We've also added some more pics to our photo album.
This week started out with some car maintenance on Monday. Took the car into a Nissan dealer for a check over, oil change and tire rotations. Man, the dealers in Calgary could learn some lessons from these folks. Prompt, courteous and very professional. It didn't matter that I was a casual drive-in. They served me pretty well straight away.
The rest of the week might be called the "in search of fabulous flowers and BBQ" week. On Tuesday we drove secondary highways as much as we could to get from Arlington to Austin. This is where we got our favorite picture of the week when we stopped at a field where a bunch of Texas longhorns were sitting in the middle of a great field of Texas Bluebonnet flowers.
The only time we went out to the freeway was to correct the error in judgement we made last week when we drove past Clem Mikeska's BBQ place in Temple. Thus Tuesday started our daily ritual of searching for (great) BBQ for a late lunch/early dinner. Mikeska's is very strong on one aspect of BBQ culture - taxidermy.
We stayed the rest of the week at the KOA in Leander just NW of Austin. On Wednesday we did a day trip back out into the hill country. See the map here...Hill country day trip. Other than the continued great wildflower sightings all along the highway, the hi-lites of the day were a stop at the Wildflower Seed Farm just outside of Fredericksburg, Fredericksburg itself, and, of course, the BBQ at Coopers in Llano. Now normally I would say that George W Bush and I have very little in common (!) - but, apparently, we would be in strong agreement on the topic of BBQ. Coopers provided the catering at one of his presidential victory parties at the ranch at Crawford. Coopers was a new sort of experience for us .... you don't get plates. You choose your BBQ from the pit, the pit boss slaps it onto a plastic tray; you go inside and select pre-dished containers of sides (cole slaw, potato salad, beans, cobbler) and they weight your BBQ meats and wrap it up. You are given a piece of heavy wax paper to eat off of. Think of it as a thali plate for carnivores. You get a plastic cup for ice tea (actually it is just called tea, iced is a presumed norm). You can have some sliced pickles, onions; white bread (the really squishy kind) is on the table. BBQ sauce is available from the cauldron at the back. The sauce was excellent .... but this was the first time I found that the brisket tasted better without the sauce. It was a transformative experience BBQ-wise.
Thursday we decided to explore downtown Austin and try a BBQ joint for which we had seen some good reviews. Went to a couple of fabric/sewing stores before going for the BBQ lunch at Ruby's. The BBQ was ok but not spectacular by any means. After lunch we went to the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower center and saw one of the most beautiful garden's we have ever seen. Unfortunately our camera battery died on us before we got to take many photos but we will remember this place for a long while. This place goes on the not to be missed list.
We had planned to head for Houston on Friday but we found out about the bi-annual Pecan Festival in downtown Austin scheduled for Saturday and Sunday so we decided to stay put for a couple more days and take in at least Saturday of the festival. The festival is named for Pecan Street (now called 6th street) and has nothing to do with nuts. So plans having changed, on Friday we drove an hour south of Austin to Lockhart where we do believe we hit the BBQ jackpot. Faced with at least 3 great looking choices we decided to try Smitty's just across from the county courthouse.This is the real deal - you walk past the fires of hell to get to the pit area where you choose your BBQ. Well, no BBQ sauce here, nope, don't need it (no plate or cutlery either, you get the butcher paper and a plastic knife ... the smoked flavor of the ribs, brisket and sausage was absolutely devine....You can have squishy bread or saltine crackers with the meat and you can order sides, but I honestly think they only offer sides as an obligation - it is all about the meat. I will dream of this place forever, it goes down in the carnivore's hall of fame, don't tell the vegans. Now the only question to ask is... does it keep getting better or should we stop while we are miles and miles ahead... hmmm.. well, we believe we will keep at it because even if it doesn't get any better, it is still something to be enjoyed to the fullest.
Attempting to stick to our philosophy of trying to avoid freeways, we closed out the week with a leisurely drive back through the hill country west of Austin and south to San Antonio via New Braunfels where we stopped for a BBQ lunch at another Cooper's BBQ pit. After lunch we just jumped on the freeway for the remaining 20 miles or so to San Antonio. Ok, Ok...let's just say the freeway avoidance thing is an 80-20 rule, but it was 28+ degrees out and the pool at the San Antonio KOA was beckoning.
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