The Leons do Austin, TX and find out the meaning of staying present.
We travel to Austin and mess around at Barton Creek, Torchy's Tacos, and the Thinkery. We learn about weird people, a three hour wait for BBQ, Farmhouse beer (Jester King) on a farm and experience a catastrophe that would leave us questioning this whole trip. Stick around and we’ll fill in the gaps on this and more on this episode of Leons’ Great Escape.
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Weird People
What does it mean to be weird? It’s relative, a matter of perspective. It’s important to the residents of Austin. Keep Austin Weird is the slogan adopted by the Austin Independent Business Alliance to promote small businesses in Austin, Texas. But, Why?
Industrial Revolution
We’ll need to talk about mega marts and the industrial revolution for this to make sense. As we get more detached from where our food comes from and how our products are made it’s becoming weird or foreign to have a connection to our commodities. Don’t get me wrong I love the convenience of Amazon Prime or the down right cheap of buying whatever at a Walmart. Technology and, specifically, the industrial revolution are homogenizing us. It’s not evil; it’s efficient. This is the natural course that market patterns would predict.
If we want everyone to be the same, then let’s do nothing. Austin ain’t down with that. Maybe we should talk about Aaron Franklin?
Aaron Franklin ^ The BBQ Guru.
“Aaron’s interest in barbecue started with the backyard cookouts that he and his wife and business partner, Stacy, would throw. They had no idea what they were getting themselves into when they opened up a small barbecue trailer on the side of an Austin interstate in 2009. Today, crowds stand in line for hours for a taste of his mouth-watering brisket.”
Who would spend 3 hours waiting in line for barbecue? This guy and he’ll pull his daughter and wife along for the ride clawing and screaming in the radiant Austin, TX sun. Franklin Barbecue is a worthwhile experience. The folks that we met in line we now consider friends. We exchanged contacts, stories and sipped on Lonestar beer while sweating off some of the calories that we’d soon repay in earnest. You can purchase said beer from the liquor store down the street or direct from Franklin’s as you wait. It’s less expensive to pick it up from the liquor store but you do you.
Keeping Austin weird is great. I’m not a luddite. I embrace change and am excited by it but I appreciate diversity and options. Seems like Austin is walking the line well.
I truly don’t want these articles to be all about me lambasting freeway systems or drivers. But I am certain that Interstate 35 was designed by someone on their final day before retirement. They had 20 minutes before it was time to go celebrate their 40 year of an illustrious career and hard work so they scribbled something down on a napkin and that was what was built. I was able to obtain the original final draft that was turned in. Okay, it’s out of my system. We never got the hang of that freeway. Maybe you’ll do better. Traffic is a real thing in Austin so be ready for that.
In pursuit of the best beer in the nation, one must stop at Jester King Brewery. This is farmhouse beer and they’re one of the best there is. The grounds are easy on the eyes and they offer food. They’ve also created a bathroom out of an airstream so there’s that. There is a play area for the tots and adults can toss beanbags in rousing games of cornhole. If you’re curious what hop growing looks like, then you’re in luck. They grow them there so check out em’ out on the premises, too.
Your kids will thank you for taking them to Thinkery.
Thinkery is crack cocaine for a 2 year old. It’s also not a place you’d want to go if you were worse for wear… or hungover. We saw kids from age 2 to 12 having a ball there and parents are encouraged to get involved.
““Thinkery is where Austin’s children and their families come to enjoy play-based, inquiry-rich, hands-on learning experiences.””
That’s a lot of hyphens. You could spend all day here, unless you’re hungover. Pepper didn’t want to leave. We need to thank our good friend and local Austin resident, Jessica, for this tip and thank her double for recommending Barton Creek and Zilker Park. These are both eye bulging amazing and free to visit.
I know what you’re thinking… he hasn’t discussed tacos at all in this article. Fear not! Torchy’s Tacos is where you go to get, well, tacos and queso. Queso is a religion in Texas. Most folks will have an opinion on what is best and where you should go. I don’t know that Torchy’s is best but it’s absolutely worth trying. They also have on the nose names that I appreciated, like “Trailer Trash” or the “Double-Wide” taco. Torchy’s put chicken fried steak in a taco. This is food innovation and oh so gluttonous. It’s a food sinners heaven. Shout out to our buddy Will for this hot tip. It’s a chain and I wish them well on their future expansion and world domination.
Since we’re on the subject of tacos, breakfast tacos are a thing in Austin as well. We didn’t seek out nearly enough of these but I can attest to the quality that is Joe’s Bakery, cheap and delightful. They gotta work on their lighting though. It’s dark in there.
It’s family friendly in Austin. We were told this in line in at Franklin Barbecue as well as by a handful of other locals. They want to keep a small town feel even with a population of close to 1,000,000. That’s a point in favor of residency here for us!
How about music? It’s not super easy to enjoy live music with a little one but we managed to squeeze in a bit. There is a place called the Rainey Street District where all the young twenty-somethings and we old toots can walk around to grab a pint. However, as soon as dark falls they’ll turn you away if you’re not of age so go early if you’re traveling with the tinies.
That’s where we heard some tunes and imbibed on quality beer at Craft Pride. Craft Pride was happy to have us and our pup on their patio. We also popped in to Stubbs and caught a sound check and had some appetizers.
If you’re driving around the country, then you’d do yourself a disservice to miss this town. We stayed in another KOA out of convenience. This campground was in Austin-East and took a bit of driving to get into the action of the city but we enjoyed their sandlot and swing set with Pepper and Candice took shelter in their 24/7 air-conditioned laundry mat. (Pro Tip: bring your credit card, the machines do not take cash.) Thanks, KOA, for another clean and hospitable stay near a fun city. We would love to come back.
We stayed at a KOA in East Austin. We talk about this a bit in the episode.
Maybe it’s time to belabor our set up for seeing this fine country. Dahlia, our dog, and I drive in the 37 foot motorhome which is otherwise known as a 2018 Fleetwood Bounder 36H. Dahlia enjoys attempting to crawl between my feet and the brake and accelerator pedals. It’s a game we play where I curse her out for it but she relentlessly continues. Candice and our daughter drive behind in our Kia Sportage. We’ve set it up in this manner because we want to be able to tour a town once we get there and the motorhome isn’t nimble.
Pro Tip: Initially, we thought we’d be able to tow our Kia behind our motorhome but it isn’t as simple as it would appear. What we’d find out is that we wanted to do is something called Flat Towing or “towing four wheels down.” Alas, the Kia is not able to do such a thing without modification. We figured this out before we started the trip and decided that we’d hold off on getting a new vehicle until we reached Texas for various reasons. We’re in Texas so it’s probably time we get that new car, right?
I made the executive decision to lower our trade-in value the day before we went to sell it buy sitting on it with the motorhome. You can watch the video above to learn more about that : |
We’re not 100% on the safety of driving the Kia, at this time, so we’ve reduced our travel speed to a max of 55 mph and will limp along until we get to Houston where we think we may have found a proper tow vehicle. This minor mistake happened so fast and will put the jitters to you lickety-split. It gave us pause and rocked our confidence.
The moral of the story is to slow down. Stay present or receive cosmic presents. Look for that bumper sticker coming this fall. That all said, we’re safe and will keep on keeping on. On to Houston, we’re headed that way to visit my cousin and to check out Livingston which is about an hour from the city. Thanks for reading and please do drop us a comment to say hello we’d love to hear from you.
