Hello Everyone! Well, I was hoping for warmer weather when I came south, but I wasn’t expecting it to be in the mid-80s in mid-February. Temperatures are going to drop back to a more normal Texas winter range tonight, but I’ve been enjoying the heat and the sunshine of the last few days. It hasn’t been extremely motivating to do anything but sit outside and enjoy it, but I’m okay with that for a few days too. I’ve made my way about halfway across Texas at this point, and hope to be starting my exploration of New Mexico by the weekend. Once I’m there, I expect to get back to some more normal photo essays, but for now I’ve just been enjoying the ride west. This week has brought me from Lafayette to the Gulf Coast and then into Texas, through Houston and on to Austin and I’ve really enjoyed my time making this crossing. I’ve gotten a few days at the beach, had some wonderful food and seen some fantastic live music.
It hasn’t been all sunshine this week though, and I’ve actually seen a few things which left me questioning what is happening around me. It’s been disconcerting to say the least as I’m pretty open minded and in touch with what’s going on in the country and these incidents left m speechless. Two of them happened on the road and even though I’ve been reading in the news how traffic accidents and deaths are hitting all-time highs in this country, these both kind of shook me. The first happened when I was crossing the bridge between Louisiana and Texas and I saw a car going backwards over the bridge. They were reversing up the bridge in the oncoming lane – at least they were moving in the right direction, but I simply can’t imagine what they were doing and there was clearly no good or reasonable explanation for it. The second happened in Austin where I saw the same thing go down on two separate occasions involving two different groups of cars. In both cases, there were three cars weaving in and out of each other, running red lights and taking up the entire street. For those of you who played basketball, they were essentially doing a three-man weave and others of you can maybe imagine braiding your hair. This was in the early evening on a Sunday night on 6th Street – Austin’s main tourist drag. There is no way I can explain how dangerous this “maneuver” was, but I definitely wondered why there was no police presence on the busiest nightlife street in the city on a Sunday night of a holiday weekend. If this is the kind of “freedom” that Ted Cruz is always shouting about, I honestly don’t want anything to do with it. I agree that there are places where the number of rules and laws have gotten way out of hand (I’m looking at you, California), but you can’t have lawlessness either.
The other disconcerting thing I encountered this week was at a comedy open-mic night here in Austin. These small open-mics are usually pretty bad as people come out to try out their material on a live audience. But it’s usually similar to a night of karaoke where you get a bunch of average or worse performers and a few who are actually really good and it can make for an entertaining evening. And while this was worse than most, there were some funny moments. What I found disconcerting was the number of men who got up and made jokes about beating up women. There are a small handful of topics I find less amusing like, say, the holocaust (which more than one of them got into as well), but I simply can’t imagine who would find domestic violence funny. And you’d think after two or three of them were met with a completely silent room and people’s faces which no doubt looked as sour on these “jokes” as mine did, the others would have gotten the hint, but one after another kept going there. Just because someone is making a joke about something doesn’t mean they are doing that thing and I certainly told my share of off-color jokes when I was younger, but that was in a different time. This simply wasn’t funny on any level and I found it pretty terrible to watch. Thankfully they all bombed hard so maybe they will be humbled by the experience. Anyways, the good of this week definitely outweighed these few bad moments, as it always does, so I don’t want to dwell on them, but I was sorry to witness them as they definitely left me with more questions than answers.
Gator by the Road
When I left you last week, I did head over to the fabulous Blue Moon Saloon in Lafayette for their Cajun Jam night. There were some really talented musicians there and I enjoyed the music and dancing and had a lot of fun. Thursday morning was rainy and gloomy with bands of heavy rain moving through the area, so I decided to stick around Lafayette for a while and let it pass. I hit the gym in the morning, then filled up my water tanks, enjoyed a delicious shrimp po’boy at the Olde Tyme Grocery near downtown and sent out a king cake to my mother and one to my brother. By early afternoon, it felt like the worst of the weather had passed, so I started heading down towards Rutherford Beach in Southwest Louisiana. I’ve stayed at Rutherford Beach before – it’s on Louisiana’s oil coast so it’s not the most beautiful beach in the world, but it’s quiet and pleasant and you can stay right on the beach for as long as you want (and it’s free!). I stopped at Suire’s Grocery on the way, one of my favorite little out-of-the-way eateries, and picked up their famous turtle sauce picante for dinner which is always a treat. Then I headed south into the huge expanse of beautiful wetlands which cover that part of Louisiana. The road runs right next to the bayou, and if you’re paying attention you will definitely catch a glimpse of dozens of gators as you go. There were also plenty of pelicans, egrets, herons and a dozen other varieties of shorebirds. It’s really quite a nice ride when you’re not in a rush and I pulled onto the beach with about an hour to spare before the sun set. I had time to get a spot and settle in and then crack a beer and watch the sun disappear into the Gulf of Mexico. It was a nice sunset, and as the day turned into night the lights on the oil rigs out in the gulf came on. It’s actually quite beautiful in its own way, and I had a lovely, if also quite windy, night on the beach.
I spent all day Friday there as well, cleaning and organizing my van and soaking up some rays. It wasn’t as warm as it was last week or became later this week, but it was still nice to be on the coast with my feet in the sand. I got some work done on some of my projects and enjoyed a nice long afternoon nap. I’m definitely planning on taking a few days off on this leg, since I will be going into a long summer season of guiding tours on the other end of it. It was nice to be able to take a day without having to drive anywhere or think about the logistics of my day-to-day on the road. The late afternoon sky was incredible and the sunset was the best I’ve seen in a long time. It was absolutely stunning and I enjoyed it with a cold beer in one hand, my camera in the other and some great music playing in my headphones. It really was a great day and an even better evening.
I had my coffee and breakfast on the beach on Saturday morning and then headed west, catching the ferry across the Calcasieu Ship Channel between Cameron and Holly. This area, known affectionately as the “Cajun Riviera”, is full of RV parks, shrimp boats and oil refineries and their associated businesses. It’s an interesting coastline and I always get a kick out of driving across it. I came into Texas as I crossed the bridge over Sabine Lake and then headed up to Port Arthur to hit the gym and grab a shower. Since I was in Texas, I decided to stop at a Whataburger which Texans are always bragging about. I had only been once before and wasn’t overly impressed, so I decided to give it another shot. I’m not big on fast-food to begin with, but I do like trying regional places. It really wasn’t very good to be honest and I don’t see returning in the future, but I’m glad I gave it a second try. From there I cruised on to Houston for the night. I spent some time driving around the city looking for something to help improve my opinion of Houston, but didn’t have much luck. I’ve been to Houston several times, and nothing has ever really jumped out at me as a good reason to stick around. It is clean and modern and there are plenty of great restaurants, but I can’t find the soul of the place which is usually something I’m pretty good at doing. I will have to go back and spend a solid few days and see what I can come up with, but not this time. I did have an amazing Vietnamese dinner at Huynh on the east side of downtown and had a coffee and got some work done at a great café called Brass Tacks, but other than that it was a quiet and an early night.
On Sunday I hung around Houston in the morning, waiting to hear from an acquaintance of mine in College Station. When I hadn’t heard from him by noon, I headed off towards Austin instead. When I got to Texas’ Capital City, drove out to the park along Shoal Creek to enjoy a quiet afternoon. When I was at Rutherford Beach, one of the other people staying there had caught a massive redfish, so he hooked me up with a beautiful steak before I left. I cooked it up in a Creole style and served it over rice and it came out really well. I did head down to 6th Street in the evening and had a few beers, went to the open-mic comedy show I mentioned at the top of this post and saw some decent live music. 6th Street is Austin’s Bourbon Street but without so many years of memories for me and while I enjoy the people watching it felt seedier than it used to. It was okay though and it was nice to be back in Austin.
Monday morning after the gym I headed out to Terry Black’s BBQ for some lunch. There was a good sized line, but they moved people through pretty quickly and their brisket and sides were excellent. From there I headed out to the State Capitol for an afternoon tour. When I toured the Capitol in Minnesota, I was joined by one woman and her son. When I went in Wisconsin I was all alone on the tour. Here in Texas, there were probably 60 people there and the tours run every 30 minutes. It was wild to see, but the tour was informative and interesting. It was a beautiful day and I enjoyed taking some photos of the building as well. I was actually pretty impressed by the Texas African American History Memorial which is prominently displayed in front of the Capitol and tells an honest history of Black people in Texas. I hope the state will allow that history to be taught in their public schools as it is both honest and important. In the afternoon, I wanted to check out Austin’s newest tiki bar: Tiki Tatsu-Ya. It’s a popular place and has been fully booked a month in advance, but they save their bar seats for walk-ups on a first-come basis. I was thrilled to get a seat and it really is a top-notch tiki experience. The décor is great without being too over the top, the drinks were really well done and everyone there was really friendly. I’m glad I got in and I really enjoyed my visit. Afterwards I went to a songwriters’ round at the Saxon pub next door and enjoyed three very talented singer-songwriters perform their favorite tunes. From there I went down to Congress Street and caught the beginning of a show at C-Boys Heart and Soul. It is a cool venue, but I was pretty tired so I called it an early night (which was helped by an early start).
Over the past few years I’ve heard a lot of people talking about Franklin’s Barbecue here in Austin, which won Bon Appetite Magazine’s Best Brisket in America award and has been lauded by James Beard, Anthony Bourdain and Gordon Ramsey. It opens at 11am and is open until they run out of food, which usually only takes 2-3 hours, so you better get there and line up if you want a taste. I got there at 10:15 and there were already a hundred people in front of me in line. I can definitely tell you that the people working there were great – from start to finish they were friendly, communicative and appreciative. The brisket was excellent, as were the ribs, sausage, pulled pork, smoked turkey, potato salad and coleslaw. And to be fair, I enjoyed the experience of waiting in line since I expected it and came prepared with a chair and my book. I don’t usually go for something like that, so it was cool to experience and I set aside the whole morning and early afternoon to enjoy it. And the food was really good, but I just don’t know if it was two-hours-waiting-in-line good. But maybe that’s just me. I would definitely recommend Franklin’s if you have the time and the interest, but I don’t know if I’d wait for it again. I do love that they are keeping their business small and manageable because they’ve no doubt received offers to franchise and expand. And to be able to run a successful business which is only open 3 hours a day is pretty impressive, even though I know there are a lot of hours behind the scenes as well. In short, I wish them all the luck in the world. They are great people with a great product and I hope they can ride that wave for as long as they can.
With my belly full of barbecue, I spent the rest of the day in the library, working on this post and taking care of a few other things. In the evening I headed over to the Little Longhorn Saloon where I took a Texas two-step class which was a lot of fun. I know a very basic two-step from years of guiding tours across Texas, but this took it a little further and I enjoyed the lesson. After it ended, the band Fingerpistol took the stage playing some great country tunes while people danced around the room. I’ve often admired the Texas dance culture as I haven’t seen anything like it anywhere else in the country except maybe to some degree in Acadiana in Louisiana. People young and old, coupled and single come out to the dance halls to simply dance and have fun. It’s sociable, it’s great exercise and when I see couples on the dance floor I see a shared intimacy of contact and movement that it would be hard to duplicate sitting at home on a couch watching TV. It’s a beautiful connection and I think we could all benefit from a little more of that in our lives. It was a wonderful evening of dancing and music to round out my time in Austin.
And that’s what’s been happening this week as I make my way across the country. It’s been a fun week, but I’m looking forward to slowing down once I get to New Mexico and to hitting the trail more and the road less. It’ll be quieter out there too which I’m also looking forward to. It’s going to be a great state to explore and with Arizona right behind it it’ll be a great winter and spring and I’m excited to get started. I do have one more place I want to get to before I make my way to New Mexico though. When I get this post published, I’m off to Luckenbach, Texas for two days of music and relaxation. It’s a pretty well-known venue/town and I’m disappointed I’ve never been there so I’m going to go check it out. I can park my van in the field behind the music hall and just enjoy myself there for a couple of days. Depending on when I leave, I may head straight to New Mexico from there, or I may spend one more night in West Texas before heading on to The Land of Enchantment, but either way I’ll definitely be there by the weekend. There’s still plenty of Texas for me to explore and I hope to do just that, but next winter on my way back east. I’m on my way, so I’ll leave this here. Have a great week out there and I’ll see you right back here, same time next week. Thanks, as always, for reading.
-Mike