Don't Mess with Texas

We shot straight for Texas when we left Alabama, but we didn't want to drive through the night, so we stopped at a free campsite in Louisiana. It's a little bit off the beaten path off I-20, but not too far out of the way. It was called Cloud Crossing Campground in Goldanna, LA. The campground is in an awesome location, right next to the Saline Bayou National Wild and Scenic River. It has picnic tables and fire rings at your disposal, but not bathroom facilities or running water. You will see some typical Louisiana topography around this campground. We got there when it was dark and cooked up some chili on our camping stove. We were excited to spend our first night in our little bedroom. We christened it by hot boxing it with our multicolored battery powered lights on. We noticed it looked like a space ship, so we decided to name it The Constellation or "Connie" for short. We chose this name because we learned at the U.S. Space and Rocket Center that many of the space shuttles were named after U.S. boats, such at The Challenger, The Discovery, and The Explorer. The Constellation was the boat Kyle's grandfather was an admiral on so we thought it was a nice homage to him, as well as honoring the space theme. Our first night was so cozy... We love our little home!! In the daylight, we finally got to see our surroundings and realized there was a small swampy area right behind our campsite. There were some trails within walking distance, but we still had about 8 hours to get to our next campsite in Texas, so we skipped them and hit the road.

We were heading to another free campsite called Camp Creek, in Marble Falls, Texas, which is about an hour west of Austin. This campground was in a perfect location because it was only an hour away from all the spots we wanted to check out (The Narrows, Jacob's Well, Hamilton Pool, and Austin). We rolled up after dark again. The campsites were enclosed by a fence, so we couldn't pull the truck up, but all of them have picnic tables and grills. There is a composting toilet on site, but no running water. We heated up some leftover chili and then went to sleep. In the morning light, we saw some better spots were you could pull your car up to the sites, so we decided we'd switch to one of those after we went on our day's adventure. We also realized that this campsite was on the North Shore of Lake Travis, and there was a nice river running through the grounds. We talked to a local Texan, who pointed out where the waterline used to be. Apparently, Texas has been suffering through an extreme drought for the last 7 years.

Hamilton Pool Preserve 

The Narrows Recreation Area 

We went on a wild goose chase our first morning, trying to find this place called "The Narrows" that I saw on Pinterest. The directions on Pinterest led us to The Narrows Recreation Area in Spicewood, TX... this was NOT the same place as in the pictures. After digging a little deeper, I found out that the picture I saw on Pinterest was actually located in Hill County, TX on private property since 2000. Even though it wasn't what we were expecting, The Narrows Recreation Area was still pretty cool... Especially because the drought is so bad the water was SUPER low, allowing us to walk on all these rocky cliffs and find caves that otherwise would have been submerged. We still had some light left in our day, so we decided to check out Hamilton Pool Preserve in Dripping Springs, TX. This place is seriously indescribable. It formed because a cave collapsed, but it really looks like a U.F.O rammed into the side of a rock wall and left a perfectly spherical indentation. The preserve is open from 9:00am-6:00pm daily, but you can't get in past 5:30pm. It cost $15 to drive in or $8 if you are on foot or a bike. October through April there are free guided tours (included in your entrance cost) on Saturdays at 10:00am. It is limited to the first 20 people, so if you are interested in that plan accordingly! Keep in mind if you come here in the summer, they have a capacity, so you might get turned away. On those hot summer days, it's a good idea to get there a little before it opens. In the winter, you don't have to worry about this because the water is 50 degrees and nobody's swimming at this time of the year... except us!! We brought our wetsuits and swam around anyways. The trail has lots of wildlife, particularly birds. We saw tons of cardinals and a road runner!!! There was another trail that is about a mile long that leads to the Pedernales River, but it was closed for safety purposes...

Jacob's Well

The next day, we got a little caught up in Starbucks while Kyle was trying to do his taxes. Our next stop was Jacob's Well in Wimberly, TX. This is an artesian spring, so the water is constantly supplied by an aquifer 140 ft. below the surface. This water was so much warmer than at Hamilton Pool and even though there were signs that said no swimming till Spring 2015, we donned our wetsuits and jumped into the giant hole that is Jacob's Well. There is no cost to come to Jacob's Well and there are also guided tours on Saturdays at 10:00am. After our quick dip, we headed to San Antonio to check out some skate parks and see The Alamo. It was a little late in the afternoon when we arrived to check out The Alamo (it closes at 5:30pm), so we went to a skatepark called Martinez Skatepark. This park is in the ghetto and doesn't really have any impressive features... we didn't stay long. Since we still had stuff we wanted to do in San Antonio, we decided to pay $27 to spend the night at The Alamo KOA, which was in an ideal location for our plans (instead of driving an hour away to a free or cheaper campsite). You can't really call this camping though, the fenced in grounds are in the middle of the city, there are showers and toilets, and even WiFi. We hadn't taken showers in a few days, so we were thankful for these facilities. The campsites have running water, electric, picnic tables, and fire rings.

Martinez Skatepark

Remember the Alamo!!!

In the morning, we headed to The Alamo. It is smack dab in the middle of downtown San Antonio, TX, which surprised us because I guess you just picture it surrounded by dessert. That may have been the case at one point in time, but certainly not anymore. There isn't really anything special about The Alamo, but I guess since it's free there's no since in not checking it out. Usually, it's just an empty building you walk through, but we went during a gun exhibit. There were display cases with guns showing the evolution of that weaponry. After our riveting visit to The Alamo, we were hungry so we walked along The Riverwalk to find something good to eat. Our bellies got the best of us, because we ate at pretty much the first place we saw, Charlie Wants a Burger (that's their website, here's a link to their Facebook page). We got a few TexMex inspired breakfast options. I think it's worth mentioning that they have a 2 pounder burger challenge, if you eat the whole thing (including sweet potato fries and onion rings), it's on the house and you get a t-shirt. They also have this crazy $18 Bloody Mary that comes with a hotdog, a chicken wing, a bacon rim, and a whole bunch of other crazy Bloody Mary fixins'. It's literally a meal in a drink. We still had some time to kill before we headed to Austin to my cousin, Drake's house, so we decided to check out the San Antonio Museum of Art. They had a student discount, so we got in for $5. It is well worth the money. The place is HUGE!! We spent a good two hours in there and still didn't see everything. I'm sure the exhibits change, but when we went each floor showed different civilizations art, including Roman, Egyptian, Japenese, Chinese, Indo-Pacific, and Indian, among others. I really enjoyed these exhibits because I love world history. There was everything from tools to household items to scrolls to blown glass to statues to early currency to jewelry to weapons. The dates ranging from more modern items as late as the 19th century to artifacts dating back to 3,000 B.C. It is truly an incredible collection.

Can you believe this is made out of SAND?!?!

One of my favorite pieces they had on display was a sand mandala. Sand mandalas are intricate mandalas made from different colors of sand. They are made by Tibetan Buddhists only to be destroyed after the hours of tedious work. It represents the impermanence of life. The San Antonio Museum of Art had to get the Dalai Lama's blessing to preserve this sand mandala. There are only a few on display throughout the world. This is a pretty cool PDF that I found on the museum's website that gives a brief overview of The Art of Asia exhibit. After a few hours in there, we were ready to skate, so we headed to L.B. Johnson Skatepark, in hopes that this would be a little less ghetto than the last park we visited. I liked this park because it had a bowl with a roll in area that was very mellow like a walk in beach area on a pool, however some of the concrete was a little rough in the bowl. We skated for about an hour and then headed to Austin, TX!

Here's the easy roll-in on the bowl at L.B. Johnson Skatepark.

Food trucks everywhere!

Playing the ring game at Bar 96. 

We timed it perfectly, because Drake had just gotten off work for the weekend when we got to his apartment. We were hungry for dinner and Austin is known for it's food truck scene so we decided to go check that out. This grouping of food trucks we visited was at E 6th and Waller St., but they are all over the city so just drive around... see what you like! There were probably about 7 trucks parked in this area, the food ranging from Creole to pizza to Thai to Philly Cheesesteaks... something for everybody! Kyle got a cheesesteak from a place called Way South Philly and I got some Thai food from a place called Coat and Thai. Everyone was happy with their food and the diversity of the options! After dinner, we decided to grab a couple drinks on this super hip bar street, Rainey Street. This apparently used to be the ghetto, but slowly all the houses have been converted into upscale, classy bars. Our first stop was Lucille Patio Lounge, where we drank moscow mules out of--- of course--- copper mugs. We changed locations to Bar 96, because they have the ring game and we wanted to play. There we drank some local brews. Drake and I ordered a pilsner called Pearl Snap and Kyle got an IPA called 512, which is the area code here in Austin, TX. We didn't stay out too late tonight, because we planned to go all out on Saturday to 6th Street, otherwise known as the Dirty 6 where all the crazy clubs and live music can be found.

My cousin, Drake, and I

Kyle bridging this cool feature at House Park.

Barton Creek along the Greenbelt trails. 

We went and checked out a SICK skatepark, which is known as House Park, but also called Austin BMX & Skate Park. There is a huge bowl with a steeper roll-in, awesome mini-ramps with 3ft. and 5ft. sections, stair sets... literally everything for every style of skating and skill level. It was pretty crowded, although we did go Saturday around lunchtime. We spent a hour or two here and then headed back to the apartment to see what was up. One of Drake's friends from college came up for the night. We went on a hike at the Barton Creek Greenbelt. This is a really nice area right off the highway in Austin. There are trails along Barton Creek and some great swimming spots.

Giant meat shrine at The Salt Lick. 

We worked up an appetite and decided to go get some world renowned BBQ at the Salt Lick, a restaurant that has been featured on The Food Network, The Travel Channel, and The Today Show. Saturday for dinner is not the best time to come to this place... we had to wait 2 hours. Honestly, I think this place is usually pretty busy, but the cool part is it is B.Y.O.B, so you can chill in the parking lot/waiting area and drink until your table is ready. Unfortunately, we didn't bring any booze, so it was long, hungry wait, but well worth it. Once we sat down, our food came within ten minutes, which were huge, heaping plates of meat. I got a brisket sandwich and it was delicious. The menu said the sandwich was "bigger than Texas" and that was no exaggeration. I only finished half of it and was stuffed. We decided to go back to Drake's apartment to rest, pre-party, and wash the BBQ smell off our bodies before we went down to 6th Street. I passed out and almost didn't go out, but I got it together at the last minute and shook off the grumpy, groggy, stuffed state I was in. 6th Street shuts down around 9:00pm and no cars can drive on the roads. At night, it's a lot like Bourbon Street in New Orleans, Louisiana. We went bar hopping from Barcelona to Maggie Mae's to Coyote Ugly and then ended our night at Shakespeare's. I'm not really into the whole bar hopping thing and most of theses clubs/bars had DJs playing terrible old rap. I didn't really see how Austin earned the title of music capital of the world... Maggie Mae's was the only place with live music that we went to and it was those typical old rocker dudes who wore bandanas and leather pants and played covers like "Rollin' on a River" and "Black Dog." I still had a ton of fun though and even when the bars closed at 2:00am, we still weren't done yet. We went to a house party for a little and then did a classic Texan thing: an early morning Whataburger run. We got a chocolate milkshake that tasted oddly like marsh mellows. We're not really into fast food either so we didn't order anything, but I had a few bites of one of our friend's sandwiches and it was pretty good... or maybe I was just drunk. We finally ended up back at Drake's apartment around 5:00am. Austin sure knows how to party!

Dancing on the bar at Coyote Ugly... had to do it!

Clearly, today was spent recuperating and I mean ALL day. I slept for most of the day since we didn't get to bed till the sun was almost coming up. We only left the house to get dinner, which was well worth it. We went to this place called Torchy's Tacos, which I would say is comparable to Moe's or Chipotle. Each month they have a taco of the month. This month's was called The Scallywag: coconut battered shrimp, bacon, with homemade habanero peach jam. We all got that plus something on their permanent menu called the Mr. Pink: seared ahi tuna, cabbage, cilantro, and white queso. They also had some cool drink options on their soda machine called Maine Root. Maine Root drinks are fair trade certified and organically sweetened. I had one called Drink Pink Drink, which was Texas wild harvested prickly pear cactus juice. It was delicious and certainly a drink you don't see everywhere. You've also gotta try their queso... it has guacamole mixed IN it. That's right in it. So delicious.

Overall, I'd say my favorite thing about Austin was the amazing diversity of food!! The music scene didn't quite reveal itself to me, but I know it's there. Maybe we just came on a bad weekend. Tomorrow we're gunna hit up the skatepark in the morning, so hopefully it won't be too crowded. Then we're hittin' it through New Mexico and Arizona to check out some national parks... Won't be too long till we're in California.