Austin, Texas

February 25 through 27, 2000 – Austin, TX

We were both looking forward to getting to Austin, but especially so for Linda, whose son Joel had lived there for awhile. We got there Friday evening, and decided to treat ourselves to a couple of nights in a motel. After check to see if the mail that we had had forwarded to Austin had arrived (it hadn’t) and checking into a motel, Linda talked with Joel and got the name of his favorite Texas BBQ place (the Green Mesquite) and we headed there for dinner. They didn’t disappoint us with the food or the ambiance. After dinner, we spent a little time wandering around the downtown area, looking for the famous (or infamous) 6th St. music scene. Eventually we found it, parked the car, and wandered up and down the street. It was still a little bit early for any thing much to be happening (8:30 or so), but there was enough activity so that we could get a feel for the street. It is really unique.

When we got up on Saturday morning we once again realized how much better it is to be lucky than smart. That night a front blew through. There were all kinds of rain and hail squalls (one TV station said that for a while the rain was falling at a rate of an inch per hour), and the wind kicked up pretty good. We were awakened for a little while with the sound of the hail being blown against our window, but basically, we were cozy. When we got up, we recognized the luck we had in staying in a motel.

Saturday morning, we continued with the one disappointment in that the mail we were expecting still hadn’t come. I guess we will just have to go back Tuesday when we leave San Antonio.

After checking the mail, we headed down near the Colorado River area to start a Volkswalk through the historic parts of Austin. The weather had cleared by this time and it was quite nice, except for a stiff breeze that blew all day. I kind of enjoyed it, but it wore on Linda after a while.

We walked to the Driskill Hotel (that we had seen Friday night since it is right on the Western end of the music area). That is really a pretty, old hotel that has been renovated nicely. The outside was pretty, but the marble and glass inside was even nicer. After that, we went past the state capitol building, then through part of the University of Texas campus to the LBJ Museum. We spent a lot of time in the museum – I was especially enchanted with the replica of the Oval Office, since that is undoubtedly as close as I will ever get to the real thing. The message of the museum was that the LBJ administration made an incredible amount of progress in the areas of civil rights, education, and fighting poverty in general, but it is unfortunate that he is best known for his role in the inherited, unpopular Viet Nam War.

After leaving the library, the walk proceeding past the University of Texas clock tower. The tower is again open for visitors, and we made a half a try to find the entrance. We didn't work at that very hard, however, because we were getting tired and hungry by this time. After pausing long enough to get some lunch, we then went through the Bremond Bock Historical District. This area has some really nice old homes. We then went by the governor’s mansion (the current resident not being home because he has some other irons in the fire right now) and back to the start. I think that we set a record for taking in excess of five hours for a ten-kilometer walk. This is why we like Volkswalking. It is not competitive, and we can take as much time as we would like admiring and studying things along the way.

After all this, a chain type Mexican dinner (mostly for the Margarita that we wanted) took us up to the time that we could collapse and watch some Brit-Coms on the local PBS channel. We got up on Sunday morning, got all of our stuff packed, and headed for San Antonio for the next step in our great adventure.