Entertainment in an Eclectic City

Still in Las Cruces!
Leaving for Tucson in a couple days

I continue to catch up on some posts from Texas!

As Austin is known for its eclectic entertainment scene, we did spend an afternoon checking it out.  We decided to keep our tour to the Warehouse District, so we visited the following watering holes. Unfortunately, most of them did not have any live music until later in the day, but it was still fun to check them out.
First, Shiner's.  We got the lowdown on SXSW from the bartender, Madison.  This was a laid back outdoor bar with all kinds of games you can play.

We moved on to the requisite Irish bar, Fado's.

We then went to a bar called Frank's - very hipster, but I forgot to take a picture.
Here is where we had dinner - a place called Searsucker.  Very trendy interior.

Finally we found some live music at the well known Elephant Room.  It was downstairs and small so everyone shared tables.  We sat with 2 men who were in town for a science education conference. One of men wanted the wine list, to which the server replied "Sir, this is a dive bar.  We have 2 kinds of wine - red and white.  Which would you like?"

The band, including 2 trombones, played smooth jazz and had artists from all over the country.  Very enjoyable.

Finally, on another night we visited the nightlife in the South Congress neighborhood.  We went to the historical Continental Club where we saw two teenage young men, The Peterson Brothers, play the blues.  The talent was unbelievable.

On our next visit to Austin we will go to 6th street!

I also wanted to mention in this post that we visited LBJ's Presidential Library located on the campus of the University of Texas.  It was President's Day and admission was free!
This photo shows all his Presidential papers that are housed in the library.  Crazy!

LBJ's tough personality is very well known.

But I learned that he also had a softer side.  I picked up several of these phones located throughout the library to listen in on recorded phone conversations.

The ones I found interesting were one with his wife where she was critical of his television performance.  His response? "Yes ma'am".
He also called Bess Truman on Christmas and expressed his love and deep admiration for the Trumans.  And I listened to a conversation with Jackie Kennedy after the assassination of her husband where his compassion was quite touching.

Initial impressions of Austin are that it is not very "Texan" and has a thriving music and art scene.  The presence of the University in the city has a big impact on its flavor.  Another visit to Austin is definitely in our future since there is so much to see and do here.  Maybe when it's warmer and not raining!

No Forks

Currently in:  Las Cruces, NM
Headed to Arizona until the beginning of April


Our RV friends Jenny and Tim, invited us to their hometown, Lockhart, for a day of Texas barbecue which is like no other.

First, we got a tour and a history lesson of the restaurant that Tim had frequented his whole life - Smitty's Market.
The restaurant/building has been there since 1900 when it started as a butcher shop.  Some of these fixtures are from the early years.












Including the outhouses from way back when.

Here is where they make all that good stuff.

And the woodpile they need to make it great!

Tim told us an interesting story about these tables with the notches below.  They used to keep knives on the chains that were attached to the tables where people ate.  They never used forks - just the knives.  Over the years the chains bore holes into the sides of all these tables as people picked them up to use the knives and then dropped them again.  The tables are just used to display awards and photos now.  But the history is there!

Finally we got to the eating!!! Already on the "plates".  Just cut a pice off using the knife and use your fingers to pick it up.

Smoked sausage is a big deal in this part of Texas that was settled by many German people.  It was delicious!

Just knives - no forks!

There are several bbq places in Lockhart that people visit to compare bbq.  Johnny and I went to Black's in Austin, and then Tim and Jen took us to Kreuz in addition to Smitty's Market.  We had the traditional Texas fare including Big Red!

Central Texas is all about the smoking'..

Don't mess with Texas!

We just left Texas and loved it!
Musings on The Lone Star State

For breakfast....

The flags are bigger...

Even the beers are bigger in Texas!

And the Longhorns are everywhere...

We joined in the fun...

So just remember...

Poor Wifi

Hi All
I know I haven't posted for a while.  We are in Terlingua Texas visiting the gorgeous Big Bend National Park.  Wifi has been spotty to non existent.  We have to go to the lodge at our RV park to even have a hope of getting Wifi service.  Many times there are too many people online and service is very slow.  Rest assured I will finish a couple of posts about Austin and then move on to our time at Big Bend.  Tomorrow we move on to Las Cruces where we hope to have better service.
More to come!

Bikes and hike

Currently in: Cedar Creek, Texas (outside of Austin)
Next up: Big Bend National Park (Texas)
We will then be in Las Cruces, NM heading to Tuscon, Phoenix and Cottonwood, AZ in March

We are experiencing the same unpredictable weather in Austin that we had in San Antonio.  We thought we chose a sunny afternoon for a bike ride around a wonderful trail on Lady Bird Lake.  But it was cloudy while we were there.  The trail was pretty busy with walkers, runner and bikers.  There are several nice views of Austin from the bike trail.

Even on a cloudy day, the water and the city were nice to look at.

Part of the trail is on a pedestrian bridge. It was fun trying to ride up that bridge!

That night we were able to have a campfire at the campground for the first time since November!  There has either been a fire ban or it has been too cold to sit outside for the last 3 months.    It was wonderful to be able to enjoy this part of our Rv life.

We invited the couple in the RV next to our to join us at the park's communal fire pit.  They were from Michigan and it turns out that Karl was a crane operator at the Burn Harbor, IN plant of Bethlehem Steel!  Beth is now part of ArcelorMittal, the company that I retired from.  At some point the conversation naturally turned to sports and we discovered that Karl and BJ are Jeff Samardzija's grandparents.  They are not ND fans, but were chatty about his current MLB career as he is currently pitching for the SF Giants.  Small world again!

Johnny talked me into hiking at the McKinney Rough Nature Park.  The weather wasn't great, but I went.  I thought it was going to be a nice nature walk, but it turned into a great hike.  And then the sun came out!!  Look what we saw within a minute of driving into the park:

I liked how the sun shone through the trees here.   Much of the terrain was this red clay.

When the hike was over we were back at the visitor's center and realized the campus is used for youth education of both the outdoors, survival training and teamwork.  The facility was beautiful and included dorms for sleeping.  Outdoor Ed, maybe??

I also saw this and it freaked me out!  I haven't seen one of these in quite a while.  Do kids know how to use this?

The rest of SA

Currently in: Austin, Texas
Next up:  Big Bend National Park on our way to Arizona


The weather in San Antonio provided a real challenge in terms of planning to see the sights.  It was very unpredictable!  So days I thought were going to be rainy and cold turned out to be beautiful and vice versa.  But this is the life of a vagabond (as we were called last night in Austin).  And we make the best of it!

We took advantage of a sunny, but cold day, to explore downtown San Antonio some more.  Our first stop was the historic Market Square.  It was rather subdued the day we visited, but we did get to see some crafts and artwork from Mexico.

Our Texan RV friends insisted that we visit Lulu's Bakery near the Market Square!

Finally, we took a boat ride along the River Walk.  

River Walk barge

In addition to enjoying the view of all the bars and restaurants, we learned more about the history of the San Antonio River including additional canals put in place to avoid flooding.

There are many beautiful mosaics along the River Walk.  This one symbolizes the coming together of the many cultures in San Antonio. Notice the 5 flags that flew over the city at some point in time.

This one is above the Convention Center and represents the history of civilizations in the Americas.

Here are a few of my other favorite historical markers along the River Walk.  

Bells represent the 5 Missions in San Antonio

Presa Street (iron) Bridge - commissioned in 1890

Statue of San Antonio

Although I didn't get a picture of the historic La Villita area, we saw the oldest German house in San Antonio and learned that there was an influx of Germans into San Antonio in the mid 1800s when the city was under the Texas flag.  The area was attractive due to the ability to farm in the area.

On a separate day, we explored a couple of the Missions.  They are now run by the National Park Service.  First, Mission San Juan.  

It is an active Catholic Parish, so the clergy live here!

Since it was supposed to rain that day, our plan was to take a quick walk on the trail behind the church. Here is the San Antonio River running along the back of the Mission.

We knew that there was a great bike path that connected all 5 Missions (including the Alamo).  We didn't bring our bikes because there was supposed to be rain.  It turned out to be a beautiful afternoon and we were sorry we didn't have them.  We took a walk along the path instead.

There was also an aqueduct system put in place when the Mission were being built to provide irrigation for crops that were grown.  Part of the aqueducts are still there and along the walk/bike trail.

We also found the ruins of a small community called Berg's Mill.  The river provided the power for the wool and cotton mills in the mid 1800s.  Drought, floods and economic competition caused the population to severely decrease by 1940. This is right along the bike path too!

Since the weather held out we decided to go to the Mission Espada.  The church was open so we went inside and it was a lovely, solemn place.  We walked around the grounds at this Mission too so we could further learn about life here hundreds of years ago.

There is so much to see in San Antonio, we could have stayed for a month and not seen everything.  But we got a good feel for the city and its wonderful people.