Two more from the Driskill in Austin, 100 years apart.
On February 11-20, 2021, Winter Storm Uri affected Austin and much of Texas, with a series of ice storms and historically low temperatures that resulted in 1/2" or more of ice on all roads, making them impassable. I flew in to Austin from California on February 12 on a long-planned house-hunting trip prior to moving, and things didn't seem that bad, although one open house had lost gas service and the interior temperature was around 50. I could see my breath as we were looking at the living room and kitchen. We continued our house hunting on February 12-13 as conditions declined. On the upside, we were the only buyers looking in an otherwise "hot" market, and later had an offer accepted because everyone else had stayed home. By the time we walked to a Valentine's Day dinner on February 14, downtown was paralyzed and all the restaurants started closing. We could not get traction while walking on the sidewalk and had to call an Uber to drive us just two blocks to the Driskill. Then the airport closed and we could not get a flight until the 18th, so we spent 3 unplanned nights at the Driskill, which gradually ran out of food for the few remaining guests.The cooks improvised and rationed food, serving one meal per person per day. On the 15th and 16th, they had nothing, so our dinner consisted of beef jerky, snack mix, cookies, and screw-top red wine from a CVS drug store which was the only place open downtown. On the 17th, the government issued a boil water order. Fortunately the day before I had cleaned two empty red wine bottles and refilled them with water from the bathtub spout. That was our drinking water for two days.
I acquired the earlier cover purposefully to compare with the later one. Ironically, the earlier cover advertises "The American Plan"--three square meals per day included in your room rate. It wasn't in effect in 2021! After returning home, I prepared a contemporary cover and mailed it to the Austin postmaster with a request for hand cancels--she obliged. I should have used stamps more appropriate to the theme; we had started packing everything in our house and I could only find random stamps. We eventually moved to Austin in April 2021 and have not looked back ...
Posted 10/08/2023 10:45 am
