Sunday, January 8, 2012

Heading southbound through Austin

I had a feeling I'd learn a few thing along the way, sort of cowboy wisdom. Concise kernels of truth about life - or maybe just life in Texas.

Texas Nugget no.1, Habanero Beef Jerky is made with real habaneros.

I guess I just expected habanero to be another way of saying hotter than jalapeño flavouring. Point taken, Texas.

After breakfast in Shreveport we made our way to Waco for lunch - yes that Waco. Except that didn't happen in Waco, it happened near a town named Elk (Lonely Planet: Texas, 3rd ed.) Waco's a fine enough town but for the sole purpose of having some great Texas barbecue I think we came up short. Evan suggested two spots we might try and I guess we chose poorly. Uncle Dan's Barbecue will forever be eclipsed by Cozy Corner's ribs we'd had just days before.

By the time we arrived in Austin it was too late to do much sightseeing so we decided we'd save it for tomorrow and start drinking! We started with a couple of Margaritas at the Iron Cactus and then a couple more. We had chips & guacs for dinner because when you're in it to win it why waste your money on food? Later we wandered over to Opal Divine's which was as much like The Only as we'd come so far on this trip. Lots of great local beers, tasting paddles with four samples for five bucks and our waitress that reminded me an awful lot of my cousin. She handpicked our poison, some of which crept into the 9% range and down the hatch they went.



Day two in Austin was strange - everything was perfectly nice but the black cloud of Katie's imminent departure floated around behind us as if it were tethered. We took a walk along Lady Bird Lake which is actually part of the Colorado River and watched rowing teams glide past. Later we found South Austin on the search for an oddities and collectibles shop. I bought an old pair of carbon steel scissors and a lucky Texas horseshoe (superstitious fingers crossed.) What a great neighborhood! Plenty of great shops, places to eat and even a parking lot full of food trucks. We had fish tacos at Wahoo's - excellent. We later had Tacos al Pastor at Güero's which were kind of bland and slackly prepared.


Nearby is a natural spring-fed swimming pool in Zilker Park. Hipsters and old folks share the cold water with ducks and endangered salamanders. We enjoyed the winter sun on the grass for a while.


Austin has a chain of theatres called The Alamo Drafthouse. This place was like no other I've ever seen. You can drink beer, order burgers and 'quote-along' to your favourite movies. Just so happens they were playing The Big Lebowski that night! The aisles are far enough apart to allow for wait staff to take your order from the long bar in front of you and covertly arrive later with a hot burger and cold beer (and later White Russians of course.) It's not everyday you get the chance to see one of your all-time favourite movies on the big screen with a beer in your cup holder no less.


After a brief but enjoyable respite from the black cloud it was almost time for Katie to go home. We headed off to the airport early in the morning and said goodbye. What a total bummer.

I continued on to San Antonio alone, snapped a Polaroid of The Alamo and finished the journey to Laredo. Now for the challenging part - firefighter training.




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