When You Climb the “Mountain”: A Tale from Friday the 13th
What happens when you climb the mountain and the view is cloudy? This is no metaphor (though, I’ll certainly use it as one later in this post) — it comes from a tragic day that I co-experienced with one of my best friends from high school, Frankie, when she came to visit me in Austin last week.
I was thrilled to have Frankie visit! We were going to hike and eat (many) things and see the Cathedral of Junk! We had wonderful ideas and even did a bit of planning, but we both had one similar personality flaw that stood in the way of things going as planned: when it comes to doing leisurely actives, we’re both WAY too go with the flow.
So on the most convenient day of the year — Friday, March 13th — we found ourselves waking up at 6am to start the BIGGEST FAIL of a day. We had plans to see the sunrise atop Mount Bonnell, check out a local brewery, and head over to the Cathedral of Junk. If you haven’t already guessed it, each piece of our game plan was thwarted in some classic Amanda-Frankie fashion.
PART 1: The weather was supposed to be sunny and nice, like really nice. So “hiking” to the top of a “mountain” for a beautiful “sunrise” over Austin, seemed like a great idea. If you’re wondering why I used quotations here, it’s because 1) there was no hiking, there was 100 steps of walking up 2) Mount Bonnell, which is deceivingly not a mountain, but a small hill with stone stairs leading to the top, where we saw 3) no sunrise, because the sky remained entirely cloudy until about 11am that day. Below is the view we should have experienced:
So Frankie and I, decked out in our intense hiking gear — seemingly identical long sleeve zip-ups and dark yoga pants — quickly reached the top of Mount Bonnell and wandered around like a a couple of newbs until we found a spot that according to our iPhone compass app, seemed to overlook the east.
Out from the shadows at the top of “Hill Bonnell” came another human — we were not the only ones who’d been bamboozled! She asked if we were in the right place for sunrise and we shrugged and told her we thought so. Time passed, the clouds remained, and we slowly accepted that we wouldn’t be seeing the sunrise that morning. We could have just left, accepted the disappointing start to our day, and moved on. But instead we hung out for a little while and ended up chatting with our fellow bamboozled friend. She was a few years older than us and was in Austin just for the morning — to see the sunrise. She was passing through as part of her own journey: a solo cross-country road trip that she decided to embark on after realizing she needed to deal with some unfortunate life circumstances that had been tossed her way. We’d never met each other, but conversation flowed as if we’d know each other for years. We got into some deep topics and shared some personal stories. I found out that her name was also Amanda — a pleasant coincidence. She told us that she was writing a book about her experience, we exchanged Instagram handles, and she continued on.
PART 2: After devouring some eggs for breakfast (like the classy ladies we are) and taking a nice nap, Frankie and I planned to check out a local brewery. We decided to take a scenic route on our way to Austin Beer Garden Brewing co. — a mere 7 minute walk from where I’m living in Austin. We started out walking through a lovely park and ended up getting lost in a sea of cul de sacs and fenced in communities. Stressed, hot, tired, hungry, and whiny, we decided to call an Uber, because despite the fact that we both had access to Google Maps, we were lost and feeling pathetic. Was it worth it? Yes! The Brewery had awesome beer and awesome food, and we just sat forever sippin’ and nommin’ and playing with other people’s dogs.
PART 3: Ohhhh The Cathedral of Junk, how excited we were to explore the piles of junk you had in store for us!
Frankie and I took a bus to a part of South Austin that I hadn’t been before. We were in good spirits despite our laundry list of failed adventures. We comically sprinted to the bus in short-ish heals (we were headed downtown after and decided to dress for the rest of the night) and ended up waiting a good 10 minutes before it came. As we arrived at our stop (which was nearly missed, because we weren’t paying attention), we hoped off and walked through a residential neighborhood toward the coveted Cathedral of Junk.
We approached a house with some cool random junk in the lawn, walked up to a fence leading to the backyard (home of the cathedral) and discovered a sign that we should have anticipated from the moment our unfortunate day began: “Now By Appointment Only” Frankie and I laughed it off, accepted the fact that this whole day was really never meant to be, and headed back to the bus stop.
It was just one of those days, a day that unfolded with the sole purpose of testing our limits. We’ve all had days like this and sometimes we approach them with an I’m-rubber-you’re-glue attitude. Other times we let them suck up our soul and crush it into little flaky pieces of crap.
So, what happens when you climb the mountain and the view is cloudy? You recall another day when you were able to stop your fists mid-clench and your eyes mid-roll, give yourself a little chuckle, and make the best of it.
This post is part of a series documenting a personal journey I created for myself starting February 1, 2015. The journey took me from New York City, to Austin, TX, to San Francisco, and ended in Chicago, where I lived in each city for exactly one month. I’m reposting all the 4 Months X 4 Cities stories — this one was originally published on March 23, 2015.
