MB Rides and Eats!: Austin In My Sights

9-24-2014

We left Uvalde on a beautiful sunny morning. The temps were mild and the humidity low! Bonus! Instead of jumping on the interstate, we opted to take the secondary routes. It didn't add many more miles and was MUCH more scenic! I love when we have the time to cruise the back routes! It's much more interesting than concrete, billboards, and jackass drivers! We stopped for lunch in Blanco, Texas, which is halfway between San Antonio and Austin. Nice little town!

We arrived in Austin in mid-afternoon, which made me VERY happy because I wanted to have time to get showered and eat before heading over to Congress avenue to see the bats!!!!

The Ann W. Richards Congress Avenue Bridge is home to the largest urban bat colony in North America!!! These Mexican Free-Tailed bats migrate up north every year, and in June, most females will give birth to a pup! I was beyond excited to go see these guys!

Here's a link telling you more about them!

http://www.batcon.org/index.php/our-work/regions/usa-canada/protect-mega-populations/cab-intro

We found a good-looking spot to eat on Yelp called the Moonshine Patio. It was on the way to the bat bridge...walking distance...so we gave it a try! We got there early, around 5:30, and were seated right away. Great timing! The place immediately filled up after us! (That happens to us a lot because we eat dinner so early...like old farts! Lol!) I ordered the cedar plank salmon with tomatillo chutney, and a side of jalapeño cheddar grits, while Tom opted for the chicken and waffles. Holy yumminess!!!! This had to be the best meal I had the whole trip!

If you're ever in Austin I HIGHLY recommend this place! The Moonshine Patio Bar & Grill! You won't be disappointed!

After dinner we headed over to the Congress Ave Bridge to wait for the bats! We got there fairly early. I didn't want to miss them! We bought a couple bottles of water and sat on a grassy hillside underneath the bridge. As soon as we got near the bridge we could hear them chirping and squeaking! The Lady Bird Lake Hike & Bike Trail runs through this area and it was very well-used! Lots of activity! Lots of dogs, too!

Soon, the bat-watching crowd grew both underneath and on top of the bridge. And we waited. And waited some more. Finally they began to fly out!!! Just a few at first and then THOUSANDS! It was AWESOME! Unfortunately my pix and video didn't turn out because it was pretty dark by then. We stood there and watched them for about 1/2 hour and they were still flying about! Then we went up on the bridge to watch them from that angle. They seemed to be more visible from that vantage point thanks to the streetlights and because they were closer to us! One thing that really struck us? The SMELL! Holy bat guano! It was a pretty powerful stench!

After getting my fill of bat-watching, we hoofed it over to 6th Street, where all the action is! Lots of live music and adult beverages! Our first stop was the "Bat Bar", of course!

The place was pretty empty though. There was a two-man band playing bluesy-rock. We chatted with the singer/guitarist during their break. Turns out he's from Toledo! At one point in our conversation I said something...and I can't for the life of me remember what the word was...but he smiled, tilted his head, and put his hand to his heart while saying "That accent! I really miss it! You don't hear it too often around here!" Awwwwwww! My Cleveland accent made someone happy!

They returned to the stage and we stayed and listened until their slot was over. We then decided to see what else we could find on 6th Street! We ended up at a spot called "The Dizzy Rooster"! There was a good band playing. The crowd was a good one! Everyone semed to be having a good time there. Even the guy in the chicken costume! (Keep Austin Weird)

After listening to enough music and imbibing in a couple more adult beverages, we hoofed it back to our room. On the way we popped into "Death Metal Pizza" for a couple slices! This place was tiny, dark, and LOUD!

The next morning we woke early, had breakfast, and set out to see the Stevie Ray Vaughan statue. This statue is located along the same jogging/biking trail from which we watched the bats. So back over the Congress Ave Bridge we walked. And the pungent stench of bat guano was still in the air! We walked down to the trail and walked. And walked. And walked some more! I'm amazed at how much we've been walking on this vacation! It's definitely offsetting some of the calories we've been consuming! The trail covers a fairly large area and was as well-used during the day as it was the previous night. After walking FOREVER we finally found Stevie Ray!

We took some pix, chatted with some other people there, sat and watched some dogs play off-leash for a while, then decided to hoof it back up to the 6th Street area.

Lunch plans were for a place called "Casino El Camino", a Triple-D spot featuring awesome burgers! After walking FOREVER we made it back to 6th...just in time to see the beer trucks replenishing the establishments!

We found Casino El Camino.

This place is AWESOME! Campy and Goth with a great Rockabilly vibe. Some old monster/horror movie was on the TV and the juke box was cranking out some awesome hard rock. Maiden, Sabbath....great stuff! We ate a couple of DELICIOUS burgers and styed way too long! So long that we ended up ordering some chili cheese fries for dinner! We spent hours in that place and I loved every minute!