Confessions of a Redeemed Texas Hater

First premise: like any good left-wing commie San Franciscan, I have long disdained Texas for fairly obvious reasons and have based this on my vast experience, having driven  across the state once and flown in and out of DFW and Hobby airports. My good friend Bill Loesch and I have long gone around on the subject of my prejudice.

After just over ten days, spent in El Paso, San Antonio, Corpus Christi, Port Aransis, several points in between, and now Austin, I am here to tell you I have been wrong. Politics aside (and can’t you say that of the US as a whole?) Texas is a fine place, filled with friendly people, superb barbecue, and we are enjoying ourselves thoroughly. Even the history here is, let us say, interesting.

We got into Austin Sunday and took the late afternoon to do some housekeeping and resting. Monday morning we drove into Austin, hit the visitor’s center where we were ably helped by Patsy Stephenson who gave us a fine orientation and signed us up for a van tour and for her Tuesday morning walk of the capital and Congress Ave. After that we rambled 6^th Street which is a (but not the) center for music, then strolled Congress and then jumped on the van tour which gave us a fine overview of the city and its environs as well as history and culture.

-->Afterwards, we had lunch at The Green Mesquite, a barbecue joint on Barton Springs Rd which is where locals go for food and entertainment.

Here are a few images.

6th Street by day

 
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Everyone tells us that if you do not listen to some live music while here you are missing a vital part of the Austin scene, so tonight drinks at the historic Driskill Hotel followed by dinner at Eddie V’s, both featuring music.

The Driskill

Driskill piano player Riley Osbourne who played some fantastic boogie-woogie while Sharon regaled me with the history of the musical form. I love traveling with my own reference librarian.

6th by night. We learned that Monday night is not the time to seek out good music

I thought this an interesting image

More tomorrow.