Austin, TX

Austin, Texas

From the moment sister Madelynn gave me a KEEP AUSTIN WEIRD beer snuggy, I knew I’d love Austin. We ran into a (weird!) wacky costume shop on Congress Street where Dorian could have scored his long-dreamed-of big red clown shoes; but now that we’ve escaped our corporate work-world days, the need has passed. We browsed the Austin Hotel’s (weird!) fairly inappropriate gift shop (perhaps one regret of traveling in our trailer is not needing accommodations, and thus missing out on some deliciously quirky lodging experiences). We dined al fresco -- fish tacos of course! -- while being serenaded by a street musician belting out covers from across the street, and noticed the kindly waiters turning their backs while an al fresco Austin resident picked amongst customers' leftovers.

This is almost an optical illusion for cameras but not the eye. The eye can tell things are in focus but duplicated but in a photo, it looks blurry.

We loved Austin’s abundant opportunity for outdoor recreation. Walkers and runners zigzagged miles of trails at Zilker Park, and the Colorado River running through downtown was enthusiastically populated with kayakers and paddle-boarders. The Barton Springs Pool itself was closed when we visited, but that didn’t matter because the stretch of Barton Creek immediately downstream from the spring was the happening place where folks waded and hung out in the late-afternoon sunshine. We took an hour’s drive west of Austin into the Hill Country, where we explored beautiful Pedernales Falls State Park. We missed an Austin friend's other recommendations - Red Bud Isle followed by lunch at the Hula Hut, McKinney Falls, and dinner on the rooftop of El Alma - but hopefully we can check these out on another visit to Austin!

Where Barton Springs feeds the Colorado River (no direct relation to the Colorado River)

Barton Springs, Austin, TX

Pedernales Falls State Park--no bathing allowed at this particular part, sadly.

A road Google took us on to get back from Pedernales Falls. We followed willingly because we didn't have the trailer behind us and wanted to explore.

Would We Come Back?

Yes. We'd come back, though the traffic and construction were as bad or worse than Dallas. Most of our complaints about Texas traffic are on the Dallas page only because that was our first stop in Texas. But, despite massive traffic confusion and occasional wrong turns in Dallas, I recall few or no near-death traffic experiences until we got to Austin. Austin is where I first realized that part of the libertarian ideal means that you are on your own. "Yield" signs really mean, "Yield or die." The traffic you are yielding to is coming at you at 70+ mph and there's no merge lane. Merge lanes are for losers. That is, until you are hurt--then it's OK to complain, as evidenced by the ubiquity of billboards advertising traffic injury attorneys.*

We stayed at a KOA with good wifi and strong enough LTE signal. I'm growing less hostile towards KOAs. For one thing, they seem to nearly always have availability for the dates we require. KOA is where you go when your first choice is full. (Actually, I've liked some KOAs quite a bit, though it seems somehow uncool to say so. Staying at a KOA feels a bit like going to Paris and staying at an American-branded hotel.)

*Notice how I neatly wrapped the traffic injury billboards into my politics? Actually, I suspect the real reason for all the billboards is simply that billboards are allowed and lawyers are allowed to advertise on 'em.

Would We Live Here?

Barton Springs alone was a huge draw for us--it looked so pleasant and inviting. And Zilker Park, which is right next to Barton Springs, has so many people exercising in the park that we're pretty sure we gained some muscle mass through osmosis alone.

"Weird" is the euphemism Texans use for "liberal." Austin is family, and they don't want to use such dirty words against family, so "weird" is the agreed-upon term--much like a bat-sh*t crazy cousin might be termed a bit "daft" rather than the more clinically accurate phrase involving flying mammal feces. Influenced by the cheerful weirdness, regardless of its underlying meaning, we explored the idea of living here a bit more seriously than other places. But we were only mildly speculative on the topic due to the triple-digit temperatures mentioned elsewhere along with the insane traffic and road construction. Austin is where we first noticed the well-known "reverse-winter effect" in which one stays inside during the summer due to heat, rather than the reverse, further north. And, we were soon to learn that Austin may be hot enough to keep us indoors midday, but it is relatively cool compared to the parts of Texas we were about to visit. More later...

Food and drink, in a bowl and a glass, respectively

The famous drink insulator that changed everything for Ramona

Another part of Pedernales Falls, near Austin, Texas--no bathing allowed here, either. Bathing is only allowed downstream in a more boring (but still pretty) area.

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