Family Life: We finally arrived in Austin just in time for Easter. We've reached an age where memory aids are useful, and chronological order helps us, so our Austin days are recounted here in roughly that order because ... well, we forgot.
We started our visit in Austin by choosing a True Foods restaurant for a plant based lunch. Yes, we still eat only plant based food, those corn dogs in the picture being the exception that proves the rule. This True Foods is in a HUGE shopping center, called the Domain, quite near where son Michael lives. Previously a fancy shopping center like this one would have tempted us a little, but this one? Oh my-- were we ever overwhelmed by the crowds, the consumerism, the walking on hard floors and the general noise. And how out of place we looked and felt! Our VanLife is definitely different than life in the DMV (The Washington DC metropolitan area) and it shows.
Easter Sunday came next with the standard chocolate bunnies for William and a little fun play. Michael made pancakes and William tried out a balsa wood airplane from his Easter basket, and 
Granddad and William, well.... they had more fun with the canned whipped cream.
Granddad and William, well.... they had more fun with the canned whipped cream.
The sun's total eclipse path, our travel path in and around Austin, and the paths of others started criss-crossing. It gave us chances to see some friends and family that we wouldn't have otherwise seen!
Jim and Charlene: Our travels intersected with those of fellow CCC-ers*, Jim and Charlene, who were in Austin for the eclipse. They are just super-nice folks who've been on the road with a travel trailer a couple of years longer than have we. So lots to talk about -- CCC, life on the road, places to stay, and so on. What a great lunch that was. We sat outside on Terry Black's BBQ Restaurant's spacious deck in downtown Austin and agreed that the dark, crowded inside area no longer appealed to any of us. We're telling ya: Road life is life-changing!
UJ aka Uncle Joe, or my brother Joe: The fun of lunching with Jim and Char helped us with the sadness that can't be helped when visiting with my brother, now in a 'memory' unit of an assisted living facility in Austin. His white matter disease has left him quite disabled, but he still enjoys a diet coke (not pictured). Because there is not much we can do for him, we were happy to bring him something he wanted, even if it was a gas station can of soda and a straw. Folks have said that this picture makes him look like a mad scientist, which of course he is.
Cheryl et al: My high school friend, Cheryl Elliott, lives just north of Austin. An afternoon of visiting with her and her family is always good times, and there's just a lot of joy in this picture of her. She's with her 1-year-old granddaughter, Indy seen here holding her dad's arm. And she's with her 5-DAY-old twin grandchilden -- a boy, here happily snoozing on his dad's lap, named Fox, and a girl snuggled up with Cheryl, named Stormy. Mom and dad actually let me hold those tiny babies.
William's Birthday Weekend: Next event in Austin couldn't be missed: The celebration of grandson William's 10th birthday. Seen here with his whole family . From left Michael, Lindsay, Bubba and Mimi (our co-grandparents) William, Bill and then me -- at a high school production of Willy Wonka.
William's Webelos den brought us Saturday morning's entertainment at the Pinewood Derby!
The afternoon featured a birthday lunch in the restaurant of William's choice and he chose a lovely Brazilian Steak House. It was a pretty place with yummy buffet choices including lots of plant-based options for us (good choice, William!), and plenty for the omnivores, too. William followed it up with Key Lime Pie for dessert. He made sure he got all of the key lime flavor out of the toppings.
Home for cake and presents. His favorite gift: flight simulator software for his computer from us, and the console and joy stick and whatever else it needs from his other grandparents. It is genuinely pretty nifty.
UJ's family: With thanks to the graciousness of my nephew Jeff and his wife Barbara, we were privileged to visit with my brother's sons and their kids. Joe's daughter couldn't be there but his sons, my nephews, Jak and his wife Karowynn, Jeff and his wife Barbara and all of their children were in town for the eclipse. We hadn't seen most of them for oh so long and we're so grateful for the eclipse bringing them together at the same time we were in Austin. Somehow we got away without a photo, but Jeff's son, Carson, donated a couple of his.
The Eclipse: We landed in the Texas hill country at a campground where we had paid an exorbitant, yes-they-gouged-us, price to camp high on a hill with a beautiful view of the surrounding area and a high-in-the-sky view of the total eclipse of the sun. The campground provided an 'eclipse brunch', a nice viewing area, and they entertained us with a play list that included, among other favorites, a song from our time and Bill's favorites: The Beatles, "Here Comes the Sun"! It was a slightly cloudy day so we played a fun game of hide and seek with the eclipse, and then got a full. clear view of the totality of the eclipse. Bill and I passed out Mini Moon Pies and Eclipse Gum to our fellow eclipse-watchers! We would have been too reserved and introverted to do that before VanLife, but now... why not? VanLife changes life... and yep, the eclipse was worth the price of admission.
John and Sally. We had met John and Sally in Florida at a Habitat for Humanity Build and a little creative scheduling created a way for our paths to cross at Mama's Home Cooking restaurant for a diner-ish, but fine, lunch in Burnet, TX. It is pronounced BURN'it, not, as one would suspect, BurNET-- that pronunciation evidently gets you laughed right outa' town.
We had such a good time catching up with John and Sally that we stayed at Inks Lake State Park in Burn'it for two more days. The four of us did a little hiking, had an evening potluck cookout (Bill is the ground-sitting grill master below), saw a gazillion of Texas' famous wild flowers (all of which Sally, a horticulturist, could identify-- what a treat.). It was just a general great couple of days. May our paths please cross again.
When John and Sally left for points east we stayed another couple of days for local-area exploring before heading west. The world's largest multi-arched dam, Buchanan dam, also on the Texas Colorado River, is not far from Inks Lake where it forms the much, much larger Buchanan Lake. Only we didn't really visit it; Homeland Security shut down such visits after 9/11. We did chat with a local curator in a tiny two-room museum for quite a while. This fellow really knew his stuff and his history. This is an Internet picture of the dam and its lake.
Based on several recommendations we headed to the town of Marble Falls to eat lunch at the locally popular BlueBonnet Cafe. And indeed, it did sport some great blue bonnets in its little garden. Interestingly this town has neither marble nor falls, and the pie for which it was recommended and for which we stood in line for probably over a half hour just did not stand up to our favorite pie at Dixie Bones in Woodbridge, VA. But we admit that Dixie Bones has spoiled us: Blue Bonnet Cafe pie was fine. We definitely cleaned our plates in Marble Falls.
Our last weekend in Texas coincided with the Blue Bonnet Festival in Burnet where we ate the Corn Dogs for breakfast -- yes, we ate Corndogs -- for breakfast. Not our finest moment, but a bit of a treat. That picture is above, and here's a couple more of this sweet small-town festival.
In an attempt to grab a little more grandson time, we drove an hour in the wrong direction before the long ride to Durango. Michael phoned us while enroute and turned that trip into a rescue mission because Michael and family were stranded when their car disabled itself. We picked them up and were glad we could do it; it was bonus time for us -- We got a few more hours with all of them!!! So a little more time with them (YAY!) and we had to bid Austin adieu and get our Colorado on!
We have followed the same path through West Texas, and ultimately into Colorado a half a dozen times. It takes us through many small, isolated, and seemingly sad towns scattered in the windy deserts of New Mexico. We thought this would be our last trip through here so we gave into the lure of the Billy The Kid Museum in Fort Sumner, NM because, well not sure why -- mostly it was time for a driving break and we'd passed it so many times before. It's a typical tourist museum with lots of artifacts, one photo, and a lot of local history. We learned how young he was (really just a kid) when Billy pursued his life of crime in the area, and that he actually did shoot the sheriff, along with a couple of deputies. The folks who run the museum were happy to tell us what they knew, and we spent some quality time there.
RETIREMENT LESSON -- We should do a better job keeping up with this blog so the posts are shorter.
WOYAYA
* Couples coaching Couples -- an organization we belong to and highly recommend for people in committed relationships.
Comments
Post a Comment