I made arrangements to catch up with Doug and Liane, an RVing couple I met last year near Big Bend, at McKinney Falls State Park outside of Austin. They had told me they were going to spend 5 days in Austin, one of which was Liane’s birthday, and I had gathered several restaurant recommendations from friends for them. The restaurants sounded too enticing to pass up so I decided to join them. I have met up with them a number of times and we always enjoy having meals together. They keep telling me where they’re going so I guess I’m not getting too annoying yet. Since we were both arriving in the afternoon on Friday, the plan was to have dinner at their “place” Friday night and to go out to one of the suggested restaurants on Saturday. I was to bring a salad, and it goes without saying now, a bottle of wine. I also added a surprise – the fresh shrimp I procured before leaving Alabama. I had planned to make a remoulade sauce instead of the usual cocktail fare, and was excited that I could finally use that Zatarain’s Creole Mustard I have been carrying around for far too long. Unfortunately, it had been far too long as the expiration date clearly attested to. I made an emergency run to the nearest grocery store only to find that they didn’t carry Zatarain’s and so I went with some store-prepared smoked chipotle cocktail sauce at the suggestion of one of the clerks. Let’s just say it was interesting, but still too sweet like many prepared cocktail sauces. We still managed to eat all the shrimp and the rest of dinner was great as usual.
On my way into Austin, I had spoken to Stephanie Lochbaum (of Andrew and Stephanie) and found that Andrew was out of town ‘til Sunday and she was wondering if I wanted to go to see an old Austin band called Storyville at Antone’s, a fixture on Austin’s 6th St. for years. Since I had never been to Antone’s, and never heard Storyville live, I figured why not. It’s funny but I’ve been to a number of places in Austin since I left that I never did when I was there. I switched plans with Doug & Liane to go out to a barbecue joint on Sunday. Stephanie and I had a nice dinner and made our way over to Antone’s a little before the first act was to start. She had warned me that Storyville might not come on ‘til 10 or so, probably thinking that I’m getting too old for this stuff. She was probably right. Well, I might have been OK if they had started close to 10, and if we had been able to sit down all night. Basically, Antone’s is a big open room with a bar, a stage and plenty of hard, concrete floor for everyone to stand on. When I got back to the campground somewhere around 2AM I was pretty beat, but the show was worth it. Another classic Austin experience I can check off my list.
If you go to Austin for barbecue, it doesn’t get any better, or bigger, than the Salt Lick, even though it’s located several miles outside of Austin in a dry county. Luckily, I knew this so Doug, Liane and I brought our own. After driving out into the middle of nowhere, they were pretty surprised when we pulled up, on a Sunday evening no less, and the place was packed. You have to “check in” at a table outside the restaurant and people were waiting all over the place. When you finally get inside it isn’t anything special – just picnic tables lined up one after the other – except for the food. It may not be the best barbecue you’ve ever had but it sure is pretty good and it fit Doug & Liane’s requirement of a place that’s uniquely Austin, or uniquely Texas. Check it out at http://www.saltlickbbq.com We weren’t done with the dinners yet. Liane’s birthday was Monday and they invited me to join them once again, probably because I offered to be their designated driver for the night. This time Liane picked one of my favorite Austin restaurants, Z Tejas. It has turned into a small chain, but it was still as good as I remember with unique, Southwestern cuisine.
After Doug and Liane left town, I stuck around the quiet of McKinney Falls for one more night before heading up to Andrew & Stephanie’s in north Austin for the rest of my stay. Zoe, one of their huskies, wasn’t exactly thrilled to see Abbey again, but we managed to keep them under control after a few minor scrapes. Of course, it did take some coaxing to get Abbey to go back into the house for the first couple of days. Andrew & Stephanie went down to San Antonio on Saturday to see Eric Clapton so I stayed behind and watched the “kids”. I did go out Saturday night with Michele, a girl I used to work with at IBM, and her new husband, Michael. Things have been very hectic for them lately. They were in the middle of moving into Michele’s house after it had been renovated. The interesting part about it was that it was covered by the This Old House gang. It was their first renovation outside of the northeast. Michele and Michael said it actually cost them a little more, but they ended up doing more than originally planned and it was a lot more interesting. Anyways, we had a quick dinner near campus and then went to see an unbelievable guitarist, Richard Thompson. He plays lively folk music and keeps up a great banter with the crowd, but man can he play a guitar. As Michele said, “It’s hard to believe all that sound is coming out of one guy.” The opening act, Eliza Gilkyson, is an Austin regular and also plays folk music, and some of it quite politically slanted. Since I couldn’t argue with her view too much, I didn’t complain. That’s the nice thing about Austin, there’s a wide variety of music to enjoy and just about any night of the week.
While I was in Austin I did get to take Abbey to some of her old stomping grounds – Barton Creek, Zilker Park, Town Lake and Bull Creek. Andrew & Stephanie actually share the same birthday, which happened to be on Monday, and they invited a bunch of people out to happy hour to celebrate. So I stuck around an extra day so I could see them all.
After Austin I drove all the way out to Ft. Davis, TX, a place I also stayed last year. There’s a real nice state park there. The deer have no fear of people so sometimes I’d have to be careful when coming out of the RV with Abbey. They’d be 10 ft. away and would look up but not move at all. Then one night I had the door open, but luckily the screen door was shut, and I heard some rustling right outside the door. I turned the light on and there was a javelina family not even 8 ft. from the door. Abbey started going crazy so I shut the door. It wasn’t the only time we saw them so close. I stayed long enough to go to the McDonald Observatory Star Party on Friday night. Just like last year, it was a beautiful, clear night for star gazing. They were preparing for the onslaught of spring breakers so they had double the amount of telescopes set up. It’s a pretty amazing place if you’re ever in the area. OK, it is out in the middle of nowhere, on purpose to take advantage of the dark skies, but if you’re passing through west Texas it’s worth the trip.