Smitty's Market

Lockhart - TEXAS

Thanks to a recommendation from the lovely Katy we headed away from Austin towards the small town of Lockhart Texas and Smitty’s Market.  An amazing place with the best BBQ I have every eaten.  All the meat is done in the cookhouse at the back of the building where huge brick ovens spend all day long barbecuing.  You order your meat by the pound, we chose ribs & brisket and it’s all served up on sheets of grease proof paper.  You head through to the huge warehouse style dining room set out with long picnic benches and collect your side orders (coleslaw), sodas and as many napkins as you can carry to clean up the mess you make of yourself eating this delicious meal.  We have definitely been spoilt, I don’t see how anywhere else along our route could possibly do better.

We finished with a wander around the pretty village square of Lockhart and checked out the shops.

Wildlife WatchTX

Barton Springs - TEXAS

Spotted loads of turtles swimming and sun bathing on the way back from Barton Springs including these 2 little buggers and also a Kingfisher hunting for his lunch.

Swimming

Barton Springs - AUSTIN

An early start to our last morning in Austin and a half hour walk took us out of the downtown area to Barton Springs, a natural swimming pool in a beautiful park.  My pictures don’t do it justice but imagine this, only the walls on either side were man-made, the bottom is the riverbed rocks home to reed beds and salamanders.  The Water was crystal clear and cool, so cool it took me about 10 minutes to fully submerge, Leon of course bounded in like a big hairy dog. But once you were in it was glorious and definately something I will miss about Austin.

The Continental Club & Leon's t-shirt count

Back to Guero's for their legendary taco's and onto the Continental Club for a cheeky Whiskey and to watch 'Continetal Graffitti'.
Leon bought another shirt - Running total so far 2

Waterloo & The Horseshoe Lounge

Monday 16^th May 2011 – Austin TEXAS

Breakfasted at the Wholefoods (if it’s possible to be in love with a supermarket I know am) outdoor café accompanied by the crazy chatter of the blackbirds that live in Austin before Leon headed over to Waterloo records for a good hour and came back with a load more CDs but a seriously depleted bank balance.  Then it was back onto the bus for a trip to the Horseshoe Lounge, a proper dive bar with advertisements on the toilet wall for bail bondsmen and offers to women to buy their eggs.  A couple of drinks and a few rounds of shuffleboard later was realised that we both suck at shuffleboard, before heading back into town and spying this little lizard fella basking in the midday sun.

Beerland

Sunday 15^th May 2011 – Austin TEXAS

Wandered back downtown through the State Capitol building with bats hunting insects circling above and headed for Beerland to see the Pine Hill Haints, a traditional bluegrass/folk/honky tonk/country band on tour from Alabama.  Surprisingly also on tour and supporting them was Sam Barrett from Leeds.  You certainly don't expect to travel nearly 5000 miles to see a guy sing, who you can see in Leeds (for half the price!). The music was running incredibly late though and was nearly murdered by the guys on before Sam so by the time Sam and then the Haints made it onto the stage everyone was long past ready for bed.  Sam even dedicated one of his songs to Leon, I didn't get a song dedicated, or even half a song for that matter though I have a sneaky suspicion it's because Sam has no idea what my name is.  An early start and a late finish to the day meant a very tired Lou and Leon dragged themselves back to the hotel and fell into bed.

Texas Chilli Parlour

Sunday 15^th May 2011 – Austin TEXAS

We both wanted to try here for me it’s another movie location from Deathproof, for Leon it’s referenced in the Guy Clark song “Well I wish I was in Austin, in the chilli parlour bar, drinking mad dog margaritas and not caring where you are’.  I’ve realised that a lot of the places we’re are going on this trip are on the list because they appear in some of Leon’s favourite songs! 

On the walk there we spotted a cheeky urban racoon out for it’s evening forage. I thought about getting closer with the camera but it starting stretching up on it’s hind legs and hissing at us, so having never met an angry racoon before and not wanting to have my face ripped off I left it alone.