Having run the gauntlet of Texas city driving with the added challenge of towing a 7000 lb trailer, we arrived at Alex’s place relatively unscathed. This was our second real run-in (after going to Houston with just the truck, for the RV show) with two apparently uniquely Texas city driving experiences: their toll road system(s) and their own way of doing freeway on-ramps. For tolls, there are multiple different tolling agencies for different cities, and their passes are neither interchangeable nor cheap. Unless you’ve been living under a rock since COVID, you already know that the likelihood of finding an actual human at a toll booth anywhere, was slim to none. We had been warned we should get a toll pass, but were overwhelmed by the choices and we hoped not to be driving too much in big cities anyway, so we decided to pass on that and face the ‘pay by mail’ alternative. Luckily, in most all cases, we could avoid the tolls by staying on the access roads. Which brings up…

The other challenge, at least for these CA Native drivers, was the crazy (OK, maybe just DIFFERENT?) on-ramp system that we’d previously seen in Loredo, Houston and San Antonio: the dreaded Access Road. Instead of having on- and off-ramps that actually lead to roads that go somewhere, all the ramps go to large, often multi-lane access roads that parallel the highway for MILES on end. In Austin, where highway construction was going on everywhere, we encountered the system in full glory. Often the highway was toll, so we could just drive on the access road to avoid toll-by-mail hassles. But our navigation would regularly trick us into getting on the highway… or sometimes the access road would just suddenly end, and we’d find ourselves dumped out onto some random local road. Vexing!!

Anyway, we did arrive, with a minimum of false turns and without killing each other. We weren’t sure exactly where to park the trailer but Alex’s neighbor Tim came out right away and showed us. A good guy, and we could tell he kept the neighborhood under a watchful eye. Interestingly, he turned out to be a squatter who had leveraged an Austin law protecting squatters, into a free permanent parking space for his old RV behind the fence of a vacant lot next to Alex’s place.

Speaking of Alex’s place, unfortunately we forgot to get a photo of Alex’s cute digs, darn it! The neighborhood was what real estate agents like to call ‘in transition’, with mostly small houses in a range from really nice and well-maintained to train-wreck. Unfortunately we didn’t see many bike-friendly options out the front door, but it felt safe enough. We got settled in, and even found electricity from Alex’s house, and decided to get out to do some shopping. There was a Costco nearby, and we needed cat food from the local Petco, too!

We returned from shopping (and TRAFFIC!!!) exhausted, so we settled in for a nice evening. With more than 70 channels showing up on the TV, Mike had something to keep him busy while Janine cooked dinner! After dinner, we did some research and organized for our unsupervised ‘assault on Austin’ planned for Saturday (Kudos here to Tina Silva Blease, Alex’s mom, who gave us lots of suggestions!). Our sleep was serenaded by Mariachi music and roosters, but still good.

Saturday morning was chilly, about 40 degrees, but forecast to warm up to 66 degrees. We hunkered down in the trailer and Janine did a yoga class. Finally, around 10:30, it was warm enough to convince ourselves to get going. We took the truck with bikes into downtown to ride the well-known Ann and Roy Butler Trail along the (Texas) Colorado River that flows right through Austin. Yes, there are two Colorado Rivers! We were pretty confused on this for awhile… It turns out this one flows east to the Gulf of Mexico, right through Austin! The path was mostly crushed granite, easy as pie on the mountain bikes. This was a good thing as it was Janine’s first bike ride since getting the gash and stitches below her knee on Monday. Easy does it! The biggest challenge was the ever-increasing number of other trail users – walkers and bikers (and pets!) of all ages, shapes and sizes – as the day warmed up. We rode the whole trail (both sides of the river) in a couple pleasant hours and fully enjoyed the scenery, wildlife (TURTLES!), public art and views of the Austin skyline.

One thing that really struck us was all the fun public art on display, frequently in unexpected places. We had always wanted to visit Austin (Janine came close to moving there after college). How could you not like a city with the motto “Keep Austin Weird”??? To say nothing of it being the outpost of liberality, in conservative Texas! After our bike ride, we returned to the truck to hear the start-up of what sounded like a nearby outdoor concert. By coincidence, we had unwittingly parked our truck right on the fringe of the super-hip new Rainey St ‘club’ district. At 1:30pm, the party was in full swing.

We had planned to take a stroll through the 6th St district (known for restaurants, bars and shopping), about a mile away. To get there, we walked through the Rainey scene, with a sense of the surreal. There were 4 or 5 absolutely huge, multi-story indoor/outdoor clubs, each with their own music reverberating into a sensory-overload collision of country, rock and electronica. Oh, and people wall-to-wall, with maybe an average age of 25. We just kept on walking! Couldn’t help noticing that most of the other people walking AWAY from the scene were (also) over 40!!! The 6th St scene was fun (and quiet, in comparison!) but by the time we walked back to the truck, we weren’t sure if we had the energy to cope with a downtown restaurant, so we set back out for ‘home’.

We were having a craving for more barbeque, and we decided it was time to experience another Texas tradition, Bill Miller BBQ. We had been seeing these little places all over around Corpus Christi and San Antonio, and had googled to learn they were family-owned and had been around since 1953, with 77 locations up and running. We found one near Alex’s place and pulled in, famished. It was cafeteria-style straight out of the 1960’s and at 3pm had that post-COVID strangely empty atmosphere while doing a roaring drive-through business. The barbeque was great, though! We each got the 3-meat platter (brisket, sausage and ribs, of course!) and enjoyed the assorted sides – especially the beans and coleslaw. Amazingly, we ate it all!! Another cultural experience to check off our list.

We rolled home, cleaned up and enjoyed refreshing beverages while the sun set and the temperature dropped. We watched another movie on the GRIT channel (westerns seem so appropriate when in Texas!) and were all too happy to call it a night. A great day!

Sunday morning was quieter, and warmer. We decided to brave the local streets and ride our mountain bikes to Walnut Creek Metro Park to check out the highly recommended trails there. We were on a tight schedule as the first NASCAR race of the season started at 2:30pm. We rode through some nice neighborhoods, some pretty scary projects/low-income housing areas and even some ‘almost in the country’ places with fields and farm animals. We had a few “you can’t get there from here” moments which entailed some backtracking, and finally arrived at Walnut Creek, which seemingly like everything in Austin, had construction going on EVERYWHERE! We did a few loops through the trails and then started trying to find our way out of the park. Looking for a trail that would exit the park in the direction we wanted to go, we tried 4 or 5 but kept encountering ‘trail closed, go back’ signs. Everyone we asked said they didn’t know either and appeared equally stymied.

Eventually, after much checking of phone navigation and consulting with others (all equally confused!), we found our way out and began the slg (by then there was a headwind, of course!) back to the trailer. We got back at 3:30 (our 1 hour ride extended to several) and Mike settled in for NASCAR while Janine headed out to do laundry and stop at the local HEB. The laundromat was PACKED so she decided to skip it, and the HEB stop was uneventful, as was the rest of the quiet evening. We had heard from Alex that he would be getting in around midnight, and had made a plan to meet up in the morning! After that, he would head in to work and we were heading for the Sam Houson National Forest for a week at Cagle Recreation Area and a possible bike race on Saturday.

Monday morning was wet with fog. We had a great visit with Alex for a couple hours, and collected various packages others had sent to his address for us. He left for work and generously let us use his washer and dryer, so we were able to get the laundry done, but we didn’t leave Austin till almost 1pm. In spite of a few traffic/navigation/road closure challenges, we made it to our campsite and had time to get in, unhitched and set up JUST before dark really set in. It was a balmy 70 degree evening, the surroundings were idyllic and we were in heaven! Our next post will be about our (chilly) week in Sam Houston National Forest.