Saturday, July 26

Hot, Hot, Hot

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.   

Louie Mueller earned a James Beard award for barbeque .

The Texas flag has been hanging in the restaurant so long the white had turned "yellow", or perhaps brown is a better description.

The same is true of the business cards on this bulletin board.

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.

Having feasted on BBQ we headed back into Austin.  First stop, the Texas State House.  It is a beautiful building with the added benefit of being heavily, magnificently air conditioned.  

The star at the top of the dome is 8 feet wide and over 200 feet above us.

This is the same star as in the previous picture, taken from the fourth floor of the statehouse.

Beautiful brass door handles.

Details count.  Check out these brass hinges, weighing in at 7 lbs each.

The walls around the rotunda display portraits of all the Governors and Presidents of Texas (It was a republic for 10 years before joining the union.)

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.

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.

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.

Carmen Miranda zebra.  Welcome to Austin.

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.

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.

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. 

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

Thursday, July 14 & Friday, July 25

That's right you're not from Texas

Bonus Blog!! 2 Days in one entry.

With a long day on the road ahead of us we stopped to top off the tank and head east into Texas. Lester had some paperwork he wanted to get done so I started the drive today. The trip from Carlsbad, NM to San Antonio, TX is a straight shot down 285 connecting to interstate 10. 285 is a major thoroughfare though the oil fields of west Texas. Unfortunately is a two lane road heavily traveled by tanker trucks hauling water to drilling sites and ubiquitous white pick up trucks. Sadly, passing is not my forte. Let's just say arriving at the interstate was a good thing.

Since the good folks of west Texas don't seem to have the same sense of humor regarding over sized objects that others have shown us, we have little to share on this portion of the ride. However, the posted speed limit varies from 75 to 80 mph and that is a good thing. 

An oil field in West Texas

Really, a traffic jam in the oil field.  A dead stop!

Unfortunately, our car has continued making some rather strange sounds. Discretion being the better part of valor and all, we stopped by the local Subaru dealership in San Antonio upon our arrival and gave her the night off. They primped and massaged her and declared her fit for travel, but she'll need some TLC upon returning to PA.   Let me just say that North Park Subaru in San Antonio, TX was without a doubt the best experience we have ever had with a car dealership.  They understand service and go beyond. Knowing we were from Pennsylvania and that we were just passing through, they provided us with a loaner car, gratis. They got right on our car, first in line, we had a diagnosis while we were eating breakfast. And, they had complementary Internet access which we used when we picked up our car to make hotel reservations in Austin.  This was undoubtedly the nicest service experience.  Thanks Allen and North Park Subaru Service Department. The lesson to take from this is clear...have your car break down in San Antonio and go to North Park for service.  It's a huge dealership and they service many brands, not just Subarus.

While we were waiting for our loaner car we received a call from our credit card company indicating our credit card had been compromised. Someone charged something in Iowa, not a stop on our route. So they have killed the card. A great big thanks to Amanda for rifling through our junk before the Vermont get-together and bringing us our forgotten emergency, backup credit card.

Now, back to our regularly scheduled Blog.  San Antonio is wonderful, we had excellent hosts in the form of loyal readers Pattie and BPMc3.  Unlike some of the decorating choices we've previously highlighted they had a warm and inviting home which they graciously shared with these two barnstormers.

Why do they have Elvis Costello's wedding picture on the table in their extra bedroom?

After we were settled in, we went back out and had a fantastic dinner at Acenar, on the Riverwalk in San Antonio.  Then we were treated to a private tour of San Antonio, including the favorite hotel (both past and present) of yet another loyal reader, Wanda.  And, we were suitably impressed by the lovely lobbies in these stately old hotels.

Sadly we missed Pattie this morning, she apparently leaves for work in the middle of the night.  But BPMc3 was up and ready for us.  He took us to Guenther House, a San Antonio institution, for breakfast. Then another private walking tour of the area around King William Street. This neighborhood is filled with absolutely beautiful old homes, many getting a facelift currently.

Guenther House, home to the Guenther Family, founders of Pioneer Flour Mills.

The Veranda of Guenther House.  We ate at the far left end of this veranda.  Note the big black box on the right.  It is a "Porta Cool" A gigantic fan which kept us cool.  We could feel the breeze at the far end of the Veranda.

 Houses typical of  the King William area.

Sadly, work beckoned our host and we were left on our own for the afternoon.  We toured Mission San Jose and the Alamo then picked up our car, which had been cleaned of dirt, dust, and dead bugs.  It sparkled!  And, headed to Austin where we are settled in for the night.

Mission San Jose

This is a trompe l'oeil fence.  It appears to be old and aged wood but is really cement worked to look like wood. Even up close you couldn't tell without touching the fence.

The Alamo, but you probably already recognized its graceful arching exterior.

This exhibit explains why we should remember the Alamo.  I hope you can read it.

Before signing off, we have been meaning to share this fun fact with parents and students ....

FUN FACT: the students in Sedona, AZ have been in school for a full week now. That's right summer vacation is over and it is still July!

A&L

Wednesday, July 23

Aliens, UFOs and other night time flyers
After some serious negotiating about who drew the short straw and had to shower first (Lester lost), we quickly packed up and headed to Roswell, NM. It is a straight shot via a four lane divided highway through desert pastureland from Santa Fe to Roswell. Sadly, there was nothing to document. Lester did work very hard on evening up the score in the cow game. And, I must begrudgingly admit that perhaps he has taken the lead.

Upon our arrival in Roswell, we were greeted by aliens. They are everywhere: on lamp posts, on fences, on credit union signs. "The Roswell Incident" has spawned an industry. 

We skipped breakfast this morning so our first course of action was lunch. We ate at Big D's Downtown Dive. I had the best burger I've had in a long, long time. And, it might just hold me until breakfast tomorrow.

Following lunch we toured (straight face here) The International UFO and Research Museum. Kind of a highfalutin title for a converted movie theater filled with reproductions and affidavits from the son of the cousin of the guy who.... But it provided some good clean fun and impressive photo ops.

We had planned to visit Alamogordo, home of the first atomic bomb test site, but decided in the interest of time and a better offer in Carlsbad to skip it. It turns out that we made the correct decision! Carlsbad Caverns National Park was phenomenal. Although ranger guided tours are available we arrived too late in the day and took a self-guided tour instead. The largest, main cavern is absurdly big, some might say ginormous. As I recall, about 600,000 square feet (a typical Home Depot is about 100,000 square feet) and about 750 feet below ground. We have been in caves before but this one is remarkable in size and scope. This cave system is largely inactive, about 95% of the structures are dry, not glistening with new-fallen, dripping water. However, that didn't detract from the experience. It does mean that the cave will be largely stagnant in terms of growth for many generations.

When you enter the cave on the so-called natural path you arrive in the portion of the cave in which the bats have taken up residence. These Brazilian free tailed bats, migrate from Mexico each spring and stay until fall. They have been summering in Carlsbad for so long that there is something along the order of 40 feet of bat guano on the floor under their roost. The stench was quite unpleasant but once we passed below them the smell dissipated, leaving us with an amazing 2 and a half mile trek around the cave.

There are many bats that sleep in the cave during the day.  At dusk they do what bats do, wake up and go out to find something to eat. They do this en masse. We went back to the cave entrance at dusk to watch the mass exodus.  The park is pretty strict about the bat viewing as it is called.  No cell phones or cameras or frankly anything that can make noise.  So, no pictures but the bats come out of the main entrance, circle counter clockwise once or twice and and fly off to the south.  This process took about 10 minutes.  10 minutes of bats flying out in a large, black, swarm. There must have been tens or hundreds of thousands of bats exiting the cave all at once. It was a sight to behold. It was a smell to behold as well, as the rush of bats from the cave drew out the awful smell of the guano from the cave.

FUN FACT: The bats are about the size of your thumb with a wing span of about 11 inches, weigh about the same as three nickels and they eat about 50% of their body weight in bugs every night.

Once the bats had dissipated, we headed to our hotel to blog and complete some paperwork.  Tomorrow we head further east and add yet another state...Texas! San Antonio, specifically, to bask in the hospitality of the McGs.

PS:  We meant to add this picture yesterday.  While we were at the concert on the plaza in Santa Fe, we saw teenage Lester's doppelganger. Kinda awesome, huh?

And we busted through the 6000 mile mark today on the way back to the hotel.

A&L