We slept in a little longer on Saturday, as we knew it wasn’t going to be our only sunny day this trip. The breakfast tacos and Austin staple Magnolia Cafe were calling my name. I got the taco, and the Texas Benedict. Just as good as a I remember the last time I was in Austin.
There is a small town just outside for Fredericksburg, Texas by the name of Luckenbach. You may remember it from the song by Willie Nelson and Waylon Jennings, about two stressed out lovers who wanted to get away and get “back to the basics of love.
Calling Luckenbach a “town” is a bit of a stretch. I maintain that if not for the song, it literally wouldn’t show up on my GPS. It is a small gravel loop with a parking lot bigger than the town. There is a post office, a dance hall, a food vendor, a saloon and a concert venue. There is live music in the saloon at seemingly all times. There was a man in full cowboy gear playing a fast paced song about a shoot out with one of his foes. The rain was starting to pick up, and we wanted to make it to our next destination, so we left Luckenbach. It seems that more people left Luckenbach than stayed in Luckenbach.
Our next stop was Willow City, TX. There is a farm to market road in this area that is a loop through beautiful countryside. Texas established farm to market roads in the 1940’s as a way of connecting rural areas to cities and towns. Sometimes, these roads were plopped right in the middle of peoples farm land; the state allows farmers free access to the roads themselves, meaning that if their cattle decide it’s time to chill in the road… you better just be patient and wait it out.
The loop was hilly, with wildflowers abounding on both sides of the highway and out in distant meadows. We had the pleasure of getting to share the road with some beautiful dairy cattle, on what seemed like a journey to a specific place, with strict time constraints.
We made our way back to the town of Fredericksburg. Many towns in central Texas have strong German influences. Country fried steak is one of these influnces, it’s essentially the american version of the schnitzel, which, despite popular belief, is not a sausage. Fredericksburg held firmly to its German heritage. We stopped and got ice cream at a famous market on Fredericksburg’s main street.
Austin was calling our name again, we headed back to town, and sat on our screened in porch in SoCo and listened to the rain. Later that night, a quirky taco joint, Maria’s Taco Xpress, deep in the South Lamar portion of Austin was our destination. Absolutely fantastic tacos, a view of the “Texan Jungle”, and a powerful thunderstorm made the meal an experience.
The rain let up, and we decided we better make another trip to VooDoo donut. In case they closed or something.