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.