We had the slowest, latest start of our trip this morning. We did not get our day started until almost 11 a.m. Our kiddies are home on their biweekly change over break from camp, so much of the morning was dedicated to catching up with them.
Lester also did some serious BBQ history research during the morning calm. Our plan had been to have lunch at Franklin BBQ but in doing some reading we decided it was a bit too risky. Risky in that we might not get served. Saturday is their busiest day and they have lines that regularly run 3 hours. Lester declared he wouldn't wait in line 3 hours for anything.
We decided instead on Louie Mueller's BBQ in Taylor, Texas, about a 30 minute drive from our hotel. On the way up to Mueller's, we also drove past the Salt Lick, another venerable Texas BBQ joint.
Here's the Austin BBQ royalty family tree. It all began with Louie Mueller. He had three kids, one of whom became the pit master at Louie's original restaurant after the old man gave up the job. That son has since died and now his son, Louie's grandson, is the pit master at the original restaurant. Louie's other two children, a son and a daughter, each had their own BBQ restaurants in Austin for a while. The son's closed and he went to work with his sister. They had a falling out and now each again has their own very successful BBQ place in Austin. Aaron Franklin of Franklin BBQ was trained by the son at the first restaurant he owned in Austin. When the son's first place closed, Aaron Franklin bought the BBQ pit and used it to start his own business, which is now widely considered the number one BBQ restaurant in the country. Hope that story wasn't too confusing, but I found it interesting how Louie begat four of the country's great BBQ restaurants.
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| Louie Mueller earned a James Beard award for barbeque . |
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| The Texas flag has been hanging in the restaurant so long the white had turned "yellow", or perhaps brown is a better description. |
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| The same is true of the business cards on this bulletin board. |
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| Our BBQ extravaganza. My favorite was the pulled pork, Lester preferred the ribs but he really liked the pulled pork too. He reports they are comparable to the Whole Hog in Santa Fe (see review in Santa Fe post) but would need a side by side taste test to declare an absolute winner. |
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| The star at the top of the dome is 8 feet wide and over 200 feet above us. |
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| This is the same star as in the previous picture, taken from the fourth floor of the statehouse. |
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| Beautiful brass door handles. |
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| Details count. Check out these brass hinges, weighing in at 7 lbs each. |
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| We are equal opportunity offenders. If you aren't happy with Bush, perhaps you'll be happy with Richards. Rick Perry won't be enshrined in the halls if the State House until his term ends, if you were wondering. |
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| John Connally, of convertible limo and magic bullet fame. |
In addition to being used for state business, tours and public air conditioning it is also used for photo shoots. This was not the only young lady we saw celebrating her quinceanera today - there was such a party in our hotel that had more guests than we had at our wedding almost 25 years ago. But all the dresses were essentially the same. It is go big or go home here in Texas.
Having had our fill of the State House, we headed for a gallery I read about called Yard Dog. It is a folk and outsider art gallery. It was interesting but it turned out to be in a very funky, awesome neighborhood filled with junk-tique shops, vintage clothing stores, bars and restaurants.
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| It's probably about 8 feet across at its widest point. |
Having had our fill of the State House, we headed for a gallery I read about called Yard Dog. It is a folk and outsider art gallery. It was interesting but it turned out to be in a very funky, awesome neighborhood filled with junk-tique shops, vintage clothing stores, bars and restaurants.
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| Carmen Miranda zebra. Welcome to Austin. |
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| Lawn art, of a sort. |
It turns out there is a bridge in Austin that houses a larger bat population than Carlsbad Caverns, and larger by many fold. It has become a "thing" to watch the purported 1.5 million bats swarm out to eat their fill each night. We attempted to watch these bats as well but our chosen location wasn't especially conducive to actually seeing the bats. We saw a few exit but were unable to gain photographic documentation. We were able to document the crowds however.
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| If you want to watch the bats, either the bat boat or this little spit of land attached to the Austin-American Statesman offices are your best bets. |
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| This bat sculpture is as close as we got tonight to having any quality time with a bat. |
Austin is pretty city, but I think we have seen about all there is to see. In the event we were to come back to this neck of the woods we would prefer to spend our time in San Antonio.
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| Jewel in the crown of the Austin skyline. |
We are off to New Orleans tomorrow. Lester will be happy to get away from the 103 degree temperature that descended upon him today.
A&L
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