The Enchanted Circle - Taos, NM (Sept 26-30, 2016)

Eleven hours of driving ahead of us to Taos, New Mexico.   Mike had been changing music on our media drive each day and the first song that came on as we departed Austin and began our trek into West Texas was Willie Nelson, America the Beautiful, very appropriate as we crossed the wide open plains of Texas.  Mike drove the first long leg from Austin to Lubbock, TX where we stopped in at a hotel for the night.  It was a nice little respite from the camper where we could do laundry and sleep in a king size bed and have a little bit more room to move around.

On the second leg, Mike drove the rest of way through the rather flat landscape with large ranches of cows and goats, 18-wheelers, tumbleweeds and very large and plentiful bugs that hit the windshield with a rather loud smack at 70 mph. In our 2000 miles of travel so far, Texas has the highest concentration of bugs of any other state.  Our randomly appropriate song of this driving day, was Stevie Ray Vaughn, Texas Flood.  The long drives of the previous two days were well worth it as we entered New Mexico and the dramatic landscape changes.  At one point, Mike turned to me and said, "Are you feeling a little Thelma and Louise about now?"  He is a funny guy.

Mike and our rig handled the trip up into the mountain elevation well.  We pulled into the Taos Valley RV Park after the office had closed, but found our name and campsite number in the "after hours" box.  The park was very near downtown Taos.

View from our campsite

This was another one of our longer stays, and we had several restaurants, motorcycle rides and attractions on our list to see. The weather was forecast to be beautiful, sunny and warm in the day and cool, bordering on cold at night.

Mike, "settled in"

Once we were settled in, we deployed the Can-Am and headed off into town for dinner. As I had been waiting to fulfill my Mexican food craving, we found  Bella's Mexican Grill.  We learned that if you want red and green chiles on your dish, you ask for Christmas.  We also learned that NM chiles are HOT.  Their chile rellenos and blood orange margarita were excellent as advertised.  Large portions left us with lunch leftovers for the next day.

Our first full day in Taos started with a rude awakening at 40 degrees, brrrrrr.  We quickly found the heater in the camper and took the chill off.  We started our day at the Taos Visitor Center and learned that one of our planned attractions, the Taos Pueblo, would be closed to get ready for a pueblo celebration until Thursday.  With spectacular weather planned for the day, we adjusted and took off on the Enchanted Circle on the Can-Am.

We stopped about halfway in Red River. It is a very popular ski resort in the winter season.   I really felt like I was in an old mining town and might see someone panning for gold in the little river running through town.  We ended up at one of the couple open local restaurants for a bite.  We were treated to a delicious green chile cheesebuger.



The rest of the loop took us to the Angel Fire Ski resort. The scenery and landscapes were so beautiful and there was so little traffic, it felt so private. It was a perfectly lovely day.

Roadside wildlife on the Enchanted Circle

Trees just beginning to show their golden tips

We ended our day walking around the shops and art galleries in downtown Taos, then cocktails and listening to some really great live music at the Taos Inn.  So far Taos is living up to its Land of Enchantment tag line.

Our trek West continued through Austin, TX (Sept 21-25, 2016)

We lived in Austin for about 2 ½ years, 10 years ago.  We had lovely house about 15 minutes south of Downtown Austin.  I remember most the heat of the summer, good friends we made, the hikes we did to the swimmin’ hole near our house, long commutes to work, fun times down on 6^th Street, the best BBQ brisket ever and it is where we said goodbye to our dog Baxter and hello to our next dog Gabriel.  All in all we had fond memories of the city and were looking forward to being there on this trip.

We stayed near the city in the Austin Lone Star RV Resort.  It was a compact park with a few small log cabins right off I-35 with an appearance of convenience to downtown Austin.   As we learned while there, the traffic has become even worse since our departure and the service road entrances and exits can add a lot of miles to your trip.

Even though it is cruising toward late September, the temperatures in Austin were still in the 90 degree range.  Our primary form of transportation once at a camp site is our Can-Am Spyder motorcycle, so rain and extreme heat can challenge our plans.

Upon our arrival and routine camp set up, we offloaded the Spyder in search of food and to explore our old haunts.  We popped into an excellent Mexican restaurant Alcomer for happy hour.  The cocktails were unique and delicious and the octopus tostadas set a good tone for Austin meals to come.

We then meandered our way down Congress toward downtown.  Not much looked familiar, even though we had traveled this road frequently when living there.  New storefronts, high rise condo and apartment buildings and more construction cranes than you could count. The amount of restaurants on the corridor had easily doubled, food-trucks stuffed into vacant corner lots now mixed in with a few of the neighborhood stalwarts that remain from our time there.  6^th Street seemed worn down, rather seedy and not teeming with the unique singer-songwriter vibe it used to exude.  Wow, what a difference 10 years makes.  It just looked and felt so different.  I can’t say I liked it.  I think I prefer to keep my nostalgic memories of Austin.

We had an absolute blast though catching up with various friends we had in Austin and had not seen for several years.  We met up with an ex-coworker of Mike’s and his wife (Stephen and Susan) who were kind enough to fight the traffic and pick us up at our campsite for dinner at one of our old favorite Indian restaurants in Austin the ClayPit.  We had drinks, laughs and great food again.  They said the last time they had come there had been with us 10 years ago, yet it felt just like last week.

I also had lunch with my good friend Bettie. 

We caught up on the ups and downs of our lives over the past few years.  It was so great to see her again.  We made plans for another rendezvous in Florida next spring.   It was also great to visit with our friend Joel in his lovely home in the hills of Austin.

No post about Austin, TX would be complete without a BBQ reference.  Franklin Barbecue did not exist when we lived in Austin.  We were in awe of the Salt Lick Barbecue back in the day, but a new pit master has risen to prominence and we had to check out the hype.  Franklin Barbecue is off the beaten path from downtown Austin.   The doors open at 11am.  The line starts forming at 6am.  Franklin folklore says that you can pay people to sit in line on your behalf, quite possibly there is an app for that.

We arrived at 10am, thinking that would be fashionably early.  The wait time at that point in the line would be 1) approximately 1 hour until we could make the shaded area of the parking lot and 2) approximately 2 additional hours (1pm) until we could be eating the smokey goodness of whatever meats were not sold out by then.  WHAT?  The lovely pit master’s assistant indicated that there would likely be no pulled pork by the time we got to order, but she was pretty sure there would be brisket and sausages for us.   Others who arrived just 20 minutes or so after us were given the bad news that Franklin’s would sell out before they got in the door.  Crestfallen, these sad brisketless latecomers left to throw themselves into the river.  (Not really, I did not see anyone do this)

We all waited in anticipation for the shade, then the entrance into the divine den of brisket nirvana. And that it was.  Was it worth the wait you ask?  We both agreed it was worth the wait. Does it seem utterly crazy to wait like this for food?  Yes, but not this food.  We had wasted a whole day, but did not regret it.

All the over eating in Austin prompted us to find some pickleball open play to balance our calorie intake.  I had played twice with a great group in Gulf Shores, AL while there.  Austin also had a very active local pickleball community.  We played with a great group of folks at the Austin Jewish Community Center one afternoon.  There was an incredible age range and good solid play.  As many as 6 courts were going at one point.  Everyone was very welcoming and we had a great time.

On our last night in Austin I wanted to try out another barbecue restaurant near the university district.  Freedmen’s Barbecue may not be as famous as others,  but we walked right in and sat at the bar, no line.  The cocktails were strong and the old western saloon motif was spot on.  We split a platter of smokey, meaty goodness.  We even had a smoked, sea-salted chocolate mousse for dessert.  It was not as good as Franklin, but it was damn delicious and I would go there regularly if I lived in Austin again.

Freedmen's ribs, sausage, brisket and cornbread

Smoked, sea-salted chocolate mousse

We also drove by our old house while there.  It felt like looking at someone else’s house.  I suppose it has been for quite some time.  Loved the visit, but happy to move on down the road.

New Orleans and a notable hot spot (Sept 17-20, 2016)

I forgot to mention, that we have our Can-Am motorcycle with us as secondary transportation as once you are hooked up at campgrounds, it is more convenient to have other transportation.

Our next stop, The Big Easy and the French Quarter RV Resort.  The almost 4 hour drive was blessedly uneventful.  The use of "resort" at this campground is a bit of a stretch, but it was within walking distance (daylight hours only) to the French Quarter.  It is basically a post Katrina parking lot turned into a gated-walled RV compound with a pool and pretty nice concrete pads and good wi-fi. Opportunistic capitalism at its best.

It has been many years since we visited New Orleans (pre-Katrina).  We had a couple of nostalgic locales on our list to revisit and to also explore what's new in NOLA. Mother's is old restaurant (established 1938)  that we longed to return to after our last visit. Just the best down home southern cookin' you can get.  Their specialty is the Ferdi Special, ham and roast beef sandwich with "debris" gravy.  You know your mouth is waterin'. It should be.  I don't know who Ferdi is, but their sandwich is awesome. I hope this place never goes away, it will be a sad day.

Ferdi Special with debris gravy

New Orleans is really a mysterious place to me. The legendary foods and flavors, architectural beauty, the nostalgia of time past, the ugliness tourists who seem content to relieve themselves of all inhibitions, even the ones they most certainly shouldn't, the haves and the have nots mixed together with music and a spirituality that is sensed in the heavy moist air at all times. It is awesome and a little melancholy at the same time. I just love it.

Not sure if this is a musician waiting for his gig to start, a waiter on his way to his shift
or a millionaire. He could be any of them or none of them. That is The Big Easy!

Blue cheese and fig appetizer

Yes, fried green tomatoes!

We took Uber around the Quarter at night and walked during the day.  It was hot, but we enjoyed walking the streets, eating the eats and a free walking tour and trolley ride through the Garden District on a rainy day. We had a terrific meal at Eat NOLA, pics don't do it justice.  Put it on your list to visit, you won't be sorry. 

The famous Commander's Palace, the closest I got was to take this pic. 

Our next stop, a short 3 hour drive from New Orleans is the Cajun RVera (cute play on words) motor home park.  It is located in the middle of nowhere Louisiana and has a huge pool and lazy river water park.  As the weather Louisiana is still in the 80 degree range, we will enjoy the pool.

But first, a visit Avery Island, home of the Tabasco Factory and the Mcllhenny family.  This family has been perfecting pepper sauce since 1868.  We took the Can-Am about 30 minutes from the Cajun RVera (go lost) in 90 degree heat, but finally made our way to the factor.  The history was fascinating and the tour, visitor center and gift shop was a good way to spend a day.

We got back to the camp site and quickly jumped into our swim suits, we have been talking about a refreshing dip in the large pool and float down the lazy river all the way back. We barely make it through the bath house when we were told the pool was closing two hours early. Lovely. :-( We negotiated a quick cool off dip, but then had to get out.  I guess going places out of season has its disadvantages.

Our next stop, Austin, Texas.

Czerwinski's Down the Hatch at the Beach and Birthday Bash (Sept 9-17, 2016)

About 10 months ago I mentioned that I would like to someday go to the Balloon Fiesta in Albuquerque, NM.  As is so often the case,  my lovely spouse set out to make my dream come true.

Hey, I have an idea, he says...let's make it a road trip and pull the Can-Am motorcycle with us.  We can see if my family would like get together somewhere near the coast then we can continue on to the Albuquerque, should take us about 6 weeks round trip, we will be back home around late October just in time for Halloween. 

And so it began...

We left St. Pete, Fl on September 9th for an overnight stay at a fledgling campground with the sweetest 75 year old owner named Glen.  This campground was at the right overnight stopping point for us after about 5 hours of driving. Sparsely populated with only two other campers, Glen made us feel welcome and provided immaculate facilities.  

Our next stop, Down the Hatch Beach House in Gulf Shores, AL for a week of Czerwinski family fun.  The house was perfect for enjoying time by the sand and sea.  The company was great, we laughed, ate, drank, watched the Bills game and celebrated my birthday at a lovely dinner.  Great time.

We left the beach on September 17th for our next stop, New Orleans, LA.