July 17 – another day in Austin

In the morning, we ate cereal in the hotel room and set out to see what we could find to entertain us. Our first goal was Barton Springs in Zilker Park, but we took a detour along the way to visit the Umlauf Sculpture Garden. From the website: Charles Umlauf, a prolific and internationally known sculptor, created works ranging in style from realistic and abstract expressionism to lyrical abstraction during his career. In 1985 he and his wife, Angeline Allen Umlauf, gave their home and studio with sculptures, drawings and paintings to the Umlauf Sculpture Garden and Museum.

Then we proceeded to Barton Springs, where we discovered that the amazing, natural pool fed by spring water was in fact closed on Thursdays from 9am to 7pm for cleaning.

So I took a picture of this squirrel as we pondered our next move.

We decided to ride the ‘Dillo around town. It was a fun, air conditioned, free way to see more of the city than we would on foot, and it gave us time to get hungry for lunch.

Which we ate at Flip Happy Crepes near where we had parked. The best thing about Austin is the outdoor society. It’s warm enough year round that these little Air Stream food stands can exist happily, at least from spring to late fall. In Seattle, or Portland, or Baltimore, this would be impossible (too rainy, too humid, respectively). But in Austin, it’s perfect.

We ordered our crepes and sat at a table under a bright red awning, with a local, Josh, who told us all the best places to eat and/or listen to music.

Also he agreed to hold the sock.

After lunch, we got sno balls and we headed back east and south to Lamar Street to hit up some bead stores and a spa. I bought beads for the tunic, and mom bought beads for lots of things (see mom’s Austin post).

Sarah had a blueberry sno ball.

Then we had to kill time before Barton Springs would be open, so mom and Sarah went back to the hotel, and dad and I strolled down 6th Avenue, which had a few weird antique stores and some higher end clothing stores, but nothing as interesting as SoCo.

Around 5:45, dad and I started to make our way back to Barton Springs. We rode the ‘Dillo for part of it, and stopped for an iced coffee (me) and a beer (him), and arrived at Zilker Park just shy of seven.

Barton Springs is a natural pool formed by two springs. Now the stream is diverted around the pool so the pool stays fresh from the spring and joins the stream at the downstream end.

We swam for about an hour. It was cold, and the bottom was slippery with moss and algae, and it wasn’t at all like the ocean. It was a good time.

The dressing rooms: reminiscent of a bygone era.

Then we made our way to the Alamo Drafthouse Theater for Wall-E. The movie was good, but the theater was the real attraction, it turned out. They played old Pixar shorts before the movie, lots of them, and they served food and drinks in our seats! It was like a tiny restaurant inside a movie theater.

I was amused.

July 16 – Austin is cool.

In the morning, we heard some more news about the Cacafuego. She had radiator and coolant system damage, but they needed to see if she had any engine damage, and she would be in the shop for a couple of days at least. So we rented a car with the intention of driving to Austin for a night or two.

The Enterprise station was located in Taylor, TX, 27 miles from Rockdale, and at that distance they no longer “pick you up,” because gas is too goddamn expensive. So mom set out on her moped for an epic 27 mile ride into Taylor to go get the car. When she arrived in Taylor, however, she discovered that the car wasn’t going to be there until noon, and it being approximately eleven, she had some time to kill.

Also apparently in Texas, if it has a motor you need to be licensed to drive it. Also you’re not allowed to park on the sidewalks, regardless of pedestrian-to-sidewalk ratio. And that cop was pretty cranky anyway.

Dad, Sarah and I checked out of the motel at 10:30 (and by “checked out” I mean “handed the key card to one of the owners as she passed in her housekeeping duties”) and walked along the highway, loaded with our laundry bags of (clean!) clothes to the restaurant at the Best Western next door.

We ate a little, but mostly just sat for almost two hours, and no one really minded. I even finished sock #1.

But finally, finally, mom came back with the car, and we drove to Austin, where we found first a ridiculous spread of malls and chain stores before we hit real downtown Austin. Imagine I-83 from Timonium to the city, but entirely surrounded by strip malls and Wal-Marts and hundreds of Best Buys.

Oh and I forgot about this scorpion that jumped on Sarah while we were loading the car with things from the camper that we’d need for a few days:

Anyway, downtown and south-side Austin were really very nice. We crossed the river into the cool and interesting south-side and found a cafe—Flipnotics (link)—where we had well deserved iced coffees and wifi. Apparently the whole city of Austin (area limited, probably only the cool section) has wifi, so we were able to pick it up most everywhere.

My goal for the day was Hill County Weavers, which we found very easily in the awesome part of South Congress Street. I shopped happily for yarn (they had a LOT of yarn, rooms and rooms full to the top) and then we proceeded on to shop and stroll northwards on South Congress. There were plenty of fun stores to look in.

The south side of town is the funky, weird, hip, college-tinted side of town. It feels a bit like Portland, or San Francisco, or Philadelphia, with its college students and it’s anything-goes attitude towards fashion. It was fun. There were lots of stores to play in.

We had dinner at Guero’s, which was delicious and satisfyingly tex-mex. I convinced the waitress to take a picture with the (second) sock, which she enjoyed, I’m sure.

Then we set off towards the river, to watch the bats come out.

Austin, Texas, hosts the largest urban colony of bats in the world. The bats live underneath the Congress Street bridge, and come out every night to hunt. They are Mexican free-tailed bats. They are quite cool. And squeaky, as you might expect bats to be. We could hear them chittering for at least half an hour before they began to emerge at sunset.

Also I taught Sarah how to knit, and started her on a hat with yarn and needles obtained at Hill Country Weavers.

And so we ended our day by driving quite near forever out to our hotel, got lost, and finally made it at 10:30.

July 15 – Rusk to Rockdale (the first in the Don’t Mess With Texas series)

Yes, yes, I know I’m a bit behind– but it’s all the picture uploading and the organizing that I have to do that is such a toll on my delicate sensibilities… or something.

We left the campground at Rusk about 9 in the morning. The campground was nice—it was pretty, it was not crowded, it had a cute little picnic and play area and potential swimming area, although why one would want to swim there unsupervised among the lilypads, exactly, I’m not sure. But it was very pretty.

Almost as soon as we left Rusk we experienced the climate change. It lost its tropical rain forest humid feel and became hot and dry and flat.

We drove and drove until lunchtime, when we stopped at a grocery store to grab some snacks and tried to find a picnic area near the Brazos River outside of Hearne, Texas. At first we stopped just after crossing the river at a historical marker, but all we found there was a shot-up stone marker and some kind of neat brown lizard.

So we reconsidered and drove a little farther to a real picnic spot.

After lunch, we piled back into the camper and drove a little farther, whereupon we experienced our first setback of the day. After only a few miles, a belt had broken. Mom and dad worked to repair it, and we moved on, only to be stopped again less than five hundred yards from where we started by the radiator boiling over and spewing coolant everywhere. The Engineer’s Log of July 16 has the specifics, if you’re desperate to read them again.

At any rate, we moved the whole event to the Chevy dealer in Rockdale, TX, where we spent the night at a Regency Inn and tried to figure out what to do with the Cacafuego. We were instructed in no certain terms that we were not allowed to “make nasty” in the motel room, which we sort of imagine means we are not allowed to have loud drunken sex parties. I think. There were no loud drunken sex parties, at any rate, and instead we ate Chinese food for dinner and watched something on HBO.

AWH-Austin

Did you hear about the fireants?  They are AWFUL.  While we were standing around in Rockdale, waiting for the tow truck to come, we were standing on the side of the road, and walking around.  Soon, my foot is on fire!  They are small, red and FAST.  Just taking two or three steps off the road, about 8 to 10 ants were on my foot and BITING.  Here I am two days later, and my few bites itch so badly.  Yowza.  Last night we swam in Barton Springs and then found a theatre and saw WALL-E.  The springs are a natural spring, the water is very cold and clear, though there is a good bit of algae floating in it.  I thought it fabulous, thinking that people for perhaps thousands of years have been enjoying the cool refreshing water if this spot.  The movie was cute.  The theatre has seatside food and beverage service, so the family enjoyed some sodas, beer, mozerella sitcks and chicken tenders.  Very classy.  Found two nice bead stores in town and bought some very silly state charms.  Guess there will be a theme necklace soon.  And, of course, a mission of finding more state charms.  I miss the Cacafuego.  Hotels are nice for some things. But I do miss some of the comforts of “home.”