Day 5: Dallas to Austin (BBQ)

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Early morning drive to Austin so I got up at 6AM and prepped. I was giving a ride to Naveen that day as he was heading to Austin as well. I would have given a ride to an Irish guy as well but apparently he thought I was leaving at 7PM instead of 7AM so he had already bought a flight to Austin. Roads were mostly clear this point and the ice ended about 50km south of Dallas. Drive to Austin took about 3 hours and we were going to a hostel called Drifter's Jack. It was recommended by multiple people so I wanted to give it a try. Austin has a reputation as a weird liberal bastion in conservative Texas so I was curious to see it.

We got to Austin in good time around 10:30AM and I dropped off Naveen at the hostel before I headed out again. I was meeting another Texas friend in San Marcos. Fawn (her actual name) I met in New Orleans last year. She is one only 2 people I have met travelling who are Beautiful, Nice, Interesting and Weird. If I remember correctly she was in New Orleans for an organic farming convention. She is a free and independent person and has lots of interesting stories. Stories are what I look for when I travel and so it was great to meet her. I arranged before hand to meet her at a coffeeshop called Tantra. It reminds me of my coffee place back home Studio89. They both do the fair trade and environmental awareness. My favorite part of that place was the fact they used pokemon cards to identify you. I got ice black coffee with a breakfast taco. Breakfast tacos in Texas are delicious especially compared to MC'D breakfast burritos. Anyway Fawn got there and after a hug greeting I continued spreading Canadian culture by giving her a bottle of maple syrup.

We got a table in the back room and proceeded to catchup. She is one of the few people I remember clearly even though we only had the 1 conversation in New Orleans. I told her about my travels up to this point and where I was heading to. She told me about her upcoming road trips and how she got back to Texas from New Orleans. I was impressed she arranged to pickup a guy on craigslist. I thought I was brave just giving Naveen a drive from Dallas. I met a few of Fawn's friends who were quite nice people. It was such a nice time talking to her and I sorry I had to cut it off but I had Naveen's luggage still in my car so I had to head back to Austin. After a hug goodbye and promises to stay in touch I was off again.

Drive back to Austin took a little longer than expected because of a traffic accident on the highway. Took a little while to get off the highway and onto local roads but I got back to hostel and checked in. The hostel was supposed to be quite lively but this day it was fairly quiet because there were not a lot people there. There were some interesting events going on in Austin including a B horror movie night, poetry slams and some music events. I decided to do a wander about Austin and after getting some directions from the hostel I went out. I could have driven but after driving so much I decided a nice walk would do me good. Austin is interesting to walk around because the opportunity for people watching. Austin is full of strange people from weird clothes and hairs to those old fashion bikes. I walked all the way to the State Capitol which is similar to the Capitol in Washington but is actually larger. It goes with the philosophy "Everything is bigger in Texas". After wandering around for a bit I went back to the hostel for a nap.

Woke up in the evening and after catching up with some work I decided to try Texas BBQ. The best BBQ in the city is a place called Franklins but it sells out very early in the day and you have to line up at 9AM. At the recommendation of the hostel we went to a place called Stubb's. Naveen went with me and we opted to try out Uber. The hostel had a promotion where you get 5 free rides with Lyft or Uber. I have never ridden Uber before but it was a nice experience and it was nice to chat with the local driver.

There was a long line in front of Stubbs and we got in line as well but something was wrong because there seemed to be empty spaces in the restaurant. We realized it was the line for a concert downstairs. We had a bit of a wait for our table but we got to listened to the band warming up downstairs while we waited. It was crowded downstairs at the concert venue and more people were still coming in.

We got to our table and we ordered BBQ of course. I opted for BBQ brisket, spare ribs and okra. They had a bottle of bbq sauce on the table so we could put on as much we want. I would have preferred they put it on themselves but it was ok either way. The BBQ was delicious and only the fact I was stuffed that prevented me from eating more. So if you are in Texas absolutely get BBQ because it is worth the trip.

It wasn't that late so we decided to go to the Alamo drafthouse for the B grade horror movie night. If you are not sure what is a B grade horror movie just think of Sharknado. The movie was called The Blood by Andy Milligan. First the man is a weirdo and he makes weird movies. The Blood is a love story between dracula's daughter and the wolfboy. It has strange acting and a weird storyline. We tried to hold out but we just couldn't. We took Uber back to the hostel and called it a night.

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