Austin - A Capitol Idea

Awakening at 6am to 70° on our first morning in Austin was a pleasant surprise. Molly and Coco were ready to head to the dog run. Strange how even as puppies three years ago when we were here last, they remember this extremely large dog run. They pulled me with all their might to this dog nirvana. Maybe they wanted me to see the big red orb of the sunrise poke through the trees.

Sunrise Over Austinclick photo to enlarge

Today we would head to downtown Austin and see the sights. We'd been here several times, but never really spent any time in the downtown area. We put the city center into the GPS and were amazed to find that it was 25 miles away and would probably take close to 45 minutes to get there. Whoa....we didn't expect that. I guess it's true that things are just bigger in Texas.

But the GPS was accurate and we ended up in downtown within the hour. I was happy to be driving my Cowboy Cadillac, because almost every second vehicle was a pick-up truck, although mine was betrayed by our California license plates. Yet I felt people were treating us a bit nicer, since merging into traffic was a breeze, people opened spots for us, which unlike California, I didn't have to use my Redneck Horn all that often!

Driving into the downtown area we found Congress Ave. with the state capitol building dominating the high end of the avenue. We quickly found the parking garage right next to the capitol, gathered our gear and walked a few hundred yards to the impressive building, which is currently the largest capitol in the nation. . .remember, this IS Texas.

The first thing we noticed was the amount of activity in the area. As we were walking we stopped at a crosswalk and were joined by an aging hippie woman (isn't that a dichotomy in Texas?) who explained to us that she was going to register to speak before the state senate in support of abortion rights.

People with signs both pro and con on the issue were all around, and busloads more were coming, as this was a historic issue in Texas with Governor Rick Perry calling for special sessions to force his anti-abortion agenda but he was being thwarted by a senate filibuster led my a former teenage single mom who was now a senator.

But before gaining admission to the capitol building, one had to go through an airport-like security system, complete with TSA-like workers. Marianne put her camera to her eye and was quickly admonished by a stern faced, no nonsense woman who told her that she could shoot all the pictures she wanted once she passed through this elaborate security. Marianne meekly complied.

I shouldn't have been so quick to snicker to myself, since it took me three tries to get through the security scanner which beeped it's displeasure with me. With all my worldly possessions in the plastic bin passing through the x-ray scanner, I was required to go through an inspection by another officer with a handheld wand. I finally passed, gathered my belongs and found ourselves under the rotunda of the capitol dome among a tour group, which we quickly joined.

Following with the group, we were first shown the empty senate chamber and given historical data by a very entertaining guide. From there we were led to the house chamber and regaled with more stories of the history of this building, which was constructed as the capitol building when Texas was it's own country (The Republic of Texas) before joining the union becoming the 28th state in late 1845.

We were also led down into the bowels of the building which now had wings in several directions leading to new annexes holding the offices of the legislator and other government entities. Ending up in one of these annexes I smelled food and Marianne smelled shopping.

We were both right, the capitol cafeteria was right next to the capitol gift shop. When the tour ended I couldn't find Marianne, but I instinctively headed back toward the gift shop, and when I was almost there, she popped her head out of the door to reconfirm my instincts.

After browsing through the store, I was the only one that purchased anything! A T-shirt with "Texas" emblazoned across the front.

But that smell of food was making me extremely hungry and I attempted to convince Mair to eat there. She stated that being in downtown Austin she wasn't going to eat at "no cafeteria". But I persisted, convincing her that my experience at eating in capitol buildings was a capital idea, because not only do visitors eat there but also the senators and representatives, so it just had to be good.

When she saw the array of food, she was impressed and we quickly got pulled pork, fried okra, and vegetables, we didn't have to wait to be waited on! And the best thing: our meals were only $8.06 each! I'd like to personally thank the citizens of Texas for subsidizing my food choices.

Upon leaving the cafeteria we were overwhelmed by the sound of hymnal singing, so we followed our ears to find a large group of abortion foes singing with armed state troopers around them to make sure there were no incidents. Everything was respectful.

We found our way out of the maze of corridors back into the heat of the day. We photographed some of the interesting statues on the capitol grounds, visited the visitor's center, and meandered back to the parking garage to retrieve our truck to see more of Austin.

Again we headed through downtown on Congress Ave. across the Congress Ave. bridge, home of the nightly bat exodus, a spectacular we had first witnessed almost 20 years ago. From there we wanted to see a swimming hole about a mile from downtown where Marianne had been informed would be topless bathers. I'm a fan, I'll go!

We drove along the Colorado River (not the same Colorado River Californians are familiar with), what they call Lake Austin around these parts, where folks were kayaking, canoeing, and stand-up paddle boarding. When we finally found the area where the topless activities were supposed to be, the parking was unfortunately impossible. Oh well....

We head back to our mobile mansion for a couple of hours of relaxation before a dinner party at our good friends, Debbie and Tim McCasland's home overlooking Lake Travis, very close to our RV spot. Debbie's sister, Kathy picked us up shortly after 5pm and as we were driving to their home we noticed just how low the lake was. Islands were popping up were I had seen bunches of boats just three years ago. I was to learn that the area is in the midst of a three year drought and the lake is only at 33% of its capacity, down over 60' from the level I remember.

Debbie and Tim invited us into their beautiful home, and after some reminiscing about old times, we had a delicious home-cooked meal of lobster bisque and fresh tossed Caesar salad, followed by creme brulee with fresh strawberries and spearmint leaves. A meal fit for a king! After a bit more rehashing old history and watching the gorgeous sunset from their back porch, Kathy brought us safely back to the RV park where we walked the dogs, decompressed, and hit the hay.

Tim also gave me a dozen different baseball hats from the car dealership he works at, each one is unique and includes many of the car marques they sell. Thanks Tim!

In and Around Austinclick on collage to enlarge

Maximum temperature: 96°

Miles driven: 50