I added another 20 minutes to my walk today, in part to stop by a cash machine to get cash (the fee free version, although they have a cash machine at the farmers mark).  The real delay was because Capital Metro is hosting the 2008 International Bus Roadeo at  the Burger Center, which is where my farmers' market is held.  Apparently they start tomorrow, but they are prepping today.

Sounds like a strange thing, why have a bus rodeo (or as they say, roadeo), but the more I think about it, the cooler it is.  Don't you want the people behind the wheel of a vehicle carrying dozens of people to have the agility to maneuver through an obstacle course.  I don't know about you, but I know that Austin's streets are an obstacle course in and of themselves.

And apparently Arthur Murillo is up for this third win at the 35-foot Bus competition, having won in 2005 and 2002, and he recently won the Texas version of the competition.  I've talked to the guy before, he's a nice guy; he's been the driver for a few routes I've taken, and you couldn't get a better poster boy for bus drivers.  If you remember seeing buses with a drivers face plastered all over it a few years ago, that was him.  And Cap Metro needs all the good press they can get.

I would have taken a picture of it, but the angles were bad, and frankly, I didn't want to be road kill at a roadeo prep.   Dodging cars trying to get the farmers' market was bad enough.  So here's one from a previous year.  I'm visualizing those cones as a landscaper's trailer, and an SUV... particularly the SUV driver (on her cellphone) that was paying no attention to the bus nearly parallel to her as she suddenly switched lanes and made the bus I was on jump a curve. No injuries, thankfully.