Tex Mex Timeout — Camp Buy Me Love

National Park Roadtrip – Days 38-45 – Austin

We left Odessa early on a Monday, and while I made sandwiches at a roadside gas station just out of town, G went to use the facilities. He comes back to the trailer with a smile ear to ear and shoves his phone in my face, too excited to pause for a breath! Before me, in the picture, lie not one but two toilets, right next to each other, in the same bathroom (picture below). We had so many laughs with friends via text after they saw the picture so we’ll let you come up with your own caption. Feel free to comment below the post with your favorite!

Although G is not really involved as a managing partner of his business anymore, he still participates in board meetings with his partners. While I am convinced these board meetings are a reason for 5 guys to relive their college days, G reassures me that real business happens there, despite the interesting stories I hear after the fact. The good thing is we planned to be near Austin when board meeting duty called so I could hang out at my brother’s house and do laundry (for free) while G was attending his meeting…in Las Vegas of all places. We originally only planned on being in Austin for a day or two, so the fact we got a whole week there was a treat! It’s a great city for music, food, beer, outdoor activities, etc., and I made sure I got my fill of all of those.

We started off our visit with a show at the Saxon Pub, where one of my favorite performers plays a fairly steady engagement on Mondays. Bob Schneider is a jack of all trades and he has a few bands (we saw Lonelyland) that he plays with around town. We’ve been fortunate to see him perform a few times, and the show at the Saxon Pub was a great one, as usual. It’s a small, older venue on Congress Ave. so there really is no bad seat in the house. It’s a dive bar, so don’t expect fancy cocktails, but do expect a solid beer list and some less than spectacular restrooms. There was a lot of “shit” talk during this show so G showed him the bathroom pic from Odessa which got a thumbs up (and retweet, mind you) from Bob Schneider!

Bob Schneider and Lonelyland at Saxon Pub

While in Austin, we had a few awesome meals out at Odd Duck, Valentina’s, and the amazing flagship Whole Foods downtown, but the real magic happened in my brother’s kitchen where my sister and law and I made a few meals that we promptly ate as leftovers for other dinners. My sister in law made her “family” famous homemade Gnocchi with Gorgonzola Sauce and I made my “family” famous Spaghetti Pie. We’ve both made these respective dishes so many times, but have never made them for each other! I also wanted to recreate a version of The Gladly Original Chopped Salad we so enjoyed in Phoenix, so I mad that along with the Spaghetti Pie. I love trying to recreate restaurant dishes in my home kitchen. This one was easy, though. This salad has its own Facebook page along with an easy to follow recipe. The only thing I couldn’t find (even at Central Market) was freeze dried corn. As is the case with a lot of things in my life, I found them a day late and a dollar short the VERY NEXT DAY at Savory Spice Shop north of Austin. Oh well. I’ll make the salad on the road and we’ll get to enjoy the freeze dried corn instead of canned. I really wanted to insert a link here from their Facebook page, but for some reason the link isn't working. It also looks like in the past few weeks, they have changed the name of this salad to the OMFG Salad. If you search either The Gladly Original Chopped Salad or the OMFG Salad on Facebook you should go right to it.

Homemade gnocchi.  Heaven! — Homemade gnocchi. Heaven!

Rolling gnocchi on my sister in law's new gnocchi contraption.  Not sure what it's called! — Rolling gnocchi on my sister in law's new gnocchi contraption. Not sure what it's called!

The Gladly Original Chop Salad with canned corn, instead of freeze dried.

Awesome spread at Valentina's Tex Mex BBQ.

I spent my days in Austin mostly doing laundry, writing my blog, and playing with the dogs, but there were two excursions that really made my week. The first was a trip to Central Market and the second was a bike ride around Town Lake. I know. Grocery stores. I’ve listed an excursion to a grocery store as something that “really made my week”. But it did. And I’ve been thinking about it ever since. This is the most amazing grocery store I’ve ever been to. It had a giant cheese section, the freshest veggies and fruits, interesting meat and seafood, fresh bread and pastries. It’s like a maze of goodness and I seriously could go there every day. Honestly, though, the lasting impression was that of the fresh tortillas in about 7 or 8 different flavors. It was “Bacon Month” while we were there and they had BACON TORTILLAS! We have since used them exclusively for breakfast tacos and we only have 2 left. Two! Only. Two. I’m in denial that once I eat them, they’ll be gone. I’ve looked up tortillerias in Florida and haven’t found anything like what we saw at Central Market. I heart you Central Market and you should come to Portland. We would love you there. I would be 100 pounds heavier. But I would be happy.

Ok, on to my next “made my week” excursion, the Town Lake bike ride. While we could have made it a longer trip, we capped our ride at about 9 miles and had a mid-ride glass of wine at Alta’s Café. I love exercising with my sister in law. We always make time to enjoy a glass of wine during or immediately after workouts! Just kidding! Well, sort of. Town Lake is an easy ride with very few changes in elevation. I’m a beginner city rider and I could have easily gone the whole route around the lake. There is an awesome boardwalk that you can ride on, and since we went on a Friday, we didn’t have too much pedestrian traffic to battle. South by Southwest folks were starting to roll into town though, so it was a little bit busier than a normal Friday, I imagine.

Had to stop and take a picture of the Stevie Ray statue on our bike ride!

Speaking of South by Southwest, we were able to go to a SXSW event at Independence Brewing where they gave out 4 beer tokens, just for showing up! There were a few bands playing, and we had a great time. We also had two other successful brewery excursions, Blue Owl Brewery and Hop & Grain Brewery. Blue Owl specializes in sour beers, which if you’ve never tasted, you should at least try them. They are so unique in flavor, and are basically tart versions of regular beer styles you’ve heard of. Blue Owl was a great little brewery and you can bring your dog inside! Score one for Blue Owl!

Four tokens each just for showing up at Independence Brewing!

Finally, after a whole week, at least 10 loads of laundry, snuggles with Maddie Belle (my brother’s beautiful yellow lab), and too much good food, wine, and beer; we left Austin armed with 2 packages of fresh Central Market tortillas and a renewed energy for our upcoming trip. While stops are necessary, we yearned for the road and were ready to get back out there. Unexplored corners of our world (to us) lay waiting for us to sniff out.