If you stay in Austin too long, what’s weird, may start to look normal, and being “normal”, might start to feel weird. For as much talk as Austin gets for being a “weird” town, it has some of the most friendly people around, weird, or not-so-weird. We had a four day break in shows, and we thought it would be a good place to explore for a while. My wife and I had not seen the Texas Hill Country, so we were very excited to go explore. We stayed in an extremely charming AirBnb in South Congress, called SoCo, by the locals. It was a bit awkward at first until we figured out the dynamics of the house. We were staying there with four other people who had traveled to Austin. We all had our own bed and bathrooms but shared the kitchen. Mostly we all kept to ourselves. It didn’t seem like people were spending much time at the house anyway, with so much to do in Austin.
SoCo is a hip neighborhood just south of downtown, off of the South Congress street. The bridge that connects downtown and South Congress is home to thousands of bats that fly out just at sunset. It’s a sight to see.
We knew our weekend held a lot of rain, so we got an extra early start. We headed north of the city to get some donuts at the famed Round Rock Donuts. From there, we headed west to the Hill Country. We were on the Blue Bonnet Trail, heading to Enchanted Rock Natural Area. The Hill Country is famous for having millions and millions of wild flowers that line the road ways, and fill the meadows for miles and miles. The trail we were driving was packed with them, shiny in the spring sun.
Enchanted Rock, is a bare rock that just out of the relatively rolling Texas hills. There is a short trail to get you out of the parking lot, but from there, you have free reign to tackle the rock however you wish. It’s about a mile walk to the top, relatively easy by Tennessee standards. The views from the top were fantastic. Beauty as far as the eye could see, from every point on top of the rock. We would occasionally see small pockets of dirt or flowers growing on top of the rock.
We came down and headed over to Hamilton Pool. A famous and beautiful swimming hole in Greater Austin. They weren’t allowing swimming that day, but they were charging the same for admission.
We did not get to see Hamilton Pool.
This was fine, as it gave us time to visit Barton Springs Pool at Zilker Park. I’ve been wanting to see this pool for years. I’d planned to go to it during my bachelor party trip in 2014, but we ended up doing a Charleston trip instead.
We arrived at Zilker Park at a little before 4. We skipped lunch, as every attempt at eating in the Hill Country was thwarted, so we were starving. Barton Springs is so genuinely Austin. People from all walks of life gather to swim in a massive natural pool, that is groomed and manicured as meticulously as a backyard pool. There is a large grass hill for sunbathing, and a diving board.
Even at 4 on a Friday, the pool had lots of users, including a 75 year old man in a red thong. What can I say? Austin’s weird. The water was absolutely freezing at first. I started gagging as I got into the water it was so cold. It reminded me of swimming in The Little River when I was a kid. In a way, I was finally starting to miss home a little bit. I swam a few laps, dodging professional swimmers with caps and goggles, the occasional kid, and some underwater vegetation.
It was time to eat, we were only a couple of blocks from the famous Austin dive Green Mesquite. They are interesting for a couple of reasons. One, the owner uses green mesquite wood to smoke his meats. Most BBQ establishments use seasoned wood, it’s older and dryer, and much easier to smoke with. It’s very easy to ruin BBQ using green wood, which is why novice smokers won’t touch the stuff. Owner Tom Davis is certainly no novice, as his ‘cue was hard to beat. Seemingly more interesting, Green Mesquite not only serves pulled pork, but takes great care in having fantastic pulled pork. We’d found it difficult to find good pork on our poetry journey, as Texas is big beef country.
I wasn’t there for BBQ though. I was there for their chicken wings, and their chicken fried chicken. Both of which were excellent. I hadn’t eaten a real meal in 24 hours though, so anything might have tasted good to me.
That night we were ready to continue walking, as we’d spent well over 24 hours sitting in a car on our trip up to this point. We walked from our place down South Congress towards downtown. Hipsters and families buzzing around from restaurant to restaurant, and shop to shop. Austin has a very tropical feel to it. Beating back bushes does not hold such a priority to the people of Austin. When spring comes and your yard starts to fill with wildflowers, even in the nicer neighborhoods, it’s completely ok to just let it grow right out. Ivy, and other lush greenery fill the walk ways and arches near and around people’s homes. Even business’s main entrances may be covered in a jungle of lush green vegetation.
The wind was whipping violently as we made it to the heart of downtown. When we reached the intersection of 6th street and Congress Ave we were greeted by a man on a bicycle. This wasn’t your ordinary bicycle. It was surrounded by a large cubic frame covered with different pieces of drum kit. The man would come to 6th every night and play his drum-bike-thing.
Police officers began the process of shutting down 6th street. 6th is the party capital of Austin, and being there on a Friday night makes that very apparent. A homeless woman stopped a man with a pizza box begging for his left overs. The man opened the box and let her see the pizza, she must not have liked the toppings, because she left it shook her head and walked away.
As we approached the heart of 6th street, I noticed a few familiar pink boxes. They were boxes from VooDoo Donut! I had donuts that morning, some crazy liquid nitrogen ice cream about 30 minutes ago, but there was no way I was passing up a donut from the world famous Portland eatery. I got a Fruit Loop donut, Courageous got a grape donut, and Hannah got some sort of peanut butter chocolate explosion donut. They were all fantastic.
We walked nearly two miles back to South Congress, the wind becoming strong enough to let us know that tomorrow was going to be a rainy one. The news said flooding may be coming to Texas. We weren’t terribly worried about it.