Ausometin, TX

After we white-knuckled our way through the freeways of Houston (see above), it was an easy drive over to Austin where our friend Gary (see stock photo below) treated us to a much-needed healthy lunch at the Thistle Café.

Gary and Richard in the foreground. Also, that's Texas State Representative Jim Pitts in the background. Hey Jim! Sorry we missed you.

We met Gary and Richard on our trip to Turkey last year and immediately appreciated their humor and general attitudes toward the world. We have unfortunately not seen them since and our reunion with Richard will have to wait as he was out of town, but it was really great to visit with Gary. We were even treated to a tour of their stunning home (check out those solar panels!):

Gary, who apparently has seen everything, everywhere, gave us a wealth of information upon which we would base our west Texas and New Mexico travels. Armed with maps, pamphlets, and restaurant recommendations, we drove the half hour or so to Rachel’s house (Austin is also quite large). Rachel and her family had generously offered to host us for two nights, our longest stay in one place thus far. We were grateful for the opportunity to do some laundry and let Murphy run off her frustrations. She’s been wearing a doggie seatbelt and appears to be a little self-conscious about it. Dinner at the famous Salt Lick BBQ joint (which is byob, fyi, lol) consisted of a giant pile of delicious ribs, sausage, brisket, smoked turkey, slaw, potato salad, pickles, jalapenos, and onions, from which we took home a significant amount of left-overs. They also offered an entirely redundant "all you can eat" option.

The Salt Lick's giant grill, which was completely covered with meat when we first walked in.

It being a Monday night, we decided to take it easy and were content to relax at Rachel's place and watch an uplifting movie. Instead we relaxed at Rachel's place and watched "The Wrestler".

Even Randy "The Ram" was entirely too full after his Salt Lick experience.

Tuesday morning was great. The weather was crisp and clear so we took the dogs (all 3 of them) out back to the creek behind Rachel's house. For the most part they behaved, although there was a minor incident with a decaying raccoon tail.



Rachel's dog Barley managed to take the underbite championship belt from Murphy.

Rachel then took us to downtown Austin, with a stop at Barton Springs along the way. Barton Springs is a pretty amazing asset to the Austin community. It was pleasant, cool and sunny when we visited, but during the 100+ degree days of summer I would imagine that the spring-fed pool (which remains a refreshing 70 degrees year round and is open for swimming) might be the only thing that could bring a person back from the brink of heat-induced insanity.


Yay! Barton Springs!

Downtown was sweet. It has pretty distinct artsy, barsy, and businessy sections and of course a well-known and thriving music scene. Austin is also the home of Whole Foods and for lunch Rachel took us one that is surely the most amazing supermarket on the planet. They have at least four stations, located in the veggie, meat, fish, and cheese sections, which serve food prepared to order from that particular section of the store. There is also a little slice of heaven called "Beer Alley":




We opted for another mis-matched pile of food:



After lunch we toured (and goofed off in) the capital building. It is quite an impressive place.






Jim Pitts from Ellis - keeping it real.



The portraits on the rounded walls in the picture above are of all of Texas' governors, which was no surprise, but when we got to the top level to find the earliest portraits we were reminded that the first few were not governors at all. They were presidents, as Texas was an independent nation from 1836 to 1846. Crazy. After the brief history lesson we got wicked good coffee at Jo's to power us through lots more downtown walking and window shopping. The building below (still under construction) is the tallest on the Austin skyline. Hey there, big guy:



Can you spot the Flat Grices?


There were lots of funky little artsy shops to check out, some with bizarre objects like this stuffed squirrel for the bargain price of $500:



We thought about getting it for Zach, whose crazy downstairs neighbor apparently keeps a live squirrel in the apartment. Then Rachel found the price tag. There was also a cool little place called the Turquoise Door that sells great Mexican art. We loved all of it and could afford none of it.



All that culture sure left us thirsty. What's that over there? Oh hello, it's Perla's, a welcome oasis offering shuffle board and great happy hour specials just a block from the Turquoise Door.



The Austin music scene is really pretty amazing. We had myriad options on a random Tuesday night and settled on the Continental Club (conveniently located right across the street from Perla's) for the weekly 6pm "Hippy Hour" with local legend Toni Price. She and her band (which included a fiddle, a Dobro, and an acoustic guitar) rocked a mix of bluesy country folk music. Toni deftly worked the crowd between songs while downing a quantity of whiskey that would surely propel a less accomplished drinker into a deep coma.



Following the show, which was fantastic, we (surprise surprise) got a whole mess of good food at a Mexican restaurant. The name escapes me right now but I will update the blog once I find out because the food was just that good. Look at this. It's some sort of chicken and beef fajita thing with chipotle peppers, pecans, peppers, onions, and god knows what else. Simply awesome.



The next morning we said our goodbyes to Rachel and her parents (thanks again you guys!) and set a course for Marfa, TX, about a 6 hour drive from Austin. Again, Texas is HUGE. And so are these monsters that we encountered just outside of town:


Murphy started growling at them, presumably driven by some primal bull dog instinct, and we quickly reminded her that she is afraid of plastic bags and as such should probably not mess with half-ton animals with horns.

More soon from Marfa....