CROSSROADS BANDIT

Beautiful day for a ride to Austin Texas. The 70-degree weather and full sun made the ride to Austin Texas amazing. We drove through the hill country with wineries and distilleries all along the way. We never ended up stopping at any of them. We arrived at the Austin East KOA and were greeted by a lovely workamping couple. Workamping is something we are interested in doing at some point. Workcamping is when you exchange a campsite in the campground for a certain amount of work hours. We were escorted to our site and they made sure we had everything we needed to be comfortable. The campground is newer and is exceptionally clean.

The next day we met up with a fellow TABer we met about 3 years ago at a rally. We kept in touch through the years and we knew, if we came to Austin, we had to see them. We met at the Whole Foods downtown. We were overwhelmed by the amount of choices they had for lunch and ended up with just a coffee and a Danish. A huge bonus to Austin is, most places are dog friendly, so we were able to bring Bella and Bentley with us. We forgot their leashes, so we went to a local shop around the corner and picked them up a second set of leashes to keep in the car. Any time we can bring Bella and Bentley with us makes for a great day!

“Keep Austin Weird” is the slogan for Austin. Well, we had to see what this was all about so that night we decided to check out downtown Austin. We ended up downtown in the upper-class area of the city so nothing too crazy going on. We were able to walk up to the capitol building and get some cool pictures at night. The funny thing about Austin is, we are in shorts and short sleeves and everyone is all bundled up as if it’s freezing out. We were loving the weather! FINALLY, the warmer weather we were looking for.

The next couple of days were busy running errands and catching up on life. Saturday, we look a ride down to San Antonio. San Antonio is 91 miles from Austin but only took an hour and fifteen minutes. You can go fast on the highways down here, like 80! The road to San Antonio reminded me of route one in Saugus on your way into Boston. We parked a block from the Alamo and walked to it. So, the Alamo we envisioned being in the middle of nowhere all by itself. We were wrong! The Alamo is in the heart of the city with lots of tourist things to do across the street. We had Bella and Bentley with us, so we did not do the tour. The San Antonio River Walk is a MUST SEE. We were able to take the dogs with us along the river that is below the city. It’s lined with restaurants and shops. We sat outside by the river and enjoyed a lovely lunch.

Patriots Sunday, we must watch the game but where will we watch? The Patriots were playing the Cowboys and we were in cowboy land. Where will we watch the game where we will not stick out like a sore thumb? Bo was able to find us another Patriots Fan club. The Austin Patriots Fan club is at B.D. Riley’s we enjoyed another game with a Patriots fan club. There were raffles and prizes being given away along with an announcer. It is where Boston meets Austin. We had lots of fun!

It is now 80 degrees, sunny, not a cloud in the sky, everything we had been wishing for! This was the first day since we left home the weather was everything we had hoped for and more. We went to the Barton Spring Pool. It was a natural habitat pool with lifeguards and a diving board. You lay on the edge with the Austin City skyline as your backdrop. It was just an amazing time and we look forward to going back soon.

The next day we pent the afternoon shooting some YouTube videos and hanging around the campground. We went over to talk with a couple who owned an Alto. We thought maybe we had seen them in New York with the North Eat T@B and Friends camping group. We ended up spending the afternoon, going to dinner, and then hung by the campfire with our new friends Gwen and Jim. The next morning it was time for us to leave and head to Abilene, Texas. We will be meeting up with Jim and Gwen out on the road soon!