to being right?? Intensifying my pistoffness was the fact that it was 2:00 p.m. by the time we located Stubb's and I'd had nothing to eat all day. Tim ate some leftover pizza this morning, so he at least wasn't starving.

When we found Stubb's, I thought maybe we could have lunch there. Why not? It's a barbecue joint, right? Well, at the door we were informed that there was some event taking place and we weren't welcome there. So we started walking. We ended up at a place called The Boiling Pot, a place that serves seafood by the pound. We were tired, hungry, frustrated, and hot, so we decided to give it a try even though it's not what we wanted. Tim is severely allergic to seafood, but he said he'd find something on the menu. Most places have a hamburger or something. Not this place, so Tim ordered two links of boudin sausage. I had a cup of gumbo, which was hotter than hot. I can deal with hot foods as long as I have something cold to drink, but the Diet Coke the girl brought me was 90% ice, 10% Coke, and she didn't believe in keeping the glass filled. I kept waving her down for refills, and when we got the check we were astonished to find that we'd been charged for every refill! As a result, our bill was $25 for two links of boudin and a cup of crappy gumbo. I'm sure most people who go there drink beer and don't have the problem of paying $2 for every 1/10 of a cup of Diet Coke they drink.

The moral of the story? Don't go to The Boiling Pot in Austin, TX because they suck the dong. And don't use Mapquest because IT'S THE DEVIL.

It's 9:45 p.m., Tim is at his show, and I'm in the hotel room enjoying some alone time. Charlie is apparently giving my mom a good workout at home. I miss him, and I'm ready to go back home. Unfortunately, there are 11 hours worth of highway between us and Petal, MS. It's sad, but so far the drive here has been the most enjoyable part of the trip. We're hoping to squeeze in some fun before leaving tomorrow.