Sweeping Through the Southwest

Our next stop was Carlsbad Caverns National Park. We drove the majority of the day in order to get there from Austin. We camped at a place for the night that we found on Free Campsites. Be careful when choosing a camp site off this website... make sure to read the reviews of other people who have been there. We were originally heading to one called Carlsbad Caverns Desert Boondocking on the site, but after reading people's comments I learned that this land is not owned by the Bureau of Land Management, but by an oil company so there can be dangerous gases in the air. We decided we didn't want to stay there and found another place on the site called Dark Canyon. We used the coordinates from the website on our GPS, but in the dark it wasn't so easy to find. There are no clearly marked signs and this truly is just a bit of desert that you are allowed to park on... no facilities, no picnic tables, no fire rings. We eventually found it because there was another van out there and we figured that must be it. We made grilled cheeses and tomato soup for dinner while moths swarmed about. There were SO many moths--- get a red light headlamp if you are coming to this place, haha.

Descending into the caverns! It's pretty hard to get good pictures
inside because of the dim lighting.

The next morning we set out early for Carlsbad Caverns National Park, because we were also planning on making it to White Sands National Monument that day. When we got to the park, we decided to buy an annual pass, which cost $80 and is good for a year. Two people put their signatures on the card, but it is good for your entire carload of people unless you are going to a place that charges per person (then you have up to 4 free). It really is a good value, we've already used about half the cost of the card and we still have so many parks we plan on visiting! Carlsbad Caverns were insanely immense. I had no idea the extent of this cave system. The largest area in the cave is called "The Big Room," and is the largest known limestone chamber in the Western Hemisphere. It is estimated to be 600,000 sq. feet, which is as big as 14 football fields!! We were walking about the caverns for a good two hours and you could spend way longer in there. The formations are incredible--- stalagmites (growing from the ground), stalactites (growing from the ceilings), soda straws (very thin formations hanging from the ceilings), draperies, popcorns (when the water drips into cave pools and splashes on the rocks it forms popcorn like formations), and columns (where stalagmites and stalactites meet). In the olden days, you'd have to walk up the path you took descending into the cave, but they thankfully have installed an elevator. That would have been a workout! After our time in the caverns, we ate lunch at some picnic tables on a pull-off inside the park. There were trails that you could walk on, but we headed for our next destination, which turned out to be a little farther than we thought. It was about 4 hours from Carlsbad, but we still got to White Sands National Monument with about an hour till sunset.

White Sands National Monument 

There isn't TOO much to see here--- don't get me wrong it was still incredible, but you definitely probably couldn't kill a whole day here and if you did you'd probably get lost in the rolling sand hills. I've never really been to a desert, one with sands and the typical dunes that you picture only in some place like Saudi Arabia, but there's one out here smack dab in the middle of Alamogondo, New Mexico. One thing that is cool about this desert is that the sand is pure white, unlike many deserts with yellowish sands. There are primitive camping spots for a fee, but you have to get there well before sunset because they are worried about you getting lost in the desert, I suppose. We would have loved to camp there, because I'm sure the stars are incredible, but we got there a little too late. Trails can't really be made in sand because it is constantly blowing, moving, covering, and uncovering. There was one permanent trail that is more of a boardwalk with signs explaining things about the animal and plant life in the area. Another cool thing you can do here is bring a sled and sled down the sandy banks! It looked so fun, but we didn't have a sled. Later we found out that they had them at the gift shop either to buy or rent, so it'd be worth looking into! After we watched the sun dip behind the Sacramento Mountains, casting a yellow glow on the white sand and making the plateaus in the west look pink, we headed to our campsite not far away. We got to Oliver Lee Memorial State Park after dark and were planning on paying in the morning but the office wasn't open when we were leaving so we got the place free for the night! This is an awesome little campsite and it's a bummer we didn't stay longer. There were two trails that started in the campground, the Riparian Nature Trail or a more challenging hike on the Dog Canyon Trail. Each site has a covered picnic table and fire pit. There are sites with electricity and water, but they are extra. There is a bath house with hot showers and toilets. When we woke up in the morning, we saw our site was right next to some beautiful rocky plateaus. It was a nice backdrop.

The Saguaro's were HUGE!!

It's not the best picture, but it's The Growlers!! You can
kind of see the romantic vibe that I was talking about.

We left early because we had to be in Tucson, Arizona tonight to see The Growlers! The plan was to check them out and then to meet up with our friends, Lindsay and Steve, who have been living in Tucson for a minute now. Lindsay is a glass blower and teaches workshops at the Sonoran Glass School. On our way to Tucson, we stopped at Saguaro National Park. The park is literally divided by the city of Tucson and there is an East section and a West section. We went to the East section, but we were told the West section is more spectacular in terms of the density of the cactus. This was hard for me to believe because it seems like there were plenty here! Saguaro cactus are probably the type of cactus you picture when you think of cactus--- tall with arms growing from the sides, but did you know they only occur naturally in a very small region of Arizona, California, and Mexico? They have come to represent the cactus as a species because they have such personality and often take on human-like shapes as their arms grow. In addition to the Saguaros, there are 49 other species of cactus growing in the cactus garden that is Saguaro National Park. It is one of the largest and most diverse cactus gardens in the world. We took an ecology trail where we learned that a Saguaro has to be 50-100 years old before it begins growing its "arms." We also saw a dead Saguaro and were surprised when we realized that underneath the green, spiky, fleshy layer is a wooden skeleton much like any regular old tree. It was fascinating. We did a couple other short trails before our tummies started rumbling. Lindsay recommended a restaurant called La Cocina so we grabbed a quick bite there before we headed to the concert. Our meals were great, I got lemon caper penne with salmon and Kyle got a lemon grass coconut curry quinoa bowl. The place was also super cute--- it had a courtyard lit with bulb lights and heat lamps to stay warm underneath. They had a live band playing, Ms. Lana Rebel and Kevin Michael Mayfield, which had a twangy folk sound that was nice to eat dinner to. We had parked in a garage near the venue and skated to dinner, so we skated back, chugged some beers and went to stand in the line forming outside Club Congress. The venue was romantic and intimate, connected to an old hotel called Hotel Congress. It is apparently haunted and is where the gangster John Dillinger was caught! Interesting little bits of history... Inside the venue, the booths were red brocade vinyl and the stage had iron filigree around it set by heavy red velvet curtains. It was a perfect place to see The Growlers, who describe their music as beach goth. I think that is a pretty accurate depiction. Their music is great to bob and sway to, carefree like you were catching a wave, but their lyrics are personal and oftentimes poignant. I fell in love with their album, Hung at Heart, but haven't gotten into any of their other stuff. They played one song off that album and it made me extremely happy. After the show, we met up with Lindsay across the street at a restaurant called the Hub. We didn't order anything, but it looked pretty swanky and even had a homemade ice cream bar, which I thought added a unique spin. Lindsay was having dinner with Andrew, one of the owners of Outback Kate's (the food vendor we will be working for at festivals this summer). He was there because he just worked a festival called Gem & Jam, which happened this weekend as part of the Tucson Gem & Mineral Show, one of the largest showcasing of this type in the world!! It was good to see everybody and talking about the upcoming festival season just got me all amped up! We slept in the truck outside Lindsay and Steve's house. In the morning, we went and checked out one of the locations that was part of the gem show. Some of the crystals here were unreal: quartz the size of six year olds, huge slab of malachite, the biggest geodes I have ever seen... We got a geode and a amethyst cluster for super cheap. The prices were amazing!

The amethyst cluster I got at the gem show for a friend
for a steal of a price!!

We found out this morning that The String Cheese Incident is playing 3 shows in Las Vegas over Valentine's weekend at the Brooklyn Bowl--- a Sin City Incident. We decided this would be the perfect Valentine's Day present. :) Our original plan was to spend another day or so in Tucson checking out some hikes Lindsay and Steve told us about, but we decided to head out after the gem show so we could still hit up the Grand Canyon. By the time we got close to the Grand Canyon, it was dark so we stayed in the Kaibab National Forest for free. We wanted to get an early start on some hikes in the morning. At night, the pull-offs for the forest were kind of hard to find, but in the daylight they were much clearer. Along AZ-64, there are many areas within the Kaibab National Forest that you can stop and camp so just look for the signs! In the morning, we headed to the Grand Canyon National Park. This park is by far the biggest we have been to so far, within the grounds there is a general store with anything you'd need grocery wise, camping, lodging, and miles of trails. It cost $25 per vehicle, so we were especially glad we had our pass. The hike down into the Grand Canyon would've taken too long, considering our time constraints, so we did part of a trail that leads down to a view of the Colorado River: The Bright Angel Trail. We stopped at the 3-mile rest house to eat lunch and then head back up. So in total, we hiked 6 miles totaling about 4 hours. Going down it is fairly step, but there are a bunch of switchbacks so it makes the going down easy... the coming up, not so much. The views are incredible the whole way down and the whole way up. The trail hugs the sides of the Grand Canyon. It's breathtaking. Our plan after the Grand Canyon was to go up to Escalante in Utah, but there was no good route and we thought we'd be too pooped to rage a String Cheese show on Sunday after all that, so we decided to catch the Valentine's Day show. So it was off to Vegas!! After finding out that there is no camping in the city, not even at a KOA, we stayed about two hours outside the city at a KOA in Kingman, AZ. We got a steal considering we payed $27 for a campsite in San Antonio... we paid $27 for a cottage!! The cottage was precious with icicle lights on the porch with a swing, a mini-fridge and microwave, a full bed AND bunk beds (so you could cram this little place if you needed/wanted), wifi, a picnic table, a grill, and a water spigot out back. There was a shower house with bathrooms and hot showers nearby. There was a pool and a hot tub here, but the pool was closed for the winter... the hot tub was so nice!! It was an awesome Valentine's Eve.

Our little Valentine's Cottage. <3

Chillin' with a cardboard cutout of Rick at
the Pawn Stars Shop!!

Before we set out for the city that never sleeps, we were due for an oil change. We have driven 2,000+ miles so far, probably much more than that because we haven't taken the most direct routes. We went to a cute lil oil change shop called Oil Can Henry's. It's worth mentioning because they had amazing service, so if you're looking to get an oil change in Idaho, California, Arizona, Colorado, Oregon, or Washington, find one of these! It's super old school: they give you a newspaper when you pull up and their uniform is caps and bow ties. Plus, they were honest. When we got an oil change in St. Augustine they told us they recommended we change our air filter, but here 2,000+ miles later they said that the air filter looked fine but could probably be replaced NEXT oil change. When we got to Vegas, we had quite a bit of time to kill before we needed to go to the venue to try and score tickets (the show was sold out). We decided to go to Pawn Stars, because we love that show. There was a line out the door, but it didn't take long at all to get inside. It really wasn't as cool as we were expecting, but hell we were in Vegas, so why not?! We parked in the Caesar's Palace FREE parking garage! We just followed the address on Google and it took us straight to the garage. You are allowed to park here all night for free and since we had curtains in the back of our truck bed, we knew we'd be fine sleeping there for the night. I will say that the clearance is VERY low... we have a storage box on top of the truck and were barely making it, even scraping in some places. You definitely could not bring an RV or a truck with a big camper top in here. They also keep the place lighted obnoxiously throughout the night and play equally obnoxious music throughout the night, probably to discourage people from sleeping there and for safety purposes (the lights at least). It wasn't that bad, especially with our curtains and you can find a spot where there isn't a speaker so it's not too loud everywhere. The best part was that it was free and most of the hotels cost way over $100 around here, so we wouldn't have been able to make this night a reality if it wasn't for that. We had a ton of quarters accruing, so we decided to use these on the quarter machines. Note: none of the slot machines take change, which is a total scam to get you to spend at least $1. So we ran around Las Vegas trying to find a Coinstar to no avail. If you need to cash out some coins before you hit the slots, all the Coinstars are not within walking distance from the heart of Vegas, so take care of that before you get there. We ended up just using $10 we had on us. This was my first time gambling and boy, it was the stupidest thing ever. At least the slots are... I could see how the tables might be more fun because with the card games at least it's a combination of strategy and luck, but on the slots you just hit a button and wait to lose or win. Not my cup of tea and a waste of money. There were caricature artists who were doing free couples for Valentine's Day so we got one and it looked JUST like us--- we tipped the guy $5 and were very happy with the outcome.

Can you spy the Boognish?!

We went and found the Brooklyn Bowl around 5:00pm, because the doors opened at 7:00pm and we wanted to give ourselves plenty of chances to score a ticket. The Brooklyn Bowl is on a little walking street that is part of a complex called The Linq. Do not follow your phone GPS, it will put you in circles. It's literally right across the street from Caesar's Palace. Outside the venue, it seemed as if everyone was holding their finger up for a ticket. We were getting a little antsy, especially after it was getting closer and closer to 7:00pm without even seeing one person selling a ticket. It was odd to see a hoard of String Cheese fans, with their dreads, heady pendants, tie dye attire, and patchouli fragrances, mixed about the rich vacationers there in suits, body con dresses, and heels that could stab someone. SO many people were coming up to us asking why we had our fingers up... what squares. We had to explain that this is what you do to make it known to ticket sellers that you are in search of a ticket. People were walking by us looking up at the sky trying to see what we were pointing at. Sometimes when they asked what we were pointing at, instead of what we were doing, we just replied with "we're pointing at space." It gave us a chuckle. We finally got some tickets for about $30 about face value, but I wasn't going to turn 'em down. It looked like everyone was trying to get tickets and this was our Valentine's present to each other. They had already let people in, so we went straight into the venue once we got our tickets. They still hadn't opened the stage area. We inquired about bowling, because we had never been to a Brooklyn Bowl (at these venues you can bowl during the concert, it's a pretty neat idea). But all the lanes had been reserved, so if you want to bowl at one of these venues you should call in advance to figure out how it works. On their rental chalk board, with prices for games and shoes, someone had drawn a boognish which is the logo for my favorite band, Ween. It follows me everywhere!! We were sitting in line to get into the stage area with another couple we saw holding their fingers up outside and they gave us a beautiful crocheted rose. Valentine's kindness right there! When they finally allowed us to go into the stage area, we got probably a row or two back from the stage... it was a sick spot UNTIL someone puked before the show even started. He ruined our dance spot and threw up on some body's back. I hate people who get that messed up at shows. First off, I would never get on that level, but if I did I would puke in my own shirt before I puked on the dance floor or somebody else. The place was already packed so it was too late to relocate, so we all dance this weird tribal style dance around the pile of vomit for the whole first set of the show. Thankfully, someone stepped up during the break between sets and got a towel form the bar. The setlist was amazing! Since it was Valentine's Day they did some special covers, like It's Not Unusual and Could You Be Loved. They also played Colorado Bluebird Sky and Let's Go Outside from their new album, Song In My Head, which I really like. I don't really like the chorus for Let's Go Outside, but it has a funky beat and cool rap versus. They had DJ Logic come out to build of the beat for Let's Go Outside and it was sick. I love String Cheese, because even during their slower, more intimate moments you can still shake it. They were getting galactic. You can see the whole setlist and download the show here. It was an incredible performance. Afterwards, Lotus was playing in the same venue for no extra cost, so it was like a double whammy. Our bodies felt like Jell-O, so we sat on some leather upholstered wrap-around couches and watched the show from a live feed they were streaming on about 10 TVs in the lounge area. We watched about half the shows before our bellies started rumbling, so we left the venue in search of food. It was about 3:00am at this point and nothing was open, which I found odd since all the casinos were still charging full steam ahead. We settled for White Castle and were satisfied enough to go pass out in the truck until the morning heat woke us up. It was an amazing Valentine's Day. :)

String Cheese SLAYIN' it. :)

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.

Sweet Home Alabama

That's a good lookin' Southern breakfast!!

Our next stop was to visit my Mimi and Papa in Dadeville, Alabama. They have a really nice house on Lake Martin, but the lake is drained in the winter so we couldn't go on a pontoon ride. If you have a chance to go out on Lake Martin, you have to find Chimney Rock! It's this giant rock out there in the middle of the lake covered in spray paint that you can jump off of. It's really fun and probably a 20 ft. drop. We only spent a couple days here and mainly just worked on the robe. Mimi made some of my favorite meals while we were there: chicken and dumplings and breakfast gravy. I helped make the breakfast gravy, because I've tried to recreate it on my own, but it never comes out quite right. After making it with my Mimi, I think I realize I had my flour milk ratio way off. In order to make the gravy, you'll need a cast iron skillet, some bacon grease, a little bit of flour, and quite a bit of milk. And that's it!! You start by browning your flour in the bacon grease (this is called a "rue") and then add your milk. Stir until it starts to thicken, add salt and pepper for taste. Volia! It doesn't get much better than that.

Lance sporting his new drinking regalia. 

We were anxious to hit the road once we finished the Crown Royal robe. We wanted to hand deliver it to Kyle's Uncle Lance, so we set out for Huntsville, Alabama. When we arrived, we pretty much immediately gave him the robe and it fit perfectly! I was so pleased and he was stoked on it. Uncle Lance and Aunt Stephanie invited us to stay for as long as we wanted and even told us we could help them with some projects. They have two little boys, both younger than 10, who kept us pretty busy also. We did a couple projects: painting an equipment locker yellow for the boys' football gear and moving some furniture out of a storage unit... For the most part we spent the week exploring Huntsville. My dear friend, Lauren, from St. Augustine grew up here, so I asked her for some recommendations. She suggested a crystal store called The Dream Maker and to check out the state park, Monte Sano. We did both and I can see why she recommended them! The Dream Maker is such a unique little store, with every crystal and stone you could dream of! Plus, they do massages and have many other cool knick-knacks to check out. The Dream Maker used to be this little old lady's house who would paint pictures on cobwebs!! They have some of her art displayed. The whole vibe in that place is on point.

I'm a peachy mama, so I picked up some of these
Peach Quartz at Dream Maker. 

We actually didn't go into the Mante Sano State Park (which cost $2), instead we parked in the hiker's parking lot, which is on the way to the state park gates and asks only for a donation. From there you can hop immediately on some trails. We took the Natural Well Trail, which leads to this GIANT hole in the ground. On the way there, you have to cross over this part of the trail, which a tornado must have ravaged because there are all these huge fallen trees. It's cool though: you get to walk along the trunks and hop from tree to tree. There are also rocky bluffs that you can climb along the trail. The well is surrounded by chain link fence to prevent people from falling in, but you can crawl underneath it to the very last ledge of the hole before you'd go plummeting in. We had fun shouting into the hole and hearing the echoes. We tossed a rock in and it felt like forever till we heard the ker-plunk. We also found the local skatepark, Lydia Gold Skatepark, which has a nice street section, a small bowl, stairs, boxes, and quarter pipes. It's located at 200 Cleveland Avenue Northwest.

It's not easy to capture a giant hole in the ground,
but this is the natural well at Monte Sano State Park.

Lydia Gold Skatepark 

I am an astronaut!

Recreation of the moon landing and the moon's surface.

Lance and Stephanie had some coupons to the U.S. Space and Rocket Center and since I hadn't been there since a 7th grade space camp field trip, we decided to go get galactic. The museum was cool, I guess... you'd have to be a serious nerd to even understand half of the plaques. Many of them break down how they built the engines and go into detail about crazy space inventions. Wasn't really my cup of tea. Luckily, there were rides and a lot of interactive exhibits. We climbed a rock wall on Mars, experienced a G of force on our bodies, and rode the Space Shot which is supposed to simulate blasting off. We got the "Stars Combo" package, which included access to the museum and an iMax movie for $25 (we had a $6 off coupon and they give discounts for AAA members, Alabama students, and military discounts). iMax theaters are always cool. We saw a movie called Hidden Universe, which followed an astronomer's journey to the largest telescope in the world (the E.L.T or Extremely Large Telescope), located in Chile. I was surprised how much military paraphernalia was at the U.S. Space and Rocket Center, but I guess there is a huge crossover in space technology and military technology. 

Hanging out in space!

We had a great time in Alabama, but were ready to hit the road again. We still hadn't spent a night in our tricked out truck bed, so we were itching to be on our own!! We stayed for the Super Bowl, which is a big deal in this household because they are football fanatics! We had a B.F.F.Y, or Beast Feast Fuck Yeah, as Lance dubbed it. This included white chicken chili, buffalo chicken dip, venison and wild turkey with pepperjack cheese and a jalapeno wrapped in bacon, summer sausage (venison, pepper, and chedder cheese), and shish kabobs. We O.Ded on protein and left the next morning with our bellies full!